Students urged to ‘pace’ their drinking
Anything that can help to change students’ drinking habits is welcome, the Cork University District Residents Forum said.
“But we are not certain that this initiative is going to do anything other than show that the drinks industry is aware of the problem,” spokesman Barry Keane said.
“If they were genuinely serious about tackling this problem then they would be running this campaign in secondary schools where the drinking starts, rather than in college when the drinking habits have formed.”
He also said the issue of pricing needs to be tackled urgently.
He was responding to the drinks industry-funded drinkaware.ie campaign which was unveiled in Cork’s largest third-level colleges yesterday.
Images of drunk students sprawled on the floor will be installed in parts of University College Cork and the Cork Institute of Technology.
Both colleges have been at the centre of controversy in recent months arising out of students’ behaviour.
The life-size vinyl floor stickers are accompanied by a poster showing hundreds of Facebook “likes” next to the vinyl images, which reads: “What happens here doesn’t stay here. Pace yourself.”
They are designed to warn students that what they do on a night out can be captured forever on various social media platforms.
The stickers will be placed in some of UCC’s toilets and in CIT’s campus bar.
Drinkaware.ie’s chief executive Fionnuala Sheehan said the locations have been carefully selected.
“During a night out, students will invariably pay a visit to the bathroom,” she said.
“It is here, away from the party atmosphere, that students often start to really notice the effects of alcohol.
“The floor vinyls are a reminder to students that this could be how their night will end if they drink irresponsibly and don’t pace themselves.”
The drinkaware.ie responsible drinking programme was developed in 2006 by MEAS (Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Ireland Ltd) which was set up in 2002 by the alcohol manufacturers, distributors and licensed trade associations.
The drinkaware.ie programme is designed to promote responsible drinking and to challenge anti-social behaviour related to excessive drinking, particularly in the 18 to 24-year age group.
Meanwhile, Independent city councillor Mick Finn said students fighting college fee hikes should be supported only if there is a twin-track approach to tackling student anti-social behaviour.
Students need to earn the respect and support of communities in which they live, he said.
“I have residents contacting me almost on a daily basis, complaining of late-night drinking parties and criminal damage being done to property and vehicles, often as students make their way in and out of the city on college nights,” Mr Finn said.
He called on student leaders and college authorities to “step up to the plate” and come up with strategies to tackle this behaviour.
“There has to be some financial disincentive for students to act in a way that upsets individual residents or communities; if they want us to take them seriously, and support their valid campaign to abolish obstacles in the way of education, they need to act in a mature way,” he added.
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