Two Delft student associations have been punished by TU Delft for reports of abuse and transgressive behaviour. A university spokesperson confirmed this on Monday after reporting in the AD and the Delft student platform Delta. At the Delftsch Studenten Corps (DSC), a freshman is said to have been doused with candle wax during a hazing, while a member of Virgiel was allegedly pushed naked against a glass-strewn floor during a drink. The associations could not be immediately reached for comment Monday evening.
Both Virgiel and DSC have received an official warning from TU Delft. The university demands a cultural change in the associations that have their affairs ‘not in order’. If they make another mistake in the next three years, their recognition as an official student association will be revoked and their grants will be cut.
The university is particularly critical of the corps. From now on, the DSC must communicate incidents more transparently, demonstrate that hazing takes place safely and safeguard ‘the physical condition of members’. In addition, the DSC is not allowed to be present at the opening of the academic year and the so-called dies, the birthday party, of the TU.
Hair caught fire
The abuses at the Delft corps came to light at the beginning of last year. A Delft student told in September de Volkskrant that seniors had “dribbled” candle wax on aspiring members during a hazing. These ‘feuten’ then had to hold the candles themselves, after which a girl’s hair would have caught fire. When TU Delft also received an anonymous report of transgressive behavior during hazing last year, the university launched an investigation. Conclusion: the DSC has no ‘introspective ability’, ‘there is a lack of self-control’ and supervisors drink ‘too much alcohol’ during hazing.
In a response to the university magazine, the corps says it cannot place the complaint. DSC president Olivier Abbenhuis says it is “unfortunate” that he was unable to convince TU Delft of the intention to organize the upcoming hazing “as safely and responsibly as possible” with “the psychological and physical well-being of (candidate) members at number a”. The coming hazing, he says, will see “more people soberly supervised,” “alcohol dispensing will be strictly controlled,” and “drunk persons will be removed from program parts.”
Also read: ‘The monoculture of student corpora encourages excesses’
‘Clothes ripped from his body’
The incident for which Virgiel is being reprimanded dates back to last spring. In May, a member was assaulted by “four or five” others during a drink at the society, the university magazine writes. In doing so, his clothes are “torn from his body until he is naked” and he is “pushed so hard” that he falls to the ground. No one would have intervened because “members keep each other’s hands over their heads,” according to the university. Although a cultural change would be necessary, TU Delft is positive about the fact that Virgiel has promised to take ‘steps’, has imposed sanctions and is showing insight. The association also “communicated openly about the incident”,
Virgiel president Lucas Honée speaks to the university magazine of a “deplorable incident”. According to him, the three years of “probation” imposed by the university are “a big stick” to ensure that “something like this doesn’t happen again”.
The news about Virgiel and DSC follows recent abuses at the Amsterdam student corps (ASC-AVSV). During lustrum speeches, women were referred to by male members as “nothing more than whores” and “semen buckets.”