Capping Capers

Capping has become so much associated with fun in the mind of the non-graduate that it is easy to forget its serious side — easy that is until you are one of the many who each year have their degrees conferred at the annual Capping ceremony.

For a first-year student the more immediate part of Capping is the activities through which students celebrate academic success. For the exhibitionist, there is Procesh. For the intellectuals, there is the canning revue Extravaganza. For those with a sense of humour, stunts provide an outlet. For the constructive idealist. there is charity collection.

Examining these many activities in detail, let's begin with Extrav. This annual show attracts a wide variety of students, and is a revue-style show produced over a long season in our own Little Theatre. Not just those with dramatic aspirations are needed — backstage technicians skilled in the use of hammer or needle are welcomed.

Procesh, abbreviation of procession, takes place at the end of Capping Week. Many groups of students design and build floats from materials supplied by the Association, and then parade through the streets in a wierd cavalcade for the entertainment of lunch-time shoppers.

The ulterior motive becomes apparent when the said shoppers find themselves begged, enticed, or compelled to donate to Charity Collection.

A variety of local factors has meant that charity collection has never been the conspicuous success of some other N.Z. university collections. However, several hundred pounds are collected each year for a charity selected by the Association.

Stunts are the refuge of the individualist, the iconoclast, and anyone else who has found a similar long name to fit him. They must be approved to protect the name of the University, but once approved their perpetrators receive Association support. For some reason the newspapers each year swallow some stunt or other, and the resulting publicity is popularly supposed to help publicise Capping.

Left till last — since it is normally put first — is our annual capping magazine, This collection of student wit and humour (or student vulgarity and [unclear: immatuery] if you didn't understand last year's jokes) is promoted in a spirit of capitalist endeavour. The Association takes any profit and pays the magazine sellers a generous commission. Numerous clubs organise sales teams to raise money for club tunds.

From amongst the many aspects of Capping there should be something to interest each student. It is a time of year when the student body meets and works together.