PRESS RELEASE: Cleaning Up the College Conduct

We are all biased in one way or another. Some towards their children, some towards their studies and in light of the recent scandal at the University of Sydney's St Paul's College, I admit I am biased towards college.

While under no circumstances do I condone the actions of these young gentleman who set up a 'pro-rape' Facebook group earlier this week, I don't appreciate the minority of collegians who do the wrong thing and spoil the reputation of colleges around the country.

I lived at college for three years at the University of Queensland. In that time, I heard and saw my fair share of inexcusable behaviour. At times, I was shocked and disgusted. But those times were never outweighed by the times I revelled in the joy of being at college. Only after you have been a member of a college co-hort can you come to understand how beneficial the experience is. How it can become an opportunity for social, cultural, sporting and academic achievement and leadership.

To the outside, I can see how college-life would look different to this: a residential hall of hormone-driven, sexed-up students, who care little about their studies and are only concerned by the price of beer jugs at the local pub. I can see how those events of the past involving explicit drunken behaviour and sexual allegations would be cause for questioning these institutions. I can see how one bad egg can rot the entire barrel.

I can also see how colleges provide the perfect scapegoat for immoral incidents. No matter where you live, whether at college, in the army, in a suburban community, even in some homes, inappropriate and even shocking events are occuring. Bullying, emotional and sexual abuse, murder - one glance at the daily newspaper is proof that there is no perfect society. There will always be injustice.

This does not mean we sit back and passively accept these things as unchangable. Rape and sexual abuse will never be acceptable and it is a change which we of the moral society must continue to fight for.

But colleges are not sest-pools of immoral, inappropriate and depraved behaviour. They do not souly fuel the child molestors, date rapers and rule breakers of society. Yes - there are a select few of students who do the wrong thing. Their actions are inexcusable and they must take responsibility for the damage they cause to themselves, their victim and their college. But to every one of those students who shame the name of their residency, there are others who are representing it for the right reasons. They are leading and achieving and living by the rules which not only govern their college, but which goven modern society.

College is a world within the world, which is why the events which occur there are magnified to such an extent. Just in any society, there are people who fail in spite of the opportunities they are given to succeed. They take actions which are unsupported and cause events which find their way to the front pages of the newspaper. But until we can change what happens outside the college walls, what happens inside will always be a similiar reflection. The way women are represented as only sexual conquests, the way men are pressured into thinking masculinity is power, the way arrogance is portrayed as confidence and therefore rewarded. These are social defects which are apparent no matter where you live or work.

I actively encourage this cleaning up the college conduct because I would hate to think prospective students percieve college an experience they would prefer to pass on. But I think it is necessary to point out to those so quick to point their own finger, whether based on experience or an experience 30 years previous, that college will always reflect the world it exists in. Just as there is a minority that do the majority no favours, there is still a majority who continue to do the right thing and make waves for their college for the right reasons.

Where is their headline in the newspaper?