Losing the rag over students’ behaviour

IT was with shock and disgust that I viewed the events of Rag Week at the University of Limerick last week.

As a post-graduate student recently returned from working and living abroad, I was genuinely horrified at the complete disregard, disrespect and ignorance so many students demonstrated throughout the week.

Flashes of nudity, defacement of public property, littering, loud music and drunken parties until the early hours of the morning, a drunken student hurling himself against my front door at 2am and shouting obscenities, harassment of people who dared attend classes, a steady flow of alcohol from Sunday evening to Friday morning.

And all in the name of charity? I know the residents living in the area have felt bullied and terrorised throughout the week, particularly those with young children.

If this is what free third-level education is all about, then let the Minister for Education have no qualms about reintroducing fees.

Free third-level education does nothing to include those classes left out and only heightens the sense of entitlement and arrogance students display by repeatedly getting excessively drunk, not just during Rag Week, but throughout the academic year.

Anne-Marie Studer

Lacka

Castleconnell

Co Limerick