Madam, – 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 horrified at the disregard and disrespect 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, and a drunken student hurling himself against my front door at 2am. All in the name of charity? I know the residents living in the area – people who work hard to buy and keep their homes – were left sleep-deprived, terrified and helpless once the mob of student “do-gooders”, drinking in the name of charity, took over.
If this is what free third-level education is all about, then let the Minister have no qualms about reintroducing fees. As it stands, 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 and keeping everyone else awake at night.
Let the university authorities put an end to this annual week of terror and destruction. – Yours, etc,