University of Otago initiation party sees students banned

Several students involved in a wild initiation party have been banned from university after shocking video emerged showing their ‘sadistic’ antics. 

Students at the University of Otago in New Zealand were filmed in their underwear as they were vomited on and covered in a green goo poured from a wheelie bin.

There were also reports a student urinated on another’s face during the annual initiation, which unfolded in the backyard of a property in September last year. 

Other pictures shared on social media showed students with a strip shaved down the middle of their heads slamming down drinks until they vomited. 

‘I mean you already know you’re going to get initiated when you go to it, so it’s a choice,’ one student told TVNZ at the time. 

‘There’s a lot of gross stuff going on, but it’s just tradition… If you don’t want to do it you don’t have to do it. And you know there’s going to be gross stuff.’

But a number of students have this week been suspended for breaching the Student Code of Conduct, a University of Otago spokeswoman told Stuff NZ. 

‘Some students may appeal the decisions. No further comment can be made until the appeals process is complete,’ the spokeswoman said.

The suspension period is just one semester, the publication understands.

Proctor Dave Scott said the university ‘is not opposed to good fun’ but said there is risk of ‘serious mental and physical harm’ through such events.  

‘For this reason the university will do everything in its power to keep students safe, while providing them with a world class education,’ he said.  

He said the university began work to address the issue last year and would continue to so in 2018.

The student pictured left appears to be vomited on by another during a University of Otago initiation party