On University Students’ Conduct

Unima students in one of their buses.

A story goes of one university of Malawi student who insulted a certain man with his wife, in the streets, only to find the man on an interview panel, two years after the student graduated.
The man, recognizing the student as the one who hurled all sorts of insults at him, reminded the desperate and easily forgetting student of that shameful incident. The end result saw the student being denied the opportunity to attend the interviews. Pity!
For umpteenth times, the general public has bemoaned on the conduct of some of the university of Malawi students especially those from Chancellor College and the Polytechnic.
The conduct of students from these colleges leaves a lot to be desired. When these students are traveling in their school vehicles, they spew all sorts of vitriol at people whom they find on the way.
Of even more horrific to note is the painful fact that these students, who travel in these vehicles, sing all sorts of hymns and dirges using abusive lyrics.
One wonders where on earth these students get both the ingenuity and the temerity of translating sacred songs into abusive language.
The students also have got a tendency—and a wrong one— of looting from shops and other businesses when they are conducting their so-called peaceful demonstrations.
And to cap it all, —and this is really shocking—the students, who travel in these vehicles, brazenly flash their private parts to the public. Very unfortunate!
It is also saddening to note that it’s not only Chancellor College and Polytechnic students who do these shocking behaviours. It seems the conduct has spilled over to some other colleges like Mzuzu University and Bunda College and for sure some other private university.
But the question that looms large in my mind is: Is this a way to go for university students?
Surely, this conduct is not on and has to be brought to a screeching halt. University students should quickly realize that the Malawi society is heavily banking on them as leaders of tomorrow. A university is a coveted place that trains professional men and women who have got something to bring to society.
Teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, nurses, agriculturists, to mention but a few, are trained at a university.
For sure, no any teacher, lawyer or doctor worth one’s salt can swear or flash one’s private parts to the public.
How are the students going to be productive leaders if they are not well-mannered at an age when everyone expects them to be?
The whole idea of a university is not only to teach the students classroom knowledge but also to teach them how to behave in society and also equip them with management skills for time, money and a lot more.
The university students need also to be mindful of the fact that other students who are at primary or secondary level look up to them as role models. So, it is disheartening and misleading for those students who are at lower level to see university students have these unfathomable mannerisms.
Sadly, the university students, more often than not, try to justify these uncanny tendencies. They foolishly argue that these mannerisms are a way of unwinding themselves from their slugging studies. Really?
I am double sure that a university being an institution of higher learning is well-equipped with recreational facilities where these students can go and refresh their minds.
Granted, they sometimes want to learn and relax themselves through traveling, but I think they should be doing that in a quiet and respectable manner. After all, most of them are adults and one wonders why they have to be straining their necks outside the windows of their school buses frothing all kinds of four letter words.
University students should realize that some of the people whom they swear, are their prospective employers and once spotted, they might face repercussions of their own misdemeanors
My point therefore is that it is high time that university students took stock of their behaviours and heed to the cry of the public.