Charity
If you see a bunch of people dressed as tarts, vicars, nurses and Frankenstein’s monster pushing a hospital bed down a street, waving and rattling tins, there’s a good chance they’re students.
If you see someone walking along being apparently followed by a gnome, there’s a good chance they’re both students.
And if you see naked parachutists with water pistols, there’s a good chance they’re students, too.
This isn’t only because students are weird. It’s often all in the dubious name of charity or ‘rag’, as most universities call the student organisation that arranges these and many similar stunts in an effort to raise funds for good causes.
And it’s no mean feat. Some individual student rags — through sponsored events, sales of merchandise and rag mags (usually cheaply produced and stuffed with highly un-PC jokes) and other fund-raising activities which regularly push the boundaries of legality — raise over two-hundred thousand quid a year.
It’s only the best — such as Loughborough — that hit that kind of target. Most do well to get into the tens of thousands but, given how poor students are, that’s not bad. Students’ own poverty has, however, seen a few rags dwindle and die.
Much to the relief of lecturers, university authorities, the local population and the police, often the effort is focused on a single week (rag week) of mayhem and disruptive antics.
By the way, if any of this sounds familiar, the tame-by-comparison Comic Relief was inspired by student rags (with a bit of Band Aid thrown in).
Last updated on: 22 April 2008