It’s not often that I get quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Apparently Sydney University collegiate society is a breeding ground for rapists, drunks and misogynists. Or so the papers would have you believe.

The first article appeared a few weeks ago by a disgruntled ex-student Alexis Carey titled Lifting the Lid on College Life. In what many commented was a “completely trashy piece of journalism”, one ex-student tried to paint the entire collegiate scene as sexist whilst publishing stories about “allegations of rape”. Many people tore into her, the stories from people attending college at the time told an entirely different story about this “rape” and the attitudes of collegians in general.

Now over the past two days there have been several stories across the front pages of all national newspapers concerning this “pro-rape” Facebook page. Apparently these students were “proud” of membership of this page, which I find a bit of a worry if true. However, this story was broken by the Herald’s “Investigative Journalist”, Ruth Pollard. Out comes even MORE allegations. More rapes allegedly occurred. Allegedly? Ruth, a journalist of your experience should know the dangers of using the word “allegedly”. I hear that allegedly 20 babies are killed each year by investigative journalists. 20 babies, Ruth! You monster! In an attempt to either save Alexis’ reputation or break her own sensationalist story, Ruth has broken a sensational story with absolutely NO solid evidence! We can’t even see this alleged Facebook page and decide for ourselves! How did you know about it ruth if it was taken down in August and this story not printed until now? What kind of journalism is this? Quite ironic, considering Ruth, as a leading member of the MEAA, stated that she was concerned for the quality of journalism after Fairfax announced even more redundancies.

The ironic thing is the most solid and non-partisan piece of writing on this subject came from the Nina Funnell, from the NSW Rape Crisis Centre and a freelance writer. She writes that the enclosed cultures of a college society can cause one to be divorced from accepted behaviour. She even quoted a comment I left on Alexis’ article, whether in a positive or negative light I don’t know. I believe she used my comment as a way to frame “acceptance” or “denial” of the alleged behaviour of college students.

So as a result, let me give my readers an account of my life at College, and why I view all of this with a bit of skepticism.

I went to St. Andrew’s as a very confused young man, actually on a recommendation from a psychiatrist who warned that I had to get out of the family home immediately or risk doing harm to myself (another story in itself). I, like many others, knew absolutely nobody and O-week proved to be a real baptism of fire. Yes, there was drinking. Lots of it. I probably threw up once or twice. I endured belittling from the older students (I was a fresher after all), and I went through the initiation “rituals” per se. Keep this in mind – at no time was I ever forced to do it, but if you wanted to be respected by the other students it was just something you did. You got over it. The girls did it too, quite willingly. My year was the first year that females were taken in as residents, and they were very much outnumbered by the males, but they stuck together and broke into the male “bastion”.

Yes, the college was very male dominated. I understand many weren’t happy by the inclusion of females in our fresher year, but they were brought into line by the Senior Student and other senior college figures. By the end of my second year, girls were very much the norm and accepted in college life. I too felt a fair bit intimidated by the sporting “jock” society initially, and initially I was closeted whilst living there. During my second year I came out, and did not receive the lashback I had been fearing. I later learnt that I was possibly the first undergraduate to come out as gay at Drew’s. Now I hear there’s quite a few of them, and they blend in quite happily.

This is why I find it hard to believe that it would have gone that far backwards when it comes to tolerance. Now st paul’s is still the only all-male college left, and known for being full of “daddie’s boys”, with the elitist attitudes that go with it. However I never knew them as being disrespectful towards women. Certainly not “promoting rape” as the newspapers would have you believe. From the sources I have heard from, the name “Define Consent” was in fact the name of a social soccer team. Peurile and immature, yes. Insensitive, yes. But that’s teenage boys for you (and most ARE teenagers, after all). Actually SERIOUS about promoting rape? Well that’s what the so-called “investigative journalist” really needed to find out. As for the alleged rapes – well I can tell you stories like that would spread like wildfire amongst the college community. After all, it is a huge gossip mill. And don’t you think this would have come out far earlier? Yes. I would love to see one person come out and say “yes, I was raped by X and THEY made me cover it up”. If it is true, then yes these people should be punished to the full extent of the law but currently everything is speculation and heresay.

All institutions have their problems. But they are not limited to just college life – binge drinking and partying goes on all around any university in Australia. To say college life promotes binge drinking just points out the obvious that any group of young students living together will drink. The exception is that a college resident who fails their exams will usually get kicked out of college.

I really do hope that this sensationalist, TT / ACA style journalism does not hamper the college community as I believe it is provides students with an all-round education, socialisation and support that you just can’t get anywhere else. Let’s hope that Fairfax picks up its game.

BTW Yes, this photo is from my college days, right after the rowing regatta A well-earned beer if I ever saw one!