Sexual assault ‘all part of growing up’: University hazing shame

SIMULATED sex, claims of sexual assault, “butt naked” males, women pressured to undress. Uni students have had enough of hazing.

MORE sordid stories, pictures and videos of hazing rituals at Australian universities — and denials the culture exists — have prompted one student representative council (SRC) to say “enough is enough’.

Members of the University of Adelaide’s SRC, angry after former student Aria Kirwan was vilified and called a liar for lifting the lid on disgusting initiation rituals that forced her to quit, have told 60 Minutes ‘people want to see actual change’.

“It’s a toxic culture, it’s rotten to the core,” SRC president Matthew Boughey tells Channel 9’s Alison Langdon in an interview to air tonight.

“People are angry, people are pissed off.

“Rotten to the core,” says Adelaide University SRC president Matthew Boughey, right. Picture: Channel 9

The SRC members are just some of many fed-up college residents around Australia who want a change to a hazing culture they claim is fostered by a hierarchy of people who should know better, 60 Minutes says.

The current affairs program will tonight air excerpts of more than 200 explicit pictures and videos documenting allegations of sexual assault, bullying and abuse, sent to the program after its first story on hazing rituals forced upon first year university students earlier this year.

Langdon also speaks to two more students and former residents of the university college, who until now were too scared to break their silence.

Wild parties, men walking around naked, and women pressured to undress, are some of the claims which have flooded in. Picture: Channel 9.

One warns parents: “Do not send your children to college, because you have no control over what happens, and the atmosphere of secrecy stops you having any knowledge of what your child is going through.”

Another tells Langdon that when she raised an allegation of sexual assault with the management of her residential college she was told it was “all part of growing up”.

In March, graphic stories of disgusting initiation rituals, out-of-control drunken behaviour and allegations of sexual assaults at colleges around the country emerged after Ms Kirwan shared her story, saying she was pressured to take part in a “sex-tour” as part of a bizarre initiation.

She said as pornography played on a television and “guys that were butt naked” walked around, people also simulated sex on tables and danced in their underwear.

60 Minutes airs at 9.30pm Sunday on Channel 9

Former university student Aria Kirwan was labelled a liar by some after her initial revelations, outraging other student supporters. Picture: Channel 9.