DCU students call for action to be taken following ‘unspeakable conduct of the A&F Society’

Paul Moore

“The committee knowingly and repeatedly harassed multiple first year students.”

Over 30 various students unions and organisations in DCU have called for an “appropriate response” to be administered following the scenes of inappropriate behaviour which occurred at the EGM of the Accounting & Finance Society.

According to DCU’s newspaper The College View, first-year students who attended the EGM were forced to complete a series of tasks in order to decide who was going to be the society’s first-year representative.

One of the tasks involved placing a balloon between two people’s hips, with the last couple to pop the balloon eliminated from the running.

The students who advanced to the next round were then split into two groups: people in a relationship and people who were single.

Students who wanted to get to the next round had to ‘shift’ someone else in attendance.

Since this behaviour came to light, a petition and an open letter to DCU’s A&F Society, various other clubs and societies in the college, and DCU Students’ Union have been drafted.

DCU’s Feminist Society has called for the executive committee members of the Accounting & Finance Society to resign.

The open letter states: “We are deeply concerned about the unspeakable conduct of the A&F Society governing executive committee at their EGM on Thursday 4th October and the lack of appropriate response thus far. It has come to light that the committee knowingly and repeatedly harassed multiple first year students continuously throughout the event, and in fact, that this harassment took prime focus of the event itself. ”

It adds: “Aside from the obvious fact that this gross misconduct has no part in the democratic election of a first year representative, this behaviour by all accounts constitutes harassment. This is not just a violation of the DCU Policy to Promote Respect and to Protect Dignity (2003) but a deeply serious violation of the trust placed in the A&F governing executive committee by its membership and the DCU student body at large. It is reprehensible that it was only when these issues were brought to public attention that any action was taken in response to this gross misconduct.”

The petition also takes umbrage with the alleged “exploitation and harassment of members” and that the executive committee of the society “acted from a platform afforded to them by this student body and from a position of power to exploit first year students.”

Since being published, over 30 societies and clubs in DCU have supported its message and call for action.

In terms of punishment, the petition has called for the “immediate resignation of the entire A&F Society governing executive committee, who presided over this event. We demand that a portion of the budget allocated to A&F Society be appropriated to run more consent classes on campus, and to expand the availability of the program throughout the year.”

Aside from this, those that signed the open letter are also asking for “all society chairs, class representatives and members of DCUSU Executive and Sabbatical teams to undergo further consent and respect training to ensure this kind of misconduct does not happen again.”

Here are the clubs that endorse this open letter which can be read here .

DCU Aikido Club

DCU Amnesty International

An Cumann Gaelach

DCU DCU AMS

DCU Arts & Culture Society

DCU D&D Society

DCU Engineering Society

DCU Feminist Society

DCU Film Society

DCU Fotosoc

DCU Fianna Fáil Society