Sticking up for STYCs

Freshers’ Fortnight: the words that represent the beginning of your university experience and your introduction to campus life. You walk in to your college, leaving your home and family behind in order to settle into your new surroundings, and there to guide you through your first two weeks of uncertainty are your Second and Third Year Contacts.

Although the above description may be a gross generalisation for the majority of freshers at York this year, its main flaw is that even though we may have not yet experienced university life, we do know what to expect. Becoming independent, self-sufficient and responsible for your own well-being are all unofficial lessons we signed up to when enrolling. Although the university may not want to openly admit it, the student lifestyle, infamous for boozing and partying late into the evening certainly did not miss any of our ears. Upon arrival we may need a little bit of guidance and reassurance that our feelings of fear and inadequacy are common – which is why the colleges have the STYC system. They are there to enable inter-year bonding by breaking the ice, to show us around the city and equip us with the little hints and tools we will need to survive for the first few weeks. Yet amongst all of their duties, they are certainly not responsible for us.

York, amongst other collegiate universities, has adopted a STYC system rather than an official parent system for this reason – it removes the notion that they are our guardians, our minders. We are at university to make our own mistakes, to find out our own limits and try to understand who we are. Nobody else should be made to feel responsible for your development in this manner. STYCs should be thought of like elder siblings: they are there to show you the ropes and to make sure you don’t get into too much
trouble, but also to show you the side of university life that cannot be read in the brochure.

The STYCs I’ve encountered have certainly done a stellar job of guiding me and my friends. Twice I’ve been walked back to campus by my STYC in the early hours of the morning to ensure my safety, and I have had many phone calls checking that we’ve arrived back to campus safely after a college night out. Not once have I felt pressured into drinking or taking part in a drunken event, always being offered an alternative, and even when I have overestimated my alcohol tolerance I have been very well taken care of. This doesn’t even include the more mundane help I have been provided with, such as advice on stress, workload management and society involvement. It would be hugely irresponsible to stop STYCs from showing us the more raucous aspects of University life; would it really be better if we had to experiment ourselves, completely unsupervised?

In my opinion it is a STYC’s job to show us the reality of what we have just walked into, and their most important duty is to be there to oversee our exploration in our first few days. STYCs are certainly not the cause of this behaviour – students are, and we should be glad that we have our STYCs here to help us through it.