At a hazing ritual at student association Albertus Magnus, four students fainted after they were forced to spend twenty minutes sitting bent over. Another twenty-five students became unwell, de Volkskrant reported on Monday.
According to the newspaper, Albertus did not report this incident to the UG and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences, even though this is mandatory. The student association board initially explained away the situation by saying it was caused by ‘a combination of heat and too many people in an old association building’, de Volkskrant writes.
Not until later did Albertus, which is the biggest student association in Groningen with 2,400 members, that there was more going on and that the students had fainted because they ‘were waiting for each other sitting bent over for no more than twenty minutes’. According to Albertus, the medical team checked them over, they were fine after a good night’s sleep, and the first-year students involved participated in the rest of the programme.
On its own website, Albertus says it involved an activity that took place on Friday, August 27. There were approximately 150 people in the club house at the time.
‘Miscommunication’
After a series of incident at mostly Vindicate, Groningen student associations have an obligation to report incidents to the Advice Committee for Orientation (ACI). Albertus has failed to do so in this case, but the association says they’ll file a report after all.
‘We didn’t report this situation to the Advice Committee for Orientation on time, which we regret. We should have, but a case of internal miscommunication meant we did not. We’ve also stepped up our protocols concerning internal communication. The activity the students were involved in will be organised differently in the future to prevent situations like this from happening again.’
Investigating
UG spokesperson Anja Hulshof: ‘We’re lamenting that something like this has happened again. There are various agreements with the ACI about behavioural codes that people need to obey. The report has been filed with the committee and they will be investigating the matter.
Earlier this month, the Amsterdamsch Studenten Corps put an end to their introductory period after multiple violent incidents.