By Lilja Flohr
Welcoming has undergone significant transformation over the past two decades. Beginning in the early 2000s, Stellenbosch University’s (SU) approach shifted away from initiation traditions and hierarchy towards a Welcoming programme centred around inclusion, belonging and student wellbeing.
Welcoming, the orientation week before lectures start, introduces the university’s newcomers to campus culture, residence life and student communities through a 10-day programme.
At the centre of many of these developments is Pieter Kloppers, former lecturer in the Faculty of Law from 1992 until 2003 and Residence Head of Goldfields from 2005 to 2009. Kloppers started his career in Student Affairs in 2004 as the Director of the Centre for Student Life and Learning and part of Division Student Affairs (DSAf).
Having worked in student housing, cultural renewal and student affairs for more than two decades, Kloppers has helped transform the university’s approach.
In an interview with Die Matie on 12 June, Kloppers reflected on why SU moved away from initiation, how Welcoming has evolved and why building student communities remains central to university life.
The move away from initiation in 2002 and 2003 was never simply about changing terminology; it reflected a deeper shift in how the university understood leadership, power and community. “All of the harsh initiation in the beginning is just a way of saying, ‘You are now first-year. We must put you in your place’,” said Kloppers.
While these practices reinforced hierarchy, they often came at the expense of dignity and individuality, said Kloppers. “You wanted to move from a power hierarchy to a values-based community,” he said. “You are not teaching people how to live in a democracy if the first thing they experience is that some students are worth more than others.”
The transition was gradual, with SU officially banning initiation and transitioning to a structured Welcoming programme in the early 2000s. Although initiation had been prohibited several times throughout SU’s history, many practices persisted.
Kloppers said that lasting change required more than rules. “The message is caught, not taught,” he said. “If the Vice-Chancellor says, ‘I forbid initiation’, that is still using a power hierarchy.”
Instead, SU relied on conversations about shared values, peer accountability and continuous student feedback. Residence evaluations, monitor systems and student surveys became central to reshaping Welcoming culture. “Students helped us develop it,” he said. “Peer comments are often a lot better than our comments.”
Another major shift was placing the university experience ahead of residence identity from the very beginning. Previously, students were welcomed primarily into their residences before being introduced to the wider institution. “We told students that their residence experience was more important than their university experience,” Kloppers said.
For Kloppers, belonging is not secondary to academic success, but a prerequisite for it. “At the minimum, we need ten days,” he explained. “You will not concentrate on your academics unless you know that you are socially safe.”
Kloppers recalled meeting a first-year student from Limpopo who initially felt isolated after arriving on campus. A week later, after participating in Welcoming, the student looked over Stellenbosch and said: “I’m ready. I know I have a family there. I’m home.” That “is what welcoming is about,” said Kloppers.
The programme has continued to evolve through the additions of traditions such as the Dream Walk in 2019, which developed organically rather than through careful planning. “We stumbled a little bit upon it,” Kloppers admitted. Today, the Walk has become one of SU’s most meaningful Welcoming traditions.
As students walk through campus together, they reflect on their aspirations while beginning to build connections. Over time, students have also adopted the route for moments of celebration, remembrance and protest, said Kloppers.
Even seemingly small elements, such as the maroon Welcoming shirts, were introduced with a larger purpose. “If you can give a shirt to students right at the beginning, then there’s no distinction between rich and poor,” Kloppers said. Beyond promoting equality, the shirts foster a shared identity. “It is a little bit like putting on a new identity,” he said.
Looking back, Kloppers said that Welcoming remains an evolving collaboration rather than a finished project. “Stellenbosch hasn’t got a single designer of the Welcoming programme,” he said. “It’s a collaborative effort.”
Short story: trees of dreams, a Dreamwalk myth
Written by an anonymous newcomer in 2023, published in the Welcoming Facilitator Guide and supplied by Pieter Kloppers
“This unexplainable feeling of hope and belief that the future is brighter than I could have ever imagined. One of my friends and I hung our dreams up together on the same tree and I think that’s really something special. Afterwards we discussed what happens to the dreams and we created this fairy story that the pages containing our hopes and dreams get absorbed in the trees and that the trees of Stellenbosch have an underground joined network. So you put your dreams on one tree and that tree whispered it to the other trees and every day you walk under the trees in Stellenbosch; they’re watching you and cheering you on as you work to achieve those dreams. It’s almost like magic. And when a leaf falls in autumn, that’s someone who has achieved their dream. And when they regrow in spring, that’s a reminder that every day is another chance to achieve your dreams.”
