OPINIONTales of campus hedonism are exaggerated: most students work hard, make sacrifices and occasionally party, writes Orla Tinsley
LAST WEEK, I read that a cigarette is the price of oral sex in UCD. The story went that a drunk girl had performed oral sex in exchange for a cigarette on the first night that many freshers moved into campus residences.
The paper running the story described the UCD residences as "notorious cauldrons of sexual activity and late-night bingeing".
While it was a disheartening revelation for parents of new students, it was a new one on me.
Having lived on the UCD campus for two years - in term time and during the summer - I can safely say that I have never seen a cigarette being exchanged for oral sex or witnessed brewing potions of drugs and sex flooding our apartment. The student bar has been a haunt of mine occasionally throughout the year and more frequently a haunt of my closest friends. They too have yet to see a free sex show.
In fact, a trip to the cinema, a stop by the UCD bar on open-mic night or popping into a debate after lectures is more up our alley. In UCD, like in any college, there are so many types of students but, if we are going to put them into boxes anyway, let's just make three. There are the ones that go out and party continuously, and don't care about essays, assignments and probably drop out, fail or pull up their sleeves.
There are those who care too much and do nothing but float between their lectures, the library and their bed. Then there is that larger pool of students in between. The students who occasionally party, work hard and make sacrifices, sometimes going out too much and paying for it academically.
There are those who do not go out enough and pay for it socially. Maybe they pump their energy into sports or debating or creative writing. Not all of it goes into promiscuous outings, and those who start off that way quickly decide which way they want to spend their time.
It is true that college is what you make it, and most first-year students do not know exactly what to make of it. As I start my third year in UCD amid the population of 20,000 plus, I am still figuring it out. The work-life balance idea applies to students too and it is hard to get it right.
Being tarred with the same brush as these apparent cases is more than annoying.
Yes, there is a rise in sexually transmitted diseases in three of Ireland's main universities, one of them apparently being UCD.
University doctors also stated that there was an increase of 15-20 per cent in cocaine-related cases. It all coincides with the illustrious wave the country has been riding of having far more money than sense.
When it comes to college, most parents of first-year students will be glad to know that we do not all fit into the beer-swilling, prostituting stereotype.
In fact, none of my friends fit that type and any parties I have been to do not consist of scenes that could go on after hours in the Playboy mansion. We are not trying to lure your newly flown baby into a life defined by debauchery and frivolity, though expect certain levels of both.
Of course there are drugs on campus, on every campus, and there is sex. That does not mean that we are all throwing caution to the wind and losing ourselves.
There is a clear lack of self-esteem in college students, but we are in our late teens and early 20s. Some of us are painting ourselves with excessive make-up every day and driving ridiculously expensive cars that earn us the right to social lives, but not social savvy. Some students are so hung over that they cannot get up for lectures.
Then there are the rest of us who, surprisingly, do care about our education, our sports and our societies. We want to do well, occasionally drink and try not to mess up too much along the way.
When it comes down to it, the nature of what happens in college is not something that can be controlled by parents or students' unions. Educating children is the responsibility of parents, and then it becomes the children's own responsibility.
We are not meant to have it all sorted out, and we are allowed to get drunk and make mistakes. The hope is that we realise them before it is too late. Or grow up and deal with the consequences.
• Orla Tinsley studies ancient Greek and Roman civilisation, and English, at UCD