Cavendish rangers fined for chant about sex with corpses

Under fire Cavendish reps have been fined £150 for teaching freshers necrophiliac chants.

A video emerged last month of Freshers’ reps shouting a chant about digging up a corpse and “fucking her rotten.”

Concerned staff at the university grilled several reps and gave them the compulsory fine.

The video brought criticism from the feminist society and local sponsors of the Student Union.

The feminist group were angry at the university for not bringing action sooner.

They said: “We’re disappointed with the SU response as they were alerted mid week about the issue and yet nothing seemed to happen, with no obvious sanction being given to the perpetrators.”

Reacting to news of the fines, Communications Manager Seona Deuchar said: “I’m glad action was taken and the punishment sends a strong statement that this kind of behaviour won’t be accepted on our campuses, which is great.

“As to the punishment itself, I haven’t been able to speak to those who decided on the punishment so I can’t comment. I’m just happy that something came of the situation and I hope people can learn from it.”

The song is a tradition for Cavendish freshers and is rumoured to have been introduced three years ago or more.

During Week One training reps are asked to sign a contract that includes the clause: “I will not promote the singing of abusive, offensive, crude or intimidating chants and songs in Week One.”

Some believe that the punishment and stress of the disciplinary process is unfair on the reps and the fine is too large.

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Impact have reported that “£150 is huge sum for a student to pay, when the majority of us are thousands of pounds in debt and can barely afford to pay our rent.”

They believe the reps should have been given a community service order.

James, who was a Cavendish Hall fresher in 2011, said: “I didn’t think much of it at the time, probably because it was Freshers’ Week and everything was new.

“It doesn’t offend me as such because it is obviously meant to be a joke. It’s clearly disgusting when you think about it but as a fresher I certainly wasn’t exactly ‘thinking’ that hard about it at the time.

Lucy, also from Cavendish Hall, said: “We chanted it last year. I suppose you don’t really think about it when you chant it, but it’s wrong.”

Angharad Smith, Freshers’ Reps Co-ordinator, said: “In training and in discussion with reps, we are clear about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour.

“This should not detract from what was otherwise an extremely well-run programme that many students enjoyed.”