Scarfies behaving better, report finds
Couch burning, smashed glass and flat initiations have all dropped dramatically at the University of Otago in the past year.
This week thousands of students return to Dunedin, with Orientation set to begin on Monday.
In previous years the week was synonymous with disorder across the student quarter, but that behaviour and the associated negative headlines has dried up in recent years.
‘‘I am very proud of the progress made to date and the downward trend in poor behaviour. However, we cannot be complacent,’’ ViceChancellor Harlene Hayne said.
She was responding to the 2018 Discipline Report, which reported widespread improvement in student behaviour.
The tertiary institution had ‘‘undertaken a concerted and lengthy programme aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour within our student community’’, Hayne said.
That included the introduction of Campus Watch, a Code of Conduct, and CCTV cameras.
Proactive campaigns to reduce fire lighting, such as the infamous couch fires, glass breaking and flat initiations had ‘‘proven effective’’, she said.
The report noted that the Proctor’s team proactively visited 40 historically problematic noisy flats in 2018.
Figures released by the tertiary institution show reported fires went from 258 in 2011 to just
70 in 2016.
And those fires dropped to 25 in 2017 and just 13 last year.
Flat initiations, which spiked in 2016/17, were no longer an issue after substantial disciplinary penalties were imposed that same year.
In 2018 the Proctor dealt with
363 offenders – ranging from urinating in public to drug possession – with 108 students fined a total of almost $10,000.
Only two students – both on wilful damage charges – were recorded as receiving police diversion over the same period.
Hayne noted that factors such as drugs and excessive alcohol consumption remained major contributors to anti-social behaviour, but ‘‘these are nationwide problems to be addressed by New Zealand society as a whole’’.
A decade-long study into Otago student drinking culture – released last year – found a reduction in the number of students getting drunk.
High levels of alcohol-related harm among students in the early 2000s prompted the tertiary institution to implement policy changes.