To be a student takes a degree of eccentricity

Published on Saturday 16 February 2008 10:15

A SECTION of the Capital's student population this week protested at the poor facilities at the Moray House School of Education campus.

Their protest may well have been justified, especially as many have shelled out thousands to attend the university, but it was the way in which they chose to make their displeasure known – dressing up in chicken costumes and handing out chocolate eggs as part of a "free range" campaign – that grabbed people's attention.

They aren't the first students to use high-profile stunts to draw attention to an issue. In the 1950s, Edinburgh University held a charities week every April and, each year, students would come up with increasingly creative ways to raise money for their cause.

Our picture shows the 12-hour piano concert on wheels by the Savoy Opera Group where a pianist was pulled along Princes Street while playing for bemused passers-by and the police. The following year, in 1959, students settled down for breakfast on a traffic island in Princes Street causing more than a few double takes by passing bus and car passengers. Again all in the name of charity.

In the 1960s, Edinburgh's students turned serious on a number of issues – Vietnam was one. In November 1965, hundreds of them took to the streets and marched their way up to the US Consulate on Regent Terrace carrying banners protesting against the war, and stopping traffic in the process.

Two years later, members of the Christian Student Movement took part in the National Fast for Peace in Vietnam in October of 1967, camping outside the Edinburgh Chaplaincy in Forrest Road in sleeping bags and surrounding themselves with protest banners. In 1968, they took to the streets again in mass anti-apartheid demonstrations. Many residents remember the visual display of the rectorial battle in the old quad which resembled a riot, with students throwing flour and paper streamers at each other.

In the 1970s, less was more and students even took their clothes off to grab attention. Here, our picture shows female students running down Princes Street in little clothing, much to the delight of male drivers.