It's the 'Students' Union', isn't it?

Why are the public so sh*t?

This was a question posed on Saturday night at Propaganda. The person who said this had just been singled-out, and abused by members of the public, purely because he was in fancy dress.

This is just one incident to add to the mounting list of public-related discrepancies inside the Forum. And it’s because of this; the public has too much of a bearing on the Forum. The university is so proud that they have opened the students’ union on several nights a week to the general public, forgetting, perhaps, that this is a university – for students of the university. I’m not getting all territorial or protective of my university and my friends and course-mates; nor am I campaigning for the university to be solely preserved for its students (surely no one needs to do this). I understand that expenses have to be covered and letting the venue to the public allows for later drinking-licenses and bigger acts to be drawn in and whatnot. No, that’s fine; but the problem is this: it’s gone too far. With the Forum being the only major accessible club in and around Hatfield, Wednesdays, and in particular, Saturdays are being dominated by Hatfield’s elite; those who opted against university in favour of working full-time. And it seems a lot of them have problems with students. Sometimes it’s as if the students are the unwelcome external entities.

My friends and I have forged a habit out of dressing up like twats when we go to the Forum. It had never been an issue at the Font; everyone dressed up then, and people laughed and mocked, but it was all in good humour. No one ever got hurt or abused for being different. There was the odd scuffle, but never on the scale or consistency of this year so far. You see there’s dressing up like a twat, and then there’s acting like one.

Is it a coincidence that when the public gets the permission to use the Students’ Union, students have to take active precaution to not get in a fight? I suspect this could be the reason behind a lack of people partaking in fancy dress this year: they just don’t want to get beaten up.

I’m not saying every member of the public struts into the Forum looking for someone to fight, but the minority, as ever, overwhelm the majority. From observation it seems that if you are not dressed in a chequered shirt or coated in a thick layer of orange – and especially if you are in fancy dress- you are judged and accused, and the slightest bump or perhaps even just your presence in the Forum, is enough to provoke an outburst.

Every week is the same; the public come in, get drunk, and abuse (often physically) each other, or the easier targets: students; students who have a right to be there, and certainly a right to enjoy themselves and not feel intimidated. Maybe it’s because these people build up frustration over the working week as they prod on in their mundane office jobs, maybe it’s because they can’t handle their drink; maybe they’re envious of students’ relaxed attitudes and ‘easy-going’ lives; maybe they just don’t get students.

Tracking back to my earlier example: this guy, clearly off his head on alcohol, (and probably drugs for all I care) started playing with my friend’s visor (OK, so my friend came dressed as a knight, yeah), and my friend the knight did his best to ignore it, as eventually it would go away. Then out of the blue this drunken bafoon whacked my friend round the back of his head. No motive for it; no reason for it other than that guy was a complete dick. Fair play to his friends, they escorted him away, but you can’t react to that because the whole Hatfield or Borehamwood contingent will jump you; even if you are dressed as a knight and carry your own sword and shield. And if you do retaliate and get caught you’d be thrown out and banned from the students union indefinitely.

And it’s not just inside the Forum where the problem lies; I noticed two blokes poke their heads out of the disabled toilet in the Ele. One came out wiping his nose quite inconspicuously. Maybe he was disabled – with the inability to snort cocaine in the comfort of his own bedroom. If they were students they would have surely done just that, for risk of being expelled.

So all this begs the question: is the Forum really for students? I asked one anonymous student who said, “Yes, yes it is.” And I asked another who said, “Yes, obviously, it’s on the university grounds.” When I probed for a more sufficient answer they said, “Yes, it is definitely for the benefit of the students of the University of Hertfordshire; why would the university build a Students’ Union for the public?”

Maybe someone with more power can answer that question.

Liam McKenna