Sport at James Cook University becomes as intense as the study workload as the end of semester nears.

By Gabrielle Vacher.

Fisher Shield:

Water Polo held on Sunday 30^th March was the third Fisher Shield sporting final of 2014.

University Hall dominated in both matches, defeating Saint Paul’s College in the women’s competition and George Roberts Hall in the men’s.

“Uni Hall may have taken out the guy’s and the girl’s competition, but we did do a lot of training to get there,” says member of the female water polo team, Charley Bond.

“Sanders was an excellent coach for the guys and co-coach with Emily Dearling for the girls.

“The girls versed Saint Paul’s in the finals and it was very tough, but we really pulled it together in the second half.

“Both the guys and the girls were also the minor premiers of the carnival, and we never finished a game over the weekend with less than 12 goals to our team.

“Everyone played so well, and thankfully there were no injuries this year!”

Upon the introduction of Fisher Shield Cricket in 2014, the George Roberts Hall females and University Hall males were titled the first ever cricket champions after defeating the St Marks females and George Roberts Hall men at the finals on Sunday 25^th May.

Captain of the winning female cricket team Imagion Brauer says she is thrilled with the outcome of the match.

“We were going into the final undefeated so we were feeling pretty confident, but we knew that the game against St Marks was going to be a tight match,” says Imagion.

“We batted first and ended up putting 63 runs onto the score board for St Marks to chase, with Talia batting so well she had to retire – she really stepped up when some of our first batters got out quickly.

“When we went into field Steph Clay and Katii Batty took some early and crucial wickets and Sarah Bensted also bowled two girls out.

“In the end we bowled the entire Marks team out before they ran out of overs, so it was a pretty convincing win.

“I’d say Katii Batty was our most valuable player, but every single one of the girls was absolutely incredible considering I was the only one who had played some cricket before the comp.”

Semester 1 Fisher Shield finished with a bang at the Rugby Finals on Friday 30^th May.

JCU Sport and Recreation Officer and organiser of sporting events Renee Frizzell says the crowds are always entertaining.

“With four different colleges competing I knew that the finals were going to draw an enormous, animated crowd,” says Renee.

The Uni Hall males defeated St Marks 23-7, while the St Paul’s females dominated 17-5 in their match against John Flynn College.

Interfaculty Sport:

The Interfaculty Touch finals held on Thursday April 3^rd determined that the Law, Business & Creative Arts females exhibited the most sporting prowess on the touch field, while the Engineering Science males celebrated their touch football talent after their triumphant match.

Semester 1 Interfaculty Sport then culminated after the soccer finals on Friday 23^rd May, awarding the Public Health, Tropical Medicine & Rehabilitation Sciences females and the Arts, Education and Social Sciences males the winning titles.

Social Sport:

Social touch football, netball and soccer ended on Monday 26^th May, while the social volleyball finals held on Thursday 29^th May closed all social sport for semester 1.

SAINT MARKS, Townsville Campus

By Jazmin Malcolm

As students all over Australia slowly become accustomed to their new college environment and learn the rules, older college residents are starting to find the new rules increasingly restrictive.

After last year’s controversy surrounding two Saint Mark’s students in Townsville who were expelled for performing a musical skit with “homosexual undertones”, many have wondered if the college rules are wrapping students in cotton wool.

A third year student at the college has raised concerns over the guidelines as social activities have been affected with the 160 residents effectively becoming strangers living together.

“It is understandable that the rules needed to change in order to prevent the assumed hazing and such.  The principals have taken very extreme one off situations of hazing and created blanket rules to cover all bonding activities,” the Saint Marks student says.

The new rules across colleges include: registering a party if more than three people will attend, rooms kept “up to standard” for a weekly room inspection, banning chants and reducing alcohol consumption time to one hour on college party nights.

Ex Saints Catholic College student Tyrone says the rules have affected the overall appeal of college.

“When I first moved on to college in 2007, it was without a doubt the best year I ever had on college (and I was there for 5 years). This was because I, and all my fresher-brethren, were able to engage in the classic fresher-activities and initiations that you hear about (and expect) when you move onto college,” Tyrone says.

“A few individuals had issues with events and activities and as a result, the majority lost out… intra- and -intercollege socialising has also suffered by banning use of the common rooms, and having people in your rooms,” he says.

College has always been recognised for its social aspect however, the new stricter rules have many questioning whether these will have an adverse effect on the college students themselves.

“It seems ridiculous to me that 17-20 something-year-olds can be treated like little children. Part of the reason we move away from home is so we can gain our independence and the rigidity of these new regimes really steal that independence away,” another Saint Marks student says.

“I think in the long run this will actually negatively affect many people in terms of their ability to work, study and network because when you treat people like babies, they will act like babies.”

Saint Marks prides itself on, ‘students finding their time at St Mark’s a secure, happy and valuable experience in community living’.

However, residents of Saint Marks are saying that their treasured college is no longer a place that feels like home.

“Several students of high standing in the Saint Marks community were targeted and systematically removed from the college such as the Dean of Students, the President of the Student Association and many of the Residential Assistants. The end of the 2013 year saw the largest outflow of students as the college was no longer a desirable place to live,” a fourth year Saint Marks student said.

Whilst the students understand the reasoning behind some rules being implemented, many have agreed that the colleges have taken the rules too far, resulting in adverse social effects on its students.

Editors note: The Principles of Saint Marks and Saints Catholic College were contacted for the story but declined to comment.