€11k in fines for students

UCC students have paid in excess of €11,000 in fines for misbehaviour in the past two years.

The fines, which totalled €11,600, were given to charity and relate to 199 complaints received since 2018 when the initiative was brought in by UCC Campus Watch in a bid to curb anti-social behaviour.

The figures came to light during a Cork City Joint Policing Committee meeting on Monday this week when Gary Mulcahy, a community relations officer with UCC’s Campus Watch, detailed how the college was dealing with unruly students.

Students' behaviour has improved based on the amount of complaints received during high profile student events.

25 complaints were received about Raise & Give Week 2019, down from 37 in 2018.

Similarly, 49 complaints were received about Freshers’ Week 2017 compared to 20 complaints recorded during 2018’s Freshers’ Week. These were the most up to date figures given during the JPC meeting.

Mr Mulcahy said: “It’s important to remember that students are part of the community too, not just the people who live there all year round. Campus Watch considers all formal complaints against UCC students and checks if the student has broken one of our rules which is very important because not all of our complaints lead to a student breaching the rules.”

There are ten rules, Mr Mulcahy said, adding that if a student is found in breach of one of the rules they are charged a €50 fine while adding that this new policy was introduced in February 2018.

The €50 fine is what he called a 'strike one' offence which he said there are very little repeat offenders and is classed as an informal stage.

The informal stage or 'strike two' is where students can be fined €1,000 or more.

“Sometimes claims complaints go straight to the formal stage and sometimes it’s because a student was a repeat offender. Strike three is not dealt with by us but by academics and the university. It means a student could be expelled and a €5,000 fine. If it gets to this point, it is extremely serious.”