UoG Sports Initiation Secretly Filmed By The BBC

[Dynasty]

Ok, this story has hit my Uni fairly hard over the past week or so.

Basically one of our sports teams (I know which but wont say) was secretly filmed by a BBC crew with what looks like a simple handheld camera, showing a frankly extreme initiation taking place where students are walked down a street with plastic bags over their heads, being ordered by one student in a ''Nazi Uniform'' and throwing up etc etc.

Actually I cant be arsed to go into detail, read it if you want to know.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/oct/02/students.highereducation

Heres the video secretly filmed, and we cant do anything about it being released because it was filmed in a public place: NSFW I THINK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7647099.stm

What is pissing off all the students, AND the lecturers, is this:

- Initiations are NOT BULLYING OR INTIMIDATION. You are completely free to chose wether you even show up to initiations or 'circles', and nobody thinks less of you if you dont show up. And if they do think less of you, theyre just pathetic. At any point during any of the team's initiations you want to stop, you just stop and walk out/away. Theres no forcing involved at all.

Initiations are there to form a BOND with your teammates. Thats it.

Yes theres lots of alcohol involved and doing stupid things, and YES a handful of people have died in the process at other Unis (choking on their own puke whilst passed out for example), but isnt that what happens every friday night all over the UK anyway?

The fact that the BBC have failed to even realise that Initiations are not bullying or intimidation is insulting to EVERY UNI IN THE COUNTRY. Every Uni in this country has sport team initiations that do EXACTLY the same thing. Some worse than whats been filmed, others just have group get-togethers and have social drinks. Now my Uni is in the light because this crew just happened to be there at the time.

The final, and frankly hardest, blow is this:

- Who is now going to send their kids to this Uni knowing full well of what can happen when they get too drunk?
- This is now something to consider for parents sending their kids off to ANY Uni to do sports. What kind of affect is that going to have on student levels, and what kind of spiral affect will this create?

So this is essentially a media-hyped reason NOT to send your kids to Uni, and just fuels the bullshit stereotypes adults have over Uni students getting drunk etc etc.

I have to admit though, the Nazi uniform is a bit off and I dont see the need for the plastic bags. In a way its funny, but apparently not to prats in suits behind desks.

Thoughts?

 

[Omnomnick]

I saw this on the News afew nights back. That was your Uni? :O

 

[highlander]

wow...that's

uh....


Wow.

 

[Raziaar]

I never have and never will understand this sort of thing.

 

[Minister]

Haha, the Rugby initiation at Exeter involved all the team dressing up as babies and getting mashed. As much as I hate Rugby lads, they were damn funny when trying to get into the more respectable clubs

Don't see the big fuss about initiations. As you said, nobody forces you to do anything and it most certainly creates bonds between the players.

 

[CptStern]

- Who is now going to send their kids to this Uni knowing full well of what can happen when they get too drunk?

you're kinda contradicting yourself when you say it's harmless but then admit that sort of behaviour would keep students away. I know it's your shcool and there's loyalty issues but to throw in the blanket statement that it's not intimidation or bullying is just being purposefully naive ..there's plenty of cases were students died during hazings or were intimidated to the point were they dropped etc ..to make such a blanket statement only reaffirms your bias towards your school ..was this particular incident bullying? I dont know, ask every student who's ever gone through it ..I'm sure the results would surprise some

 

[Pulse]

I live 30 minutes away from UoG back home and I can safely say that this type of behavior is common to all of Cheltenham's inhabitants and not just the students there. Typical BBC blowing things out of context, they're starting to get as sensational as Sky news. Granted, the SS uniform may have been a bit much, especially when wearing it in broad day light but this kind of shenanigans is always to be expected during freshers weeks.

 

[Raziaar]

Don't see the big fuss about initiations. As you said, nobody forces you to do anything and it most certainly creates bonds between the players.

Especially when there's bisexual oriented initiations. That creates really strong bonds!

 

[Minister]

Wut yow talkin aboot?

 

[Parrot of doom]

- Initiations are NOT BULLYING OR INTIMIDATION. You are completely free to chose wether you even show up to initiations or 'circles', and nobody thinks less of you if you dont show up. And if they do think less of you, theyre just pathetic. At any point during any of the team's initiations you want to stop, you just stop and walk out/away. Theres no forcing involved at all.

The statements in the BBC article contradict this view.

Initiations are there to form a BOND with your teammates. Thats it.

Or exist as a pathetic form of entertainment for those who have already been 'initiated'.

The fact that the BBC have failed to even realise that Initiations are not bullying or intimidation is insulting to EVERY UNI IN THE COUNTRY.

Read the BBC article again and read the statements from those interviewed about such practices.

- Who is now going to send their kids to this Uni knowing full well of what can happen when they get too drunk?
- This is now something to consider for parents sending their kids off to ANY Uni to do sports. What kind of affect is that going to have on student levels, and what kind of spiral affect will this create?

Hopefully fewer people whinging about being forced to think about their actions and the effects upon wider society.

So this is essentially a media-hyped reason NOT to send your kids to Uni, and just fuels the bullshit stereotypes adults have over Uni students getting drunk etc etc.

Bullshit attitudes reinforced no doubt by the practices you seem to be espousing?

I have to admit though, the Nazi uniform is a bit off and I dont see the need for the plastic bags. In a way its funny, but apparently not to prats in suits behind desks.

Welcome to grown-up-world, where you can't have everything you want, and where nobody really cares if you throw a tantrum.

 

[Jintor]

it was filmed in a public place

Ah, here's your problem.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Wow, okay.

I'd like to preface this by saying that I really just find the whole thing kind of stupid, and while it is a little shocking to watch, I don't really think it's something to get all in a huff about since it's pretty well-known that this stuff has been going on for ages, and in my view the ones who are taking part in it are just as much to blame as those subjecting them to it as, peer-pressure or not, ultimately only they can decide to go through with it.

However - all run-on sentences aside - your post is just begging to have some holes poked into it, so...

What is pissing off all the students, AND the lecturers, is this:

- Initiations are NOT BULLYING OR INTIMIDATION. Theres no forcing involved at all.

Step one for convincing people of the innocence of initiations: implicate that your University's lecturers are involved in some way directly before you proclaim that no form of authorative pressure was used.

Initiations are there to form a BOND with your teammates.

Bond?

James Bond?

I'll do it!

Yes theres lots of alcohol involved and doing stupid things, and YES a handful of people have died in the process at other Unis (choking on their own puke whilst passed out for example), but isnt that what happens every friday night all over the UK anyway?

Good argument. Hey, Hitler killed millions, but that sort of thing happens in every holocaust anyway, so what's the big deal?

(GODWIN'S LAW ALREADY INVOKED, BITCHES!)

The fact that the BBC have failed to even realise that Initiations are not bullying or intimidation is insulting to EVERY UNI IN THE COUNTRY. Every Uni in this country has sport team initiations that do EXACTLY the same thing. Some worse than whats been filmed

Worse than drinking with a plastic bag over your head? Again, you're really doing a stellar job of convincing us that this sort of thing is totally harmless.

The final, and frankly hardest, blow is this:

- Who is now going to send their kids to this Uni knowing full well of what can happen when they get too drunk?

More to point, who's going to willingly join themselves if they expect to be subjected to something like this? Actually, I'm starting to see your conundrum.

what kind of spiral affect will this create?

The kind that results from drinking with a plastic bag over your head?

just fuels the bullshit stereotypes adults have over Uni students getting drunk

See OP video.

Thoughts?

Needs more feces.

Also, at no point do I ever think that vomiting could possibly be associated with team building.




... Except maybe on Curahee, but I doubt David Shwimmer is a professor at your school anyway (brownie points for anyone who picks up the reference).

 

[French Ninja]

It could have been worse.

Broom handles could have been involved.

learn2haze, UK

 

[<RJMC>]

what about runing naked in the buckinghan palace?