St Paul’s College students ate sheep hearts as part of degrading initiation rituals

STUDENTS at an all-male Sydney college were put through degrading rituals that saw them eat sheep hearts and auctioned off to older students.

STUDENTS at an exclusive Sydney college were forced to eat sheep hearts, skoll casks of goon and were auctioned off to other older students, a new report has revealed.

The humiliating rituals at the Sydney of University’s all-male college St Paul’s have been exposed in a report released by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick today.

Ms Broderick began investigating the culture of St Paul’s after disturbing media reports emerged of students taking girls to a “Bone Room” lined with mattresses, beating freshmen with thongs, ransacking rooms and of new students being ordered to push a mattress in the College quadrangle as senior students tackled them.

While students say many of these practices have been dropped, the report found women were still being sexually harassed, younger students continued to be targeted and pub crawls were getting so messy that floors were being covered in tarpaulins and buckets.

One student told researchers: “There is a tarp on the floor and buckets (because) there is vomiting non-stop”.

A number of staff who wished to remain anonymous told researchers that excessive amounts of vomit are required to be cleaned up each Thursday morning, particularly in the freshers’ bathrooms and rooms.

In particular initiation rituals ahead of ANZAC Day involve heavy drinking and students being divided into “platoons” via a silent auction.

Some of these platoons meet up ahead of an annual pub crawl and ask students to perform “secret” initiation rituals. Some things students are asked to do include:

• Eating sheep hearts;

• Standing in buckets of iced water;

• Skolling ‘goon’ (cask or boxed wine) mixed with other food such as raw eggs or muesli;

• Repeatedly skolling an alcoholic drink, putting your head in a bucket of water, holding it there, resurfacing and skolling again; and

• Having sacks put over your head and being required to crawl upstairs in the dark.

Another humiliating practice that has been banned by the college is “hissing” but the report found it was still happening.

A former St Paul’s student defended the practice, telling researchers: “Hissing at freshmen is not humiliating. They are hissed as a group when they come into the dining room. Individual freshman are hissed at if they are late or underdressed at dinner. Hissing forces you to be humble. It sounds humiliating, but it’s not.”

The new head of the college, Don Markwell has apologised for the past bad behaviour of the college and has released an action plan to implement all of the recommendations in the report.

“While there is much for the college to be very proud of, including considerable progress in many areas, there are also aspects to be ashamed of,” Mr Markwell said.

“For these matters, we are deeply sorry.”

Dr Donald Markwell has apologised for the bad behaviour. Picture: Danny Aarons/AAP

He said the college was determined to be a leader in fighting sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.

“We apologise unreservedly for any harm done to anyone by unacceptable behaviour by any members of the college, past or present, and where we have failed to take the strongest stance we could against such behaviour.”

Situated on the grounds of the University of Sydney, St Paul’s is Australia’s oldest residential college and was founded in 1854 in the Anglican faith. It was modelled on the tradition of collegiate education at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England.

The report found many students and parents believed the positive historic ‘traditions’ at St Paul’s College were what made it unique.

But the report found some practices described by students as traditions had in fact been developed in the recent past, including the ANZAC Day platoons.

“A mythology around what is a ‘tradition’ has developed at the college,” the report said.

Describing certain behaviour or practices as “traditions” gave them legitimacy even though some would be considered hazing or criminal activity.

Students were also not educated about what good and bad traditions were, or about the definition and dangers of hazing.

“Without strong interventions, there is the risk that former practices that may not exist today at the college may re-emerge later under the misnomer of ‘tradition’,” the report said.

Regardless of the controversy, the report found most students were supportive of the college, with more than 90 per cent of those surveyed saying they felt a sense of belonging, got involved in activities and felt supported by peers, staff and student leaders.

But there also seems to be a divide between those at the college and the broader Sydney Uni campus. Many St Paul’s students have little extra-curricular interaction with other students.

It’s also not very diverse, with the majority of students attending an all-male private secondary school prior to joining St Paul’s College.

Almost 60 per cent of 250 students who live at St Pauls graduated from a small number of single-sex GPS schools located in Sydney like SHORE, Sydney Grammar, Sydney Boys High, St Ignatius, St Joseph’s, The King’s School, Newington College or The Scots College.

Only 15 per cent were from rural and regional Australia, 11 per cent were from interstate and 11 per cent were from overseas.

A number of women from other residential colleges told researchers they believed those who had attended single-sex secondary schools had not learned to socialise in a mature way with women and to see women as peers and friends, rather than potential ‘hook-ups’ or girlfriends.

The college’s Salisbury Bar in particular was found to be a place where students were pressured to drink and for women, “if you go on the dance floor, you just get groped”.

In previous years the CCTV would also be disconnected or a cloth was put over the cameras.

While it is currently men-only, in 2019 the college will start catering for women, who will be allowed to join its new Graduate House for the first time.

In compiling the report, the project team spoke to more than 160 students, making up about 65 per cent of the college population as well as 90 former students, parents, staff, students and recent alumni from other colleges (mainly women) and students from the broader University of Sydney campus who interacted with the college over the last three years.

They also received 25 confidential written submissions and 208 responses to an online survey, which was a response rate of 84 per cent.