Descripción general de los tratamientos climáticos

The majority of the students I interviewed seem to identify themselves positively with the university image; the ideal ‘Wits student’ or ‘Witsie’ as they are called. The data provide evidence that at the point of entry, students create preconceived academic identities that align with the status of the institution and its symbol of a “Proudly Witsie”. At first glance the image that the students create of themselves is one of an ideal student which seems fictitious. When I asked them what it means to them to be a “Witsie”, their responses carry strong images of idealised “Witsies’ through terms such as; ‘witty’, ‘hardworking’, ‘intelligent’, ‘focused’ and ‘sharp’. The university provides students with a sense of distinctiveness when found to be attractive (Dutton et al., 1994). The following are common sentiments expressed by students as they reveal their feelings, hopes and inspirations:

...it just makes one proud to be a ‘Witsie’. One, Wits is not an easy institution to proceed in. Eh, you know that Wits is considered as it is tough to be at Wits. Academically, it requires a lot from one to make progress at Wits. When you say that you are a ‘Witsie’, you have that feeling of pride to belong to the community of intellectuals who are hard workers… [01SC3].

...it’s a great honour. First of all it is difficult. Not everyone gets to be a Wits student. It’s a great honour because Wits has its own standards. So knowing that you are accepted as a student of Wits, is something of its own, far much better than saying that okay, I am actually at University ---- when you say that you are at Wits, everybody treats you with that respect [12H1].

What this points to is that there are qualifications envisaged by participants of being a student on which they model and sculpt their identity. These identities are understandings or abstract views of self which students hold in relation to the institutional image. The students negotiate constructs and behave according to how they

127 construct the university. Parts of these constructions are perceptions and images. Likewise, Dutton et al. (1994, p. 244) assert people find a perceived organisational identity more attractive when it matches their own sense of who they are…because it provides opportunities for self-expression”. Thus, the students use images as resources for negotiating their new identities of ‘Witsies’.

At the other end of the continuum there are other students who came to the realisation that there is nothing special about being a Wits student: “...to be a Wits student...what it means is I am kind of enrolled here getting access to education you know, nothing more. I don’t see it as anything other than that”18

. Another student expresses similar sentiments: “To me, a Wits student, eh, it just means that I guess you are exposed to eh ...I don’t know, the university rules...”19

The label ‘Witsie’ means a lot to the outsider (Dutton et al., 1994) who surprisingly has high expectations of the students themselves. It is the students who have knowledge of what comes with that name; pressure, the strenuous environment: “...you could just feel that the atmosphere when you came to Wits [it] was serious”20_{. This participant’s} narrative sums it up:

…Well, you know, it’s quite more especially you know when I go home. People are like: where do I go? I’m like, Wits. You know, it’s more like there [at home] this prestige thing; status, being a ‘Witsie’, is one of the most amazing things first and foremost that they consider. It’s more like whoa, you are intelligent to be at Wits. And there are people who have this notion that if you are a ‘Witsie’ you will never struggle to get a job more like because is nationally recognised and whatever. So, I think in a way, being a ‘Witsie’ it makes you to say, it’s an achievement, in a way to say, this is an institution that everyone wants to be part of but only a few are selected so yeah...[6H3].

The participant then continues but positioning himself/herself:

…Okay, with me, I’ve realise personally, I’ve realised that people prioritise Wits so much. They are like, whoa Wits, okay, for me, I won’t say. I think at this point in time, I just

18 _23E3 19 _9SC3 20 _8H1

128 see it as being in Wits. It is just me at any institution, me

enhancing myself in terms of learn, get whatever. So I think with me, I don’t really prioritise being a ‘Witsie’ much. It’s more like to say; yes, I’m in Wits. I’m in the best institution and that’s that. I don’t really see it as the most amazing thing. Yes, it’s okay. I tend to realise that it’s the most amazing thing when I start to talk to people. When they ask: where you go, at Wits? And they are like, whoa! That makes you go, oh; by the way, I’m at Wits. Then you tend to think about those things… [6H3].

This discussion seems to corroborate previous findings in the literature that students’ identities are informed by their aspirations and feelings. This resonates with Dutton’s et al. (1994, p. 246) view that when members associate with the institution that has an attractive perceived identity, it enhances their self-esteem as they acquire a more positive evaluation of self. As part of the findings from their research, Toni and Olivier (2004, p.194) found out that “academic identities of black female adolescents are directed by their life goals, charged by specific feelings and characterised by their experiences”21

. It also appears that the students’ imagined identities interact with the identities of the broader community on campus to colour how the students perceive themselves and are perceived by others. This resonates with Holdsworth’s (2006, p. 514) view that the “ways in which young people reflect on their own competence of being a ‘student’ draw on a set of images and practices associated with being a ‘typical’ student that ‘other’ people embody”. Down the line when the students get the real experience of the academic life, some tend to negate such assumed identities blaming themselves and not the institution for that.