Seven Seconds

On a Thursday afternoon, outside Drostdy dining hall, four female students sit in a dilapidated circle on what looks like a sacrificial table. The sun is setting on a pleasant day as the girls casually chat about nothing at all really. There is a certain bite to the air, uncharacteristic of a mid October evening, yet the girls are still sitting an hour later when the sun is about to set over Grahamstown, happily chatting and taking random snap shots. One of the girls acknowledges that what they are doing might look a little odd. Another points out that, being Rhodes students, it is what one would expect of them.

It takes seven seconds to judge someone. Only seven. And then, wham! You’ve got your opinion. Based on what you and only you saw and heard in seven seconds. You can do a lot in seven seconds, can you not? You could show someone identification; depending on how strong you are, you could even open a bottle. However, you can’t have a proper conversation, and let’s be honest, how could you possibly know a person enough to judge them without a conversation?

Nobody even looked twice at the half full bottle in each of their hands. But why would they? After all, they are Rhodes students...

Before you even step onto campus for the first time as a Rhodes student, you are judged. Why, you ask? As it turns out, people have this nasty little habit of generalising. David O’Sullivan form Radio 702 mentioned on his show how University of Pretoria weren’t altogether happy with the fact that they didn’t make it into the top 100 academic tertiary education institutions. He then went on to say that Rhodes wouldn’t make it for academics, but they’d definitely be number one in South Africa for drinking.

Sadly, everyone seems to accept this stereotype. Students use it as an excuse, visiting varsities see it as an opportunity for drunken streaking on an Astroturf, and lectures prefer to use it as an explanation for late deadlines. One such lecturer even went so far as to emailing the students on his first year mailing list stating this assumption as though it was fact.

But, little does he know about his students... Had he walked into local drinking hole, “The Rat” on Monday afternoon, being his opinionated self, he would’ve automatically assumed that the group of first year students gathered around a table with a bottle of port were drinking for the
hell of it. After all, they were Rhodes students. But little would he know they were actually doing an assignment for his class. Ironically, this group’s specific subject matter was the damaging effects of alcohol and drugs, hence, the empty bottle of port (www.im-pressionism.blogspot.com).

The point here is that not all Rhodes students get “drunk and chunder” every weekend and most weekdays, some of them are serious about their studies. There is no denying the fact that drinking goes on at Rhodes, but one must realise that it also takes place at other universities in South Africa. Grahamstown is a small town, thus the behaviour of students is more visible. Therefore, one cannot generalise that all Rhodes students drink. It may take less than seven seconds to realise that someone is drunk, but it doesn’t mean that the person holding him up is too.