Dunedin’s emergency services are like the roofs of Dunedin flats - they’re not built to support everyone at once. 

Already short-staffed, overworked, and overwhelmed by the pressures of Covid, emergency responders and campus caretakers are buckling under the pressure of student drinking culture. Critic Te Ārohi editor Fox Meyer investigated the issue. 

Since St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, Otago University has been approached over and over by emergency service representatives asking for something to be done to reduce the rate of piss-soaked student antics. And emergency responders are not sure what to do.

Fire crew representatives told us that responding to couch fires costs them response times for medical emergencies. 

Ambulance crews told us drunken students are stealing their gear and abusing their staff. 

Campus Watch told us they feel guilt for every single injury they couldn’t prevent. 

And while all of them insisted this was a minority of students, all of them told us that it has become too much to handle. 

And alcohol was fuelling the fire, a message they’ve been trying to get across to the students who create both mayhem and national headlines.

‘It’s all about authority’

Henry* told us something we already knew - when authorities try to get the message across to students, it doesn’t always work. 

Henry lived on Castle St and was not “some virgin first year trying to tell students not to drink” because he enjoyed the culture plenty himself. 

So how are emergency responders meant to get their message across? To reach the hardest cases, Henry suggested that the message might work if it came from “some D&B artist” but “if the Proctor said it, they’d say ‘fuck you, I’m gonna do what I want’, because it’s all about authority”.

“They want to be top dogs. They come down from these private schools in Auckland where they're popular, and now nobody knows who they are, and they feel like they need to fight people and party and be cunts in general in order to maintain that reputation. 

“But that absolutely does not make them the top dog, and I don’t think they understand that, or care.” 

Drinking culture is synonymous with Dunedin culture. It doesn’t have to be and for many, it isn’t. 

But look to the news, to social media, even to advertisements, and you’ll see it everywhere: students on the piss, piss on the streets, streets strewn with empty cans and once-unbroken bottles. 

It’s the Dunedin we’ve grown to expect.

‘People we treat seem to have less respect for themselves, their mates and anyone trying to help’

When emergency responders go to help, they’re not always warmly welcomed, St John Coastal Otago area operations manager Doug Third said. 

Third said his team has been “sworn at, shoved or punched, spat at, or been in situations that they should never be subjected to” while responding to student injuries. This makes him, to put it lightly, “pretty upset”. 

“The drinking culture has been in New Zealand for a while but over the past decade we’ve seen a concerning shift in the way people treat each other and treat emergency services. People we treat seem to have less respect for themselves, their mates and anyone trying to help them.”

“If we feel threatened or in danger, we’re going to leave the scene – or not enter at all,” he said.

And if a student is too drunk or is obstructing medical attention, “this will delay treatment until police are available to support”. 

Every minute they’re delayed is a minute later the crew will be to their next emergency. 

But this isn’t a plea for students to stop partying.

Campus Cop John Woodhouse and Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s (FENZ) Otago District assistant commander Craig Geddes both said the exact same thing: “Nobody is asking students to stop partying.” 

Woodhouse said “partying and the consumption of alcohol is a fact of life in New Zealand”. 

All he asked students to do is think twice before doing something that could ruin their lives.  

Dave Scott, the Proctor at the University of Otago said “we’re [trying to change this culture because] we genuinely care… we don’t want our young people to have their lives changed – or worse – because of a silly decision”.

Drunken antics don’t always hurt other people - but that doesn’t mean they won’t hurt you

Woodhouse said “drunken students often engage in antics, such as entering into flats and stealing food, alcohol and other items, never imagining that what they have done is burglary and is a crime punishable by imprisonment”. 

There are students who have gotten “so drunk they have entered into a flat and gotten into the bed of a female student” leading to an assault, he said. 

“There are students who have been charged with these offences, and some have faced terms of imprisonment.” 

FENZ’s Craig Geddes told Critic “we want to see the minds and mana of our students grow while they are here with us in Dunedin”. 

“The types of changes we would like to see over the coming years is the reinforcement of a student community culture that promotes vibrancy and fun, but in a way that reduces the risk of harm and suffering among our student community.”

Of course, drunken antics aren’t always illegal, and they don’t always hurt other people. But that doesn’t mean they won’t hurt you. 

You might not have your best interests in mind when you’re 15 standards deep and you might want to think critically about what you and your mates are doing because your life can change very quickly.

“By all means party and have a good time,” Geddes said, “but please be kind to emergency services, and be kind to yourselves.” 

And as far as being “top dog” is concerned, Henry said: “You come to Dunedin, and you’re suddenly on a long leash. You feel like you can run anywhere and do anything. But you can’t. You run fast enough and far enough, and that chain is gonna yank you by the neck before you even know what’s happened. It’s cool - until it’s not.” 

*Name has been changed

Fox Meyer moved to Aotearoa from the USA in 2018. He studied earthquakes at Otago University and is now the Editor of Critic Te Ārohi, Ōtepoti Dunedin's student magazine. The views and experiences presented in this article are his own.

Read Fox’s full feature story on Critic Te Ārohi here. 

Where to get help:

• Alcohol Drug Helpline: call 0800 787 797 or free text 8681 for a free, confidential text conversation
• Alcohol Drug Māori Helpline: 0800 787 798 for advice and referral to kaupapa Māori services
• Alcohol Drug Pasifika Helpline: 0800 787 799 for advice and referral to services developed for Pacific people
• Alcohol Drug Youth Helpline: 0800 787 984 for advice and referral to services for young people
• 24 hour nationwide helpline Safe2Talk: 0800 044 334
• 24/7 helpline Wellington Sexual Abuse HELP: 04 801 6655
• RapeCrisis directory to services across the country: https://toah-nnest.org.nz/get-help/survivors/rape-crisis
• (Not for crisis support): For education programs around preventing sexual violence: RespectEd
• Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Aotearoa: www.malesurvivor.nz 
• To report your experience to the police, call 111 or the non-emergency line 105

More stories:

Her best friend died at a Dunedin flat party. Now she's calling for change

Megan Prentice's best friend Sophia Crestani died in an overcrowded flat party in 2019.

How Dunedin became the MDMA capital of NZ

Wastewater testing shows MDMA use has gone up 40% in the last three years in the Southern region

Six60 paid our rent for a year

We went to Ōtepoti/Dunedin to meet the first-ever recipients of Six60's new scholarship.