Student association LANX, the student body at VU University Amsterdam, has suspended one of its sororities indefinitely. The reason was a list of assignments for which first-year students could receive points during a sorority initiation. The list included the commands ‘arrange a refugee’ and ‘sew a bucket in an alley’, where bucket stands for woman.
That’s what the student association writes down her website. The abuses happened in November 2022 during the introductory period of Ares, one of the disputes. The student association says it first saw the letter with the list last Wednesday during a conversation with De Groene Amsterdammer, which had the letter in its hands. LANX calls it a letter ‘with degrading orders’.
First-year students of the fraternity received the letter prior to a trip abroad. By completing the assignments on the list during the trip, the students could earn points. The assignments were divided into categories ranging from ‘General’, such as ‘Swipe an item from The Buddhist Stripteaseclub’ (a strip club in Bucharest), to ‘Ladies and Sex related’ such as ‘Run a Refugee’ and ‘Sew a Bucket in an Alley’ , where a bucket means a woman.
Upload footage as proof
The freshmen had to upload images of the completed assignments every day as proof. The five students who had collected the fewest points at the end of the trip could expect a sanction. For the three students with the fewest points, an additional sanction was imposed. The students were not allowed any contact with the outside world during the trip. They were also told that their social media accounts were monitored 24 hours a day.
“The contents of the letter do not in any way match the norms and values of our Association and society,” says the LANX website. “We are therefore deeply ashamed of the letter. We also feel defeated and cheated.” The association has suspended the dispute indefinitely and excluded it from the introductory period. So they can’t get new members. LANX also put all the boys who were on the trip in contact with a confidential adviser.
Next steps
“We are currently investigating the matter and looking at the next steps together with the educational institutions,” said LANX. “We are taking further measures to ensure that this behavior does not happen again.” What these measures entail and whether sanctions will follow against individual members is not known. LANX could not be reached by telephone for comment on Sunday afternoon.
Last year, the ASC/AVSV student corps was also discredited after very misogynistic statements. During a lustrum dinner, women there were called ‘sperm buckets’. It was also said that ‘gentlemen will break women’s necks to stick their dicks in’. Subsequently, the grant for the association was withdrawn. Mayor Halsema then also called for student associations to adapt more to this time.
2023-09-03 16:07:03
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