WA CAMPUS OF UDS LAUNCHES HALL WEEK CELEBRATION (PAGE 11, FEB 26, 2010)

THE Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) has launched its maiden hall week celebration at Bamahu, a suburb of Wa, in the Upper West Region.
The week, which was on the theme “Championing academic excellence through residential system: Challenges and the way forward”, attracted all the halls of the campus.
The halls in the celebration, which is the first of its kind, are Cardinal Dery, Jubilee, Royal, Limann and Upper West.
The Wa campus has three faculties, namely Faculty for Integrated Development Studies (FIDS), Faculty for Planning and Land Management (FPLM) and Faculty for Education, Law and Business (FELB).
Launching the programme, Upper West Deputy Co-coordinating Director, Alhaji Issahaque Alhassan, said the celebration was a significant moment in the history of the Wa campus.
He said the campus, with three faculties now, was gradually moving to become a fully-fledged university in the region.
He noted that the celebration was a turning point in the activities of the campus, since it gave the students an identity, adding that “halls are necessary grounds for moulding future leaders of the country”.
He, therefore, advised the students to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the activities of the hall week, while taking their studies seriously.
Alhaji Alhassan called for transparency in the organisation of the celebration, particularly from the leadership of the various halls.
The Dean of the Faculty for the FIDS, Professor Abraham Berinyuu, said it was a sense of pride that the Wa campus was celebrating its first hall week celebration.
“It is a moment of journeying together and we are determined to make the Wa campus a place of history and academic excellence for the UDS,” he added.
He said the names of those chosen for the halls were done with due consideration and, therefore, advised the students to let their behaviour reflect in those names.
Professor Berinyuu noted that the Wa campus would continue to work hard, so that the hall week celebrations would surpass all other celebrations on university campuses.
For his part, an elated Dean of the Faculty of Planning and Land Management, Dr Francis Bacho, said from borrowed structures, the Wa campus now had five halls of residence.
He likened the hall system to that of a nuclear family back at home, and urged the students to use the opportunity to socialise with one another.
He said although a large number of students lived outside the campus, that should not discourage them from joining the celebration.
The chairman for the occasion, Dr Daniel Bagah, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Law and Business, commended the chiefs and people of the region for releasing land for the new site at Bamahu.