ECONOMICS STAFF OCCUPY NEW OFFICES

One of the new developments at the university campus has been the completion of construction of the new buildings meant for use by the Economics Department. The buildings include a block that houses offices that are currently being used by members of staff in the department, and another containing state-of-the-art lecture theatres.
With the completion of the Economics buildings, the situation of office space at UNIMA has improved. The offices previously occupied by lecturers in the Economics department are now being used by lecturers from other departments, who had previously been starved for office space.
Speaking on the move into the new structure, the Head of Economics Department, Dr Jacob Mazalale, pointed out that the new offices are more spacious, are air-conditioned, and that a few of the offices have their own toilets. He also showed appreciation for the increased parking space. “We now have 40 more parking lots,” he said. “I have seen colleagues from the PAS and LAW sections using our parking lot - which is beautiful. The furniture is great! The atmosphere in general is much better.”
The Head of Department also pointed out that the new facility includes classrooms for Masters students as well as a computer laboratory. The Department also has plans to have separate offices for exclusive use by PhD students.
The lecture theatre block has been christened Wadonda Lecture Theatres, in memory of the late Prof. Ephraim Wadonda Chirwa, who was part of the department until his passing in 2019. The late professor also donated a substantial amount of his personal funds towards the construction project. Within the complex is also the Chinyamata Chipeta Library, and the department will be hosting Ben Kaluwa Seminar Series. “we decided to name these structures and events thus as a way of showing how the Department of Economics feels obliged to honor the professional leadership of these great sons of Africa,” Mazalale said.
The block includes a 250 seating capacity lecture room, two classrooms with a seating capacity of 100 students each, one 60-seat restaurant and kitchen, one 100-seat undergraduate computer room, two 35-seat postgraduate lecture rooms, one 35-seat postgraduate computer room and one 20-seat meeting room, among other facilities. Unlike some other lecture rooms on campus, which are reserved for exclusive use by students in selected programmes, the lecture theatres at Economics have been opened up for use by students in all programmes at UNIMA. Similar to the situation with office space, therefore, the construction of these lecture theatres has eased the pressure on allocation of classes for lectures at the university.