For hours the first -year students of the Hotel School in Maastricht had to “stand still as a match” in the Vrieskou. Seven students would have fainted, one got an epileptic seizure and others became supercooled, according to Dagblad The Limburger. At least two participants reported with exhaustion symptoms at the GP station in the Maastricht UMC+.
It happened last weekend, at the hazing of student association Amphitryon, affiliated with the Hotel Management School Maastricht. That university has two instream moments each academic year: September and February, hence the hazing in the Vrieskou.
In addition, a few weeks ago, Maastricht University is researching signals of cross-border behavior during the A-time of student associations in the city. That is the aspirant time, which follows the hazing.
Every so often it is a hit in student associations. There are incidents in particular around hazing. In 2021, the hazing at the Amsterdamsch Studenten Corps (ASC/AVSB) degenerated into an explosion of violence. In 2016, an aspiring member of the Groningen Vindicat was hit so hard on his head that he had to go to the hospital with brain injury. At Minerva in Leiden, a porn movie was turned on and the participants got a tap on their genitals if they got excited.
In exceptional cases there were deaths. In 1997 a first -year year from Vindicat died during his hazing because he received an epileptic seizure after being obliged to drink a liter of gin. In 1965 an aspiring member of the Utrechtsch Studenten Corps (USC) choked after he was put a soot hood on his head during his hazing.
Bangal
But also outside the introductory time, student associations are discredited, with the ‘Bangalist’ ‘Bangalist’ of USC, which leaked out early last year. It contained photos of women from the Utrecht women’s corps, UVSV, with ‘reviews’ about their appearance and sexual performance.
The consultation culture in the Netherlands is absolutely not sufficient for these types of things
Approximately the same thing happens after each incident. It comes out, there is a lot of indignation, the association says it has been shocked. Subsequently, the perpetrators are (often temporarily) suspended and the college or university temporarily attracts its financial support to the association. The latter is around the table with the educational institution, promises improvement and comes with new rules or an improvement plan. And every so often the student associations together sign a covenant or something that looks like that. Such as after leaking the Bangal list of USC, then Utrecht student associations put their signature under a new ‘code of conduct’ for associations.
What happens next is reminiscent of Whac-a-Mole, that arcade game: if you have hit the mole back in with your soft hammer, another mole pops up from another cave. In other words: it is waiting for the next incident.
‘Very precise code of conduct’
Ina Brouwer, who assists victims of the Utrecht Bangalist as a lawyer, recognizes that “circle.” “The consultation culture that we have in the Netherlands has taken us far, but is absolutely not sufficient for this type of business. That vagueness means that excesses can still take place. “
Brouwer thinks that a code of conduct could help, and not such a code of conduct as was recently signed in Utrecht. “No, there must be very precise what is not allowed and then the precise sanction. For example: you don’t make bangalists, otherwise you have to stop your studies. ” According to her, the educational institution should take care of this. “It is an individual contract between university and student, regardless of which association you are a member. For example, associations are indirectly tied to this. “
Moreover, it is very important that a student signs such a code of conduct individually, says Brouwer, instead of putting an association on behalf of all its members a signature.
If nobody says anything about certain behavior, you unintentionally give each other the signal: we just have to find this okay
Roos Vonk also thinks that that individual aspect is important. She is professor of social psychology at Radboud University and studied for her book My ego is always right The phenomenon that people do not speak out in the event of abuses not to fall out of tune. “But also public commitment is important. For example, you can publicly promise participants in a hazing in the presence of their year -olds in advance that they will speak out if they have doubts about what is happening. That makes it easier to dare to intervene if something goes wrong. “
Why does it actually go wrong regularly at all? Vonk: “The victims are often freshmen and they adapt, because they do not know the mores in such a group. They are determined by the senior students. If nobody says anything about certain behavior, you unintentionally give each other the signal: this is apparently okay. ”
The fact that senior students do not resist may not have to do with the fact that it has always been done that way, Vonk thinks. “Going against tradition can be seen as difficult. Once you belong, you would like to keep going. ” Often people justify determining herd behavior for themselves, says Vonk, so they think they have made an autonomous decision. “They think it’s scary to speak out, so they tell themselves that it is possible.”
Zuyd Hogeschool, which includes the Hotel School in Maastricht, says in a response that it has received ‘no signals’ about the ‘mentioned abuses’. “But we take this seriously.” The school is now figuring out what exactly happened. Student association Amphitryon was not available on Tuesday NRC.
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