•Are we creating graduates or monsters?

University ragging has yet again reared its ugly head. Falling prey to the most recent incident was Pasindu Lakshan, a first-year student at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Colombo National Hospital after sustaining severe brain and skull injuries following an alleged act of ragging. Even though there appear to be stringent rules and regulations in place against ragging within the state university system, it sill occurs at an alarming rate in Sri Lanka. What’s worse, however, is that the cases reported are merely a handful of the countless incidents that take place daily. In light of this, The Sunday Morning took to the streets to seek the public’s thoughts on the matter. Undisciplined and unruly Marshan Stouter – Manager at Ramani Fernando Salon I personally dislike ragging, I am not for it. We are all human beings and must be treated as such. The Government needs to put their foot down and take action against this. The laws have not been implemented strongly enough. There should be some type of discipline in national universities; if not, how are they going to come out of there and live in our society? An act of violence Dimuthu Dawnsekera – private university student In my opinion, ragging is an unacceptable act. When my parents attended university back in the good old days, there was a bit of ragging, but not like now. It was never this bad. This is abuse. I believe ragging is not appropriate for our culture either, as it is not a civilised act. Also, I do not think the Government is doing enough to prevent such acts of violence. Finding middle ground Dumith Chathuranga – student I am a student awaiting university entrance and I feel that a ragging system should exist, but not in the way it is in Sri Lanka. Ragging has become part of our culture now. However, the ragging incidents that have occurred cannot be considered as ragging but as acts of violence. The reason ragging exists is for people to get to know each other and form a bond. But in campuses, this does not happen as it is taken too far. I also feel like this issue is out of the Government’s control as it is the staff within the universities that need to enforce these rules and regulations. Scars fade but never heal Paramie Jayakody – writer and digital marketer Ragging is essentially a cycle of bullying. Our parents and teachers advise and assure us that they will only do small things and tell us not to worry. However, they do not realise the gravity of what goes on. Another thing is that there is no specific time and place for ragging – you live in fear 24/7. No one has addressed the mental and emotional strains it puts on an individual. What is even more frustrating is that you do not see many people saying “no” to these seniors. There are of course a few, but the majority have been told by their parents to “suck it up and take it”. Internal issues Yogananth Youganathan – civil engineer at Resource Development Consultant (Pvt.) Ltd. I passed out from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Jaffna. In my experience, our faculty did not have such brutal ragging like what happened in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. I feel like we need some kind of social activity between juniors and seniors just to get familiarised. But what has happened is completely unjustified. They used ragging as a way of getting familiarised and took it too far. One of my friends too was affected by ragging and he dropped out after six months and now he does not have a degree. It is unfortunate. What is even more shocking is that some staff members and deans of the universities are even for ragging.