Student life at St Andrews

was recently privileged to enjoy a reunion lunch. The common bond was

the parent-child relationship which has been such an important feature

of student life at St Andrews for many years.

This relationship takes two forms, first the bejant/bejantine to

senior man/woman, now referred to as academic child/father-mother

relationships, and secondly the relationship between the student and

Alma Mater.

In common with all parenting relationships, once started they only

change direction as the children mature. They are lifelong.

It was sad to see how debased had become the forging of these academic

family bonds (November 24). One wonders if this was the adolescents'

last farewell to the excesses of irresponsibility prior to settling down

to studies and the worries of financing themselves during their sojourn

in St Andrews, or whether it was the beginning of a lifestyle which peer

pressure will encourage them to adopt.

Citizens of St Andrews old enough to have witnessed university life in

the post-First World War period recalled the excesses in the behavour of

some of the returned men.

Some of these veterans, whose lives had been changed forever by their

wartime experiences, gave their landladies a hard time. Fortunately the

St Andrews ''bunk-wives'' were made of stern stuff -- kind, firm, but

never lacking in humour and worthy of all the affection and respect

their students accorded them for years after they gave them their

graduation photos.

Sadly, the gap between town and gown is now wider with the demise of

the ''bunks'' and this must put great pressure on the forbearance of the

citizens of St Andrews.

If, however, the present excesses are the result of peer pressure

among the young, one must examine another kind of ''peer pressure''

which has been used by the university in its publishing of names of

members of ''giving clubs'' and of regular exhortations to graduates to

donate to university funds.

In the West of Scotland alone more than 1000 graduates receive this

encouragement. Many respond with donations and covenants and some

eventually with bequests. Some of thse graduates may now be considering

their position on reading ''Students raisin Cain''.

Many of us who have great sympathy with students facing financial

hardship are beginning to ask: How can it be so bad if students can

afford to spend so much on drink that it is worth the while of the St

Andrews licensed traders to tolerate scenes such as are described in

your article?

How do parents of prospective students view St Andrews University

after reading such stories? Are prospective students frightened off by

this?

I can reassure them that there is another side to life at St Andrews.

The student body is also a caring body, keenly aware of much that is

wrong with society and anxious to improve it.

For example, it may surprise readers to know that only two days after

Raisin Monday students were taking on board problems of race relations

and listening intently to the words of a survivor of the Holocaust. In

addition, they work tirelessly for charities, local, national, and

international.

Jean C Carmichael,

4 Fleurs Avenue,

Glasgow.