In that moment, what struck me amid the throng was not the giddiness of the surrounding Greeks, nor the blare of the on-stage music, but the lone security guard who stood beside the stage.
He wore a goofy grin of complete innocence. A genuine look of care despite the surrounding carnage.
To me, this security guard epitomised what I saw from the staff working that night.
O Week has, in the past, been portrayed as something of a sacrifice made by the University of Otago to keep its students content.
An event which draws in the big-bucks from Auckland, providing the Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) with funds to fulfil their own needs later in the year.
To some extent this is true; at the end of the day the coffers must be filled. But you would be amiss to suggest that money is what the event is all about.
From what I saw, event organisers and all those involved brought just as much soul to the event as the students. Matching the jubilant shouts of every student was one ecstatic OUSA volunteer working busily behind the scenes.
In conversations with these staff, you could practically hear the joy in their every syllable. From photographers nodding effusively to members of Campus Watch telling you to seriously think about your rubbish problem (not a good week for our flat), there is passion in every person.
With O Week now in its final days, students have little to look forward to but the university deadlines which will undoubtedly flood in soon.
I will admit, I'm glad the week’s over.
It was a hell of a ride but I’ll be glad to find myself in the Robertson Library on Monday, studying and, more often than not, searching for unrelated obscurities on Wikipedia.
Nonetheless, O Week has well and truly set the tone for the year. Castle St parties will need to step up their game if they are to match what has transpired so far.
Yesterday, the flat and I sat down to reminisce about the week. What we thought would be a perfunctory week of boozing turned into an enjoyable and soul-warming week of boozing.
O Week is and will remain a bastion of student life in Dunedin. It is to be sorely missed but will undoubtedly return to inspire a new generation of students. Until then, have a good year Dunedin, one free of the O Week antics which have touched so many.
- University of Otago politics and religious studies student Hugh Askerud (19) is sharing an insider’s view of O Week.
