Organisers of 'hazing' event in DCU to attend respect and dignity training
: Organisers of a 'hazing'-type student society event are to attend respect and dignity training at Dublin City University.
The college has suspended all social activities by the Accounting & Finance Society for the rest of the term because of "misconduct" at the October 4 event. It was advertised as an AGM, taking place in a ground floor room of the business building, with an opportunity to run for four first-year rep positions, two from each of the university’s campuses at Glasnevin and St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra.
After an EGM on Monday, the society said it has been suspended from social activity, but will continue running accounting grinds, networking sessions and other non-social activities during its suspension this semester.
“A&F will ensure that this does not happen again and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to any member who was offended by last week’s EGM,” its Facebook post said.
DCU said it does not tolerate such inappropriate behaviour and the issue was dealt with promptly and decisively by its society life committee, which is responsible for governance of DCU student societies. As well as suspending all the society’s social activities for the rest of term, students who organised the event are being required to attend a training workshop focused on the topic of respect and dignity at DCU.
“DCU is fully committed to all students and staff abiding by an ethos of dignity, courtesy and respect at all times and to operate to the highest possible standards,” a spokesperson said.
DCU society suspended after students reportedly 'hazed' and asked to kiss and demonstrate sex positions
The Accounting and Finance Society at Dublin City University (DCU) has been suspended after students were asked to complete a series of inappropriate tasks at their EGM.
First years who wanted to be on the committee reportedly had to kiss each other and strip to a certain degree.
DCU students Clara Kelly and Brendan Fernando Kelly Palenque who are part of college newspaper 'College View' told Sean O'Rourke on RTÉ Radio 1 that they were there to cover the event.
Brendan said that students were asked to demonstrate a number of sex positions in under a minute, kiss each other and make phone calls to significant others to tell them they had either cheated or had an STD.
According to Brendan, some people stripped, one student fell off a table.
He estimated that there were between 100 and 150 students in the room.
The President of DCU says he was shocked to learn about the behaviour of students at an on-campus event.
Professor Brian MacCraith says it will not happen again on his watch.
"This does not happen at DCU, I am president for eight and a half years and never encountered this before," said Prof MacCraith.
"Every student I have spoken to in the past few days is disgusted by it."
"I have met with the student union three times in the last 48 hours and they have made a very strong statement.
But this is unacceptable in DCU and it will not happen again under our watch.
Síona Cahill, President of the Union of Students Ireland (USI) also spoke to Sean O'Rourke and said that the USI do not condone what happened at the event.
She said that what was being described was unacceptable but not reflective of college societies.
"It's not a thing in societies in Ireland, this incident is quite isolated but that doesn't mean that it's OK," said Ms Cahill.
She added: "It smacks really of a wider problem. Consent education needs to be rolled out across third level and second level."
You can listen to the full interview below.
