Exclusive: Sugar has banned white t-shirt socials completely

The ‘White Shirt Social’ has been a longstanding topic of debate across universities across the country, but as of this year Lancaster University will no longer allow societies to run such socials.

In the new academic year, several sports societies were seen to cancel their white t-shirt socials at the last minute.

One anonymous student has said: "I saw that we had a white t-shirt social and I was a bit scepital.

"The social was changed at the last minute to a black t-shirt social, even though the nature of the t-shirt colour was only to distinguish between new and old members."

The SU told the Lancaster Tab: "[The] policy at our Sugarhouse nightclub and at university-run college bars is not to admit people who have writing on their clothing."

This statement aligns LUSU with the NUS’ motion passed earlier in the year at the annual NUS National Conference.

The motion allows for unions to use "appropriate disciplinary proceedings" for incidents of inappropriate language and images that have been written on clothing.

Said disciplinary action has already been on display; following their well-document incident last year the Snowsports society were placed on a two-year probation.

All societies have been warned to avoid repeating the incident to not result in "reputational damage to their group, the union and the university".