The words of 18 year old Stephanie Awua. Not to long ago, Stephanie and a couple of friends had a night out to the forum in which a fight broke out, no one was badly injured but clothes were torn and scars were made. From what she remembers, “Two girls thought they’ll be brave and come up to one of my flat mate’s boyfriend, started arguing and one of the girls decided to slap him. Because he’s a guy he can’t hit a girl so he put his girlfriend in front and she did the slapping. Security stopped it and what not but it got taken outside, the two girls called ‘their people’ (a bunch of guys) and there was us, all hell broke loose” Despite the hard efforts of numerous security guards, the ‘all too famous’ forum may have become the place to be when looking for a good fight. There have been an increasing number of fights between students at the forum, some of which involve the police. “The police weren’t called this time because the security guards stopped it in time but my flat mate managed to somehow pull a ligament or something in her arm but that is because she fell … I remember one of the girls who started it got her dress torn as well”
Many people will say the forum is there as a socialising venue, somewhere you can go meet new people but enjoy good quality music, see great performers, have a few drinks, maybe a dance basically just get entertained, fair enough but if this venue is constantly acting as a fighting arena for students, it can’t be worth having; the safety and welfare of the students are the main priorities. Stephanie says “Okay, you’re finally a student, in uni, over the 18 years age limit and have the freedom to go anywhere. No silly curfews, no begging for money and with nothing to do on a Tuesday night … the forum sounds pretty good right? Yeah, of course, there’s a bar with good prices. The music’s good, there’s a wide variety; loads of different artist have come down. They do great theme nights as well, like the school uniform one I went to last Monday, you’ve just got to behave yourself”
So how exactly do we get students to ‘behave themselves’, before entering the forum students are already stopped and searched, bags are also searched too. Security is in place within the rooms of the forum itself, inside and out, what else can be done? “I think the problem lies with the drinking, people change into different people when they drink, am not really a drinker myself so I notice these things … maybe bar monitors should be introduced, they stand at the bar and basically monitor how much you drink. If you look like you can’t take anymore, they refuse to let you buy another drink … better to have students tipsy rather than drunk.” Bar monitors as suggested by Stephanie don’t seem too bad; in bringing the forum back to its soul purpose (entertainment) new ideas are more than welcomed.
