Bruges student club wants to get rid of a bad image: ‘Image of extreme baptisms is no longer correct’
Brihos wants to get rid of its bad image and also wants to encourage future students to become members. The stereotypical image of drinking and extreme baptisms is no longer correct, it sounds. Sam Verleye, president of Brihos: “We want to show that student clubs generally do not participate at all in those extreme practices that they have done in Leuven and Vorselaar and are more of a community-building and friendly thing. That is the stereotypical image of a student club: that we are a drinking club, do nothing but crawl home after a party. That is not the case.”
Many sponsors also drop out due to the Giant affair. “We have seen a lot of sponsors who have been influenced by the Sanda Dia case. They say: we do not want to affiliate with a student club. We are very sorry, but we also understand.”
Brihos has about seventy members. It hopes for thirty to forty new shafts next academic year.