After the madness of freshersÔÇÖ week, CardiffÔÇÖs students are once more adjusting to the dull monotony of university life. While the two-week festival of drink and debauchery received ample coverage both online and in Student Media, the events that took place at a series of welcoming parties are briefly alluded to at best.
The period where new players are initiated into their respective teams should now be coming to a close. Initiations are highly traditional events, where backed by that oh-so-flexible concept of ÔÇÿtraditionÔÇÖ, older members will set a series of challenges for initiates to prove themselves.
Usually, these initiations will be harmless, and for the vast majority, unpleasant at worst. However, certain teams have a reputation for taking them too far. A heavy night will simply not suffice for the brilliant minds of certain team leaders, oh no, something far more imaginative is required.
Sure, there might be a few students who believe that these challenges are fun, that downing a pint of sick is something that must be accepted as a perfectly normal part of student life, but at best they are few and far between.
Several students allegedly complained of burn injuries after their initiation consisted of older students holding a jacked-up lighter underneath them, while others report that they were forced to drink a pint that was home to a live goldfish.
There seems to be an aspect of humour in British culture which involves creating the most shocking situation you can. This can be agreeably hilarious if the individual has opted in and finds the experience equally as funny. However, those who would never drink a piss pint in their wildest dreams but do because they want to play a sport are the ones to look out for when running an initiation.
Alongside this, there is definitely something very sinister and worrying about the amount of animal (and even human) cruelty involved in these nights. Horror stories include having to drown a mouse after having looked after it for a week and doing press ups in the middle of duel carriageway. Expecting people to pull off these stunts really says more about the people arranging it than the ones engaging in the behaviour.
Hazings, not too dissimilar from the initiations in Britain, have led to an estimated 89 deaths in the United States, while three students have perished this side of the Atlantic.
Staffordshire University banned initiations after 18-year old Alex Doji died after choking on his own vomit, allegedly following an initiation process where he and his peers were forced to use their mouths to extract deflated balloons from a mixture of dog food, chilli and offal.
One similarly unpleasant incident that took place in Cardiff this year supposedly consisted of freshers being challenged to drink the obligatory dirty pint out of a raw pigÔÇÖs head. The university has essentially banned the word ÔÇÿinitiationÔÇÖ due to the stigma that surrounds the word, but this is not a rule that is enforced with any strictness.
Obviously, such examples are on the extreme end and a lot of initiations just involve drinking lots and the worst thing you might be asked to do is being asked to somehow drink a dirty pint out of an old sock. Dirty pints aside, there is definitely a more positive side to initiations which go back to what clubs and societies are really about.
Therefore IÔÇÖm in no way suggesting that all initiations are the devilÔÇÖs work. Creating bonds with people you share a common interest or hobby with shows the spirit to which initiations are really there for.
The vulgar behaviour that has led to violence towards others and oneself becoming common and accepted practice is more worrying. Sometimes these events are taken too far. People can get hurt; incidents of sexual abuse and even death are not unheard of. Realistically, it wouldnÔÇÖt be possible to be rid of initiations. However, some of the antics should be done on an opt-in basis and at the very least the personal needs of the participants should be respected.
Tom Stannard
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