Spammage (I did warn you...)

[jadesfire]

It is entirely possible that this morning, I encountered the cutest thing in the whole world. A baby sparrow fluttered over a car and landed in the road in front of me. It was fine, although it looked a bit confused, but oh my soooooo cute. It was about the size of a ping-pong ball with lots of fluff and a tiny, tiny beak. I tried to keep the squeeing to a minimum to avoid scaring it, but I did flail, just a little :) Happy thoughts to get me through the day.

In other news...Oxford University is raiding Facebook to find evidence of students breaking university regulations. I guess it was only a matter of time... The thing is, yes, Facebook has lots of filters and things built in, but it's still essentially a public forum. I don't think the University should go raiding people's accounts for evidence, but then, would you want to come back to your car to find that it had been covered in eggs, flour and glitter, all with a nice layer of champagne to stick it down? Not to mention that it takes months, literally, for the glitter to come out of the cobbles.

I approve of trashing*. It's fun and traditional and highly entertaining to watch, but please, people, apply a bit of common sense. Most colleges have an 'informal' garden where they're happy for you to do what you want (Jesus college has got it about right, I always thing) and it's not like you didn't know about the fines in advance. And really, is it a good use of University staff's time (not to mention wages) to go trawling through Facebook for evidence? An Oxford degree is three/four years of brain-melting culminating in a week that decides the rest of your life - let them (us) let off steam a little!

Can't the Proctors get over themselves a little and the students stop and consider that maybe other people live in Oxford too? Please? *sigh*

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*I should note at this point that, because I don't drink, my own trashing consisted of large quantities of confetti, silly string, Ben's cookies and Schloer after which they threw a large, fluffy dog at me. Oh yes. I know how to live :)

Comments

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I have little sympathy with the students involved. If you're stupid enough to do something that you know is against the rules, then post the pictures in what is essentially a public forum, you must expect repercussions.

I completely agree that what the staff is doing is a waste of time and resources, not to mention sneaky and underhanded, but if it stops people being idiots then, well, good. Like you say, it's a tradition, but that doesn't give students the right to take the mick.

Sheffield isn't as traditional as Oxford, obviously, but it is a very rich university, and a lot of the students do display the same sort of breathtaking arrogance that pisses off locals and police, not to mention any students who do possess an iota of common sense. Certain suburbs of the city are overrun with undergraduates, and the Union frequently runs campaigns to try to remind people that they are suburbs, not extensions of the campus, and as such they need to behave like adults.

The fact that they have to run these campaigns twice a year, every year, shows how ineffective they are, and how stupid some students are.

For what it's worth, the only thing that Sheffield Uni has had to say about Facebook is 'um, libel laws still apply, folks, so don't go too far when complaining about lecturers'. I'm sure that's only cos they haven't thought to do what Oxford's doing though ;)

And baby birds are quite ridiculously cute :) I hope it didn't get squished in the road... *is worried about baby sparrow now*

I'm going to post this if it kills me...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* There are emails for about 3 weeks before finals warning people that, if they are caught, they will be fined. High spirits is one thing, but sometimes it goes way too far and it's the university that gets shouted at.

The baby sparrow was fine - it was just getting a bit confused by the shiny windows on the car, but it soon figured out that it couldn't peck its way through and headed into the park on the other side of the road. It looked like it should have had an L-plate for flying but he made it! He's fine, I promise :)

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

*nods* I didn't know that they did it in universities too, but it's definitely a calendar-marked day at the secondary school I went to. It's mostly toilet paper and silly string, or at least it was in my day. Unfortunately, I got conned out of mine. The teachers found out what my year were planning to do and called us in for assembly on the second-to-last day. They then declared that we were being given an extra day's holiday. The reaction was "Yay! . . . wait a minute."

I thoroughly approve of letting off steam, but I don't think that it should be something that causes any damage. Streamers, confetti, silly string, toilet paper, fake snow? No problem. Glue, spray paint and party poppers that scare local residents? Not so good.

I agree with you two - students should consider others, but it's only one day a year. Students need to have some harmless fun too.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

We used to do something similar at my school. It was an old fashioned private school with a grass quad and for years people had been threatening to bring sheep in.

So we made some.

My friends and I spent an afternoon in my garden making sheep out of cardboard boxes, white paint and cotton wool. Then we put them on the grass. I'm not normally the person who does that kind of thing, so it was a great feeling :)

The students are just twits but the rules have become draconian. *sigh* Someone needs to take a deep breath and get this under control.

[idontlikegravy.livejournal.com]

I have to say it does all seem like a big fat waste of time and effort but did you see the pictures in the papers of a ferry crew eating and drinking on duty? Their bosses found them on Facebook and naturally sacked the lot of them for endangering their 800 passengers by being pissed at the helm and placing food and drink on the consoles!
*facepalm*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Oh good grief...some people don't have the sense they were born with...