Trent McCrow
“Chaff: To banter, rail at, or rally, in a light and non-serious manner, or without anger, but so as to try the good nature or temper of the person ‘chaffed’” – Oxford English Dictionary
The years you spend at college or university will most likely be some of the best you’ll have throughout your life. A college student usually has few responsibilities to the outside world and a lot of time on their hands, even when they are supposed to be studying or working on assessments. All this free time, coupled with Australian attitudes towards leisure and entertainment, means that a college student will often find themselves looking for something fun to do. Out of boredom arises the practical joke and ‘chaffing’ culture Avondale College has recently experienced.
The so called ‘chaffs’ that have recently occurred on the Lake Macquarie campus are not chaffs at all. Sure, they may not have been done with anger, and they may have been done to test the good nature of those on the receiving end of the ‘chaff’ but they were not light and non-serious in manner. In truth, the ‘chaffs’ that took place were not chaffs at all. They were invasions and have been dubbed the ‘Confetti Invasion’ of October 26 and the ‘Cereal Invasion’ of November 3. A proper chaff is one that teases, mocks or jokes in a light non-serious way — not like ‘chaffs’ that have occurred at Avondale recently.
Here are some proper practical jokes:
-Blowing up balloons and filling a friends room with them
-Put a friends room key in jelly and hide it in their refrigerator
-Use post it notes to cover a friends window
-Hide something and make a list of clues for your friend to find it
Having fun is part of a young adult stage of life and practical jokes and chaffs do form a small part of that fun. Some colleges have a rich history of chaffs and practical jokes, like MIT and their ‘hacks’, and perhaps one day Avondale College will have its own chaffing heritage. But the tradition that was exhibited during this latest round of invasions is not proper and has no place in the Avondale Community. We have a chance to learn something from this and to create a legacy of fun.
So next time you’re bored and want to do a chaff, don’t turn a bit of fun into defamation of character. Do something light and non-serious in manner and make it fun for those on the receiving end too.
