17 people in 2017 were excluded from University for initiation related events, including nine people from the Debacle initiation that got significant media attention last year, which the ODT called “sadistic”.
In comparison, in 2016 and in 2015 not a single person was disciplined for initiations. The 2017 Proctor’s report says that “The initiation issue is concerning as, on occasion, it has moved from harmless fun to significant antisocial and harmful behaviour.” However, many students disagree that initiations have got any worse and argue that the university is cracking down on them because of the media attention the Debacle initiation got.
“Initiations have been happening for the last 30 years,” one student told us, “why stop now?” Another noted that “social media has wrecked initiations,” arguing that if the video footage of the Debacle initiations hadn’t been released online, the university might not have responded at all.
OUSA Recreation Officer Josh Smythe was disappointed that “The university fucking barred a bunch of people for doing initiation rites that we’ve been doing for a hundred years in Dunedin; the Debacle, it’s called the fucking Debacle.”
We’re also currently seeing initiations that seem to be mimicking the images from the Debacle initiation that blew up online. One student told us that in 2018, “The previous Selwyn committee vomited in the wheelie bin all Flo-Week and then at their initiation they poured it over [an initiate’s] head. They pissed in it, they vomited in it, they put old fish in it. It was fucking disgusting.” This mirrors the wheelie bin of green liquid used in the Debacle initiation.
The University is moving beyond discipline to also try more preventative measures. “In 2017 significant work was undertaken with OUSA and Residential Colleges to educate first year students that they need not attend initiation events, however students continue to take part in these events.”