Would it do any good to tell the studentsÕ parents?

Date Published: {J}

One of the most salient points which students made during the sometimes chaotic College Week, was that, when the final reckoning was done on the worthwhile events which were staged, then a sizeable contribution would have been made to various charities.

For instance, a marvellous event was held in the college on the Monday in which close on 1,000 students took part in a fun event known as ‘rock the boat’ – an adaptation of the sort of mass-madness which sometimes pervades clubs, or debs, or weddings, and is conducted to the strains of the hit of some years ago ‘Rock The Boat’.

The thousand sat on the floor of the gym in the college, and pretended to row a boat for a number of minutes. The funding raised through the Guinness Book of World Records attempt, was going towards worthy causes like the Alan Kerins Project, which deals with deprivation in Africa, and Ability West, which helps people with intellectual disability in Galway.

Some of the students had had a few drinks, there was a lot of good-natured joshing and fun, trainers were thrown about the place ... but it was all in the name of good causes, elderly people were not being terrified in their homes, and special security measures were not necessary.

That was just one of the number of successes of College Week. Maybe we did not hear enough about the successes in comparison to the hooliganism which went on, but the conduct of some was simply vandalism and anti-social behaviour of the worst kind and deserved to be highlighted.

Would it be churlish to suggest that, if a significant number of students can’t behave themselves, then maybe a much more organised way of raising money for charity might actually work wonders.

What about even 10,000 of the 17,000 students contributing just €5 each on a set day that might be described as ‘Student Donor Day’. That’s €50,000 raised for charity and not a bottle broken or a resident terrified, and very good work done.

In this way, the single most worthwhile aim of the College Week would be met in double-quick time, people living in certain neighbourhoods in the city might get a bit of sleep, tens of thousands of euro in Garda and Fire Brigade overtime might be saved, we wouldn’t have to clean up the streets and open areas after them, and countless parents of students would be saved thousands that would otherwise be wasted on drink.

The other possible benefits are too numerous to mention – for instance, students might be likely to get a better hearing for statements pleading with politicians not to reintroduce Third Level fees. And we might be more persuaded when student leaders say their main concern is that people’s enjoyment of the city would not be diminished.

The irony of a Student Union statement appearing in local newspapers last Thursday demanding that new Labour TDs Derek Nolan and Colm Keaveney should keep up the pressure on the new government on the fees issue, will not have been lost on people watching the drunken antics of some students as parks and open spaces filled up with discarded cans and bottles.

And, was I the only one who was disappointed to hear on Friday that the six arrested the previous night, had been let off with ‘an adult caution’, and some with ‘on the spot fines’. Some are appearing before the courts from arrests on other occasions during the week.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.