Got to love this one. A silly story about data protection sparked by a mother complaining that her first-year student son was “now quite addicted to alcohol, smokes and has spent a great deal of time over the last nine months asleep”. **** on a stick, and she’s surprised?! Frankly, she sounds like a right nosy pain in the arse. I can’t say I blame the kid for going off the rails now he’s away from home.
OK, one thing straight – I never smoked at uni, or ever for that matter. I’m not that ******* stupid. I’ve also never been addicted to alcohol. Hell, I was teetotal when I started at Bradford. But then, my parents aren’t overbearing fuckwads.
Remember this – when someone goes to university, they’re pretty much an adult. I know a lot of students don’t act it but it’s often the first taste of real freedom they’ve had in their lives. First year is a doss compared to later years. It always is. But generally there’s no register taken at lectures. One of the things I loved about uni was being able to skip lectures if I wanted and catch up. If they were doing something I was comfortable with, I could ditch it and spend more time on what I did need to concentrate on.
OK, Muggins in our little story here has opted to spend the time getting wasted, learning how to pollute his lungs (I bet he was doing that at school as well) and snoozing. Big deal. And as for giving his timetable to his mum, I’m glad the university have looked at the situation and told the staff member in question “yeah, technically that’s a bad thing. Just don’t do it again”. Stick to the rules, tell him off but don’t do anything stupid like fine or sack him.
