Sport must not ignore perils of vile initiations
While emily Dawes, the president of the students’ union at Southampton University, was mobilising the full weight of her intellect against a First World War mural she had not the wit to understand, the Coroner’s Court in Newcastle was considering an altogether less noble, but equally senseless, young death.
it concerned ed Farmer, a 20-year-old student and a member of the Newcastle University Agricultural Society. he died, horribly, of cardiac arrest having drunk roughly 27 vodka shots as part of an initiation ceremony.
Farmer was taken to hospital at 5am the following day. By that time, his head had been partly shaved, he was soaking wet and stained from soil. had he not been comatose and dying in the hallway of a student house for round two of the initiation, he would have been made to crawl through sheep pens and drink from a pig’s head by older boys wearing masks.
The coroner, Karen Dilks, called for students to be given compulsory training on the dangers of binge drinking and initiations: the universities’ dirty little secret.
it was 2006 when Gavin Britton, a student at the University of exeter, died of alcohol poisoning as part of an initiation for its Golf Society. America, where hazing rituals have been part of college life for decades, lose on average one student each year.
We live in a world of excess where drinking and eating challenges do huge business online, so do not expect this to remain an isolated affair. initiations are part of a university fresher’s introduction to campus, particularly if he or she wants to play sport.
Don’t think it is different for girls. Several years ago, making the netball team at Nottingham University entailed a team bonding session that went by the name of ladies and the Tramps.
The older girls were the ladies, long dresses, long gloves, maybe a tiara. The freshers were the tramps. They were ordered not to wear make-up and dressed in bin liners. Dirt was smeared on their faces, dog food rubbed in their hair. This is where the complicity of student unions comes in.
This wasn’t a private ceremony. Very public humiliation is common in initiations. So the tramps were brought into town, to a very popular student nightclub, where they would be seen by many peers. Are we pretending the students’ union wouldn’t know of this, or couldn’t find out?
Student unions, like the universities, make a big play of standing against initiations, while in reality doing little to stop them. it is only when a session goes tragically wrong, as in Newcastle, that there are repercussions. even then, ed Farmer’s family reserved their stinging criticism for Newcastle University in failing to address the obscenity of initiations.
‘We heard how initiations have been going on at Newcastle University for 30 to 40 years, despite such events being banned by the university and the students’ union,’ said Farmer’s father, Jeremy. That’s a very long time to fail to get to grips with a problem.
ThAT this hearing was taking place at the same time as the controversy around a mural at Southampton University shows the foolishness of those who presume to take a lead in education.
emily Dawes, an astrophysics student currently on sabbatical, took issue with a mural in the university’s Senate room. ‘Mark my words, we’re taking down the mural of white men in the uni Senate room — even if i have to paint over it myself,’ she tweeted.
What she had failed to understand, or not been curious enough to find out — hardly the best trait in an astrophysicist — was that the mural commemorated students who had given their lives in the First World War. it showed a degree being conferred on an ‘unknown soldier’ — one this faceless member of the fallen would
never receive. Behind was a queue of students waiting to receive their imagined honour.
yes, they were white and male. But so were the overwhelming majority of British students lost in the First World War. naturally, Dawes was made aware of the crassness of her comments and retreated. But her initial stance highlights the problem. Student bodies scoring half-baked political points, rather than protecting student welfare.
Instead of no- platforming controversial voices or pontificating about statues, shouldn’t they be on the lookout for members of their community having 27 vodka shots rammed down their throats; or entering a club stinking of dog food?
Sports should be worried, too. Rugby union alone lost 10,000 school-leavers last year, and the laddish culture — from binge drinking to rugger- bugger behaviour, including initiations — is frequently cited as the catalyst for giving up the sport.
Apple- bobbing with dead rats? Manchester University’s initiation apparently. What if you just want a game of rugby? What if you want to be called by your name, rather than the dehumanising ‘fresher’.
Initiations are commonplace in sporting environments, even professional ones. Standing on a chair self-consciously singing
Bohemian Rhapsody proves you are willing to give of yourself for the team. Some football clubs even post clips of these ordeals on social media.
They are embarrassing, but fun. no-one gets hurt, no-one dies, and everyone goes through them. you’re all in it together.
And that’s the difference. If going to town in a bin-liner actually made you better at netball, then go to town in a bin-liner, and good luck. But if only the youngest, least experienced and most vulnerable members have to do it, then that’s just bullying by another name. It is nothing to do with team spirit, merely a power trip for creeps.
The fact the student unions and universities turn a blind eye makes creeps of them, too.