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NUS calls off freshmen orientation activities

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Yahoo Singapore file photo

The National University of Singapore (NUS) has called off its annual Orientation Week in the wake of media reports and complaints about inappropriate activities being carried out for freshmen.

With immediate effect, “all student-organised team-building activities for freshmen are suspended until further notice”, said an NUS press release issued on Friday (29 July).

The five-day Orientation Week, the final round of camps before the NUS semester begins, was to take place next week. All formal freshmen activities, such as the Rag and Flag fundraising activities, will go on.

Media reports on the sexual and possibly dangerous nature of some orientation activities have sparked a furore, which was most recently fuelled by a video circulating online that shows students dunking a female student in a pond at NUS’ Sheares Hall. The incident took place on Wednesday (27 July).

“Dunking or any other form of ragging is strictly banned under the university’s guidelines for student activities. The University takes a very serious view of this breach, and is currently conducting an investigation,” said the NUS release.

It added that those responsible for “unacceptable” and “unauthorised" freshmen activities will be brought before the University’s Board of Discipline.

A report in The New Paper this week detailed complaints by numerous NUS undergraduates about the overly sexualised games that they were compelled to take part in during orientation camps held over the past two months.

These included a rape simulation game and quizzes about bodily fluids. Such risqué activities have reportedly been taking place at orientation camps for at least a decade, said the report.

The NUS spokesman noted, “The University expects that orientation activities are carried out in ways that are fully respectful of the dignity of all those participating. Our students, particularly freshmen, must feel safe and secure at all times during orientation.”