By Gavin Mackintosh-
Cambridge University drinking society has gone unpunished after its members ‘set a fresher on fire’ during its annual hazing event.
The revelation heaps shame on the university, which is one of Britain’s most elitist university, also attended by one of the brightest students in the Uk.
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The Clare College drinking society, The Crabs, allegedly covered a fresher in flammable liquid before he was told to tuck a toilet roll that was on fire into his shorts and run into the wind in January.
However, after being covered in flammable liquid, he caught fire and had to be hospitalised. A Clare student told Varsity he was “basically immobilised” from the burns on his inner thighs.
The ‘routine’ initiation was a disaster causing the student to be set on fire, leading to his hospitalisation with severe burns that left him ‘immobilised’.
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The undergraduate student suffered bad burns to his inner thighs in the dangerous prank, but Varsity reported today that none of the students in the drinking society have been disciplined.
Students described the incident as ‘inevitable’ given the society’s ‘previous behaviour’
The reputation of Cambridge university drinking society and indeed many others have become taboo over the years, as more and more revelations of obscene and deplorable conduct came to light.
In 2015, a petition was set up calling for the banning of “Gentlemen’s” clubs and drinking societies in British universities, which were described as archaic and sexist. It called for anyone who is found to continue to participate in these societies after they are banned is subject to disciplinary proceedings.
Notorious for inappropriate behaviour perpetrated by drinking society members of Cambridge University, including sexual misconduct, bullying and classism, student paper, varsity reports that the allegations included claims that male members of drinking societies had confiscated the keys and phones of “attractive fresher girls” and another male member of a society said female students would be “going home in wheelchairs” after an event.
The master of Downing College criticised the College’s drinking society over what it described as its “illicit” invitations to several female students. Alan Bookbinder said that the group target “women they deem attractive, inducing them to drink in excess, and treating them in a misogynist and predatory way.”
In 2018, the Facebook page “Grudgebridge” posted hundreds of accounts of inappropriate behaviour perpetrated by drinking society members which included sexual misconduct, bullying and classism.
The allegations included claims that male members of drinking societies had confiscated the keys and phones of “attractive fresher girls” and another male member of a society said female students would be “going home in wheelchairs” after an event.
The Student Union president at the time said that Grudgebridge had caused a “seismic shift” in attitudes towards drinking societies at the University. She said: “It’s like the annoyance that has been bubbling up for years has erupted.”
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