University Rag societies are student-run charitable fundraising organisations that are widespread in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Most universities in the UK and Ireland, as well as some in South Africa and The Netherlands have a Rag. In some universities Rags are known as Charities Campaigns, Charity Appeals, Charity Kommittees, or Karnivals, but they all share many of the same attributes, and together raise over a million pounds for charity each year.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Fundraising 2.1 Rag Week 2.2 Rag Mag 2.3 Sponsored Challenges and Fundraising Events 2.4 Rag Raids 2.5 Ragabonds 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Origins

It is not known where the term "Rag" originates in this context, but it is thought to be from the Victorian era when students took time out of their studies to collect rags to clothe the poor.^{[citation needed]} The verb "rag" means to badger or pester someone, and early Rags collectors may have "ragged" passers-by until they made a donation.^{[citation needed]}

Much more recently "RAG" has come to stand for "Raise and Give", "Raise A Grand" or "Raising and Giving", although this is a backronym. One story has it that the backronym was coined to convince a manager in a large charity of the value of working with student fundraisers.^{[citation needed]}

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the origin of the word from "An act of ragging; esp. an extensive display of noisy disorderly conduct, carried on in defiance of authority or discipline", and provides a citation from 1864, noting that the word was known in Oxford before this date.^[1]

Student Rags took place between University College London and King's College London from their foundation in the 1820s.^{[citation needed]}

The first Rag in South Africa was started at the University of Pretoria in 1925. The students took to the streets in parade that still exists today and is known as the Procession. During this parade, where they build floats, they carry cans and ask the spectating public to make donations. In South Africa the name RAG is sometimes thought to stand for "Reach out and Give".

[edit] Fundraising

[edit] Rag Week

Traditionally fundraising activities have centred around an annual Rag Week, with events each day for the week. While some Rag's are only active for this week, others use "Rag Week" as their flagship week to encourage participation for the whole year.

[edit] Rag Mag

A 'Rag mag' is a small booklet traditionally filled with very un-PC humour sold to the local community during Rag Week. Some university Rags with a strong local tradition still sell their (substantially cleaner and funnier) Rag Mags, whilst others use theirs more as information-tools for new students wanting to know more about Rag.

A number of Rags claim to have published the first ever Rag mags:

Sheffield University Rag's Twikker was first produced in 1925. It is also claimed that Manchester University published the first Rag mag, in 1924. An issue of a Rag mag dating from 1923, called "Goblio", is said to be in the archives of the University of Southampton. However, Queen's University Belfast holds the most complete set of Rag magazines in its archives, holding 81 different copies of PTQ (Pro Tanto Quid) from 1927 onwards.

[edit] Sponsored Challenges and Fundraising Events

Many Rag's raise the majority of their money for charity through sponsored challenges and fundraising events. While these vary from University to University, typical examples of each include:

Sponsored Challenges

• "Jailbreaks," competitions to get as far from the start and back again within a set period of time, without spending any money on transport.
• Sponsored skydives
• Running events including marathons, half marathons and 'Tough Guy' challenges
• Climbing expeditions
• Sponsored hitch-hikes.

Fundraising Events

• Pub Crawls
• World Record attempts
• Bed-runs racing teams with hospital beds.
• Pub Quizzes
• Duck races

[edit] Rag Raids

Street Collections: Currently known as 'Raids', volunteer collectors go out into the streets (often in costume) to collect for a specific charity on any given day with buckets rather than the clipboards.

Many Rags also organise week-long 'Tours' over the university holidays in which they will travel from town to town, collecting in each one, and raising thousands of pounds for the beneficiary charity.

Megaraids: A Megaraid is defined as a Raid where more than one Rag is present and in recent years these have been organised on a massive scale by charities with some events taking place consistently for over a decade. Charities which have a developed student fundraising events include Barnardo's, Help the Aged, Meningitis UK, Meningitis Research Foundation, Kidscan, The Meningitis Trust and Cancer Research UK. All Megaraids tend to include a social aspect and often attract former students who still take part.

[edit] Ragabonds

Ragabonds are a group of raggies who have continued fund raising after leaving University. Others of their members are students from universities which do not have rags of their own.

[edit] External links

• UKRag.net - Student Fundraising forum & peer support
• UK Rag Wiki - Student fundraising guides and information
• Ragabonds - Alumni organisation for Rags

[edit] References

1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, rag, University slang