Student speaks about hazing at Circumflex: “Nobody likes you, you were told”

Student speaks about hazing at Circumflex: “Nobody likes you, you were told”

"Things go wrong there too"

12-10-2022 · Background

MAASTRICHT. It is a month ago that student association Tragos was punished because of hazing that had gotten out of hand. For a Maastricht student, this was the reason to tell his story about the introduction period at Circumflex, after years of having kept silent, “because things go wrong there too.”

It must have been the first Friday in September 2016, roughly twenty degrees during the day, much colder in the evening, when he as a nineteen-year-old stood waiting with his bicycle outside the Kaap club on the Capucijnenstraat, together with about 150 other prospective members. “I had a sleeping bag, as well as a bag full of ‘compulsory items’, such as a white T-shirt, food and drink for the senior students and a gift for the board.” A small piece of paper with the baggage list had been stuffed in his hand earlier that week.

Observant speaks with the student at Banditos in Randwyck. He reported in to the editor’s office anonymously. It is very crowded at the coffee bar, “I am not afraid that someone is listening in; so be it.” He is doubting whether he wants his name in the paper. Initially he says: “Go ahead.” But during the interview he says – “wow, now that I am telling everything, I find it quite fierce” – a feeling of fear creeps up on him. “They won’t be happy with this.” He remains anonymous.
What does he want to achieve with his ‘revelation’? “I don’t want to get revenge. It is a warning; I want the university to see how it is an accomplice by the way in which INKOM is set up. It is the associations and independent student associations that are allowed to provide mentors and so they are given all the room to recruit newcomers and reduce them to zeros, nothing, slaves during the hazing.” He never filed a complaint with the university. “The UM is part of this. The university ‘brought’ me to Circumflex via the INKOM.”

Great prize

Back to 2016. On Monday 22 August, INKOM starts. The theme is: The Future is Now. “I ended up in a group with two female Circumflex mentors. The international students were ignored quite quickly. All attention was given to the Dutch, or at any rate the Dutch-speaking newbies. At the end of the first day, they took us to a Circumflex house for some fun. Everyone there was very friendly. They acted as if they really cared about us. We were showered with comments such as ‘you should be with us’, ‘our association is the way to find your way here’, ‘it will be lonely without us’.” He gave his telephone number to the mentors, who convince him to come to the club the next day. “I didn’t have anything better to do and the last time there was free beer, it was fun, so well, why not?”

E-mails from the then Circumflex board, which Observant has read, showed that INKOM “is a super important week” and its most important objective is to bring in as many new members as possible. They share with the members that “a great prize” can be won for the enrolment of the largest number of “babies”. During INKOM, the board sends other encouraging e-mails, as they are not satisfied het with the number of enrolments. This is “the moment to snatch the babies from independent Maastricht, Tragos or Koko”. Give the students who have already joined “a warm feeling”, but “also look around for babies who haven’t been able to orientate themselves properly yet”.

Bicycle trip

The student registers with Circumflex “in a drunken fit, during the beer cantus” and is given an invitation to join the introduction. “I had no idea what to expect, I was 19, young, naive. I was thinking it would be something fun, all of us together on a survival trip in the woods, well, I could manage that. It sucked that I had to be present on Friday, as I had a tutorial meeting that day. But everything had to be put aside for the club’s activities, I had to join the camping trip, ‘a pity for the UM’, I was told.”
During the cycling trip to Belgium, the atmosphere quickly changed. “There were no laughs from the senior students who were with us.” When he wanted to light a cigarette, he was shouted at: ‘No cigarette!’. “It made me laugh, but I was immediately growled at again: ‘No laughing!’.”

After cycling for five or six hours, “it was dark already”, they arrived at an empty site with a single bungalow. They hadn’t eaten, had to stand next to each other, and put on their white T-shirts. About twenty senior students, ‘guards’, dressed in a khaki uniform, cap and sunglasses, were screaming and shouting, he remembers. “They were aggressive all the time. Verbally, they never touched us.” A zero number was written on their T-shirts: ‘zero 73’, ‘zero 3’, et cetera. “You were no longer called by your name. People ask why I didn’t just leave then. But everybody does what is asked of them. Besides, you are tired and hungry, that doesn’t help.”

Bad zero

The shouting stayed with him longest during three-day-camp. “At only a few centimetres from your ear or with some ten people at the same time: ‘You are nothing’, ‘nobody here likes you’, ‘you are a bad zero’. The worst thing is that you actually start to believe it.” As ‘punishment’, a zero had to crawl across the ground like a snake, he says. “She injured her cheek.” And then there was not being able to sleep properly: “Every so often, you were woken up. You had to appear before the board to hand over your gift, we all had to go outside or watch a really boring documentary about birds. You had no awareness of time. Nobody had a watch.”

The zeros were put to work during the day: cutting down trees in “mister Jos’s wonderful nature,” said one of Circumflex’s e-mails. The introduction committee sent this to all the zeros after the trip because of the many questions about ticks. “We also had to work with dangerous tools, while we were very sleepy and the guards were drunk. That chopping went on for hours, without decent breaks or food, except for dry porridge in the morning and some sandwiches in the afternoon. When it was convenient for the ‘guards’, we had to show up to entertain them, by telling a fun story on command.”
The associations emphasise that hazing stimulates ‘bonding,’ a sense of belonging to a group. “Nonsense. I had no idea who was standing beside me, they were numbers to me too. I had no energy to make friends or to do much talking.”

Code of Conduct

A Code of Conduct for the Introduction Period was introduced in Maastricht in 2009, which was (minimally) adapted through the years. This is an official UM document, signed by the chairpersons of the four large associations: Koko, Saurus, Tragos and Circumflex, and by now also by the umbrella organisation for the independent student associations. The student doesn’t even know of its existence. “Did they sign this at the time? Should I have seen this? I don’t know anything about it. They have their own rules.”

We take a look at some of the agreements: was there “restrictive use of alcohol for the prospective members, as well as the members of the introduction committee, its subcommittees and other members”? “The zeros were not given alcohol, but the senior students were often drunk.” Did they receive “at least six hours of continuous sleep per night”? He shakes his head.

When the zeros return to Maastricht, the white T-shirts are no longer white, the hazing continues. For two whole weeks, there are “endless evenings” in the Kaap. “We sit there for hours on end, without eating or drinking.” The propaganda machine is running, he says. “They keep repeating again and again that it will be ‘the best time of your life. You learn the rules, traditions, songs. It is made clear that you will belong to the group, that you are different to all those other non-members, to all the other citizens of Maastricht, you may feel better than the rest.”
When the introduction period is completed, a ceremony follows. “The work is done. You belong, everyone is nice again. That switch is bizarre.”

Leave

Looking back, he calls the introduction period “the darkest period of my life”. And although he remained a member for some more months and completes the compulsory shifts at the club (“if you don’t, you have to pay 50 euro”), he concludes at a certain moment that he wants to leave. “I couldn’t be bothered with all those obligations. Moreover, I realised that after the summer, I myself would have to haze ‘zeros’, I didn’t want to do that.” The more he distanced himself, the more disgusted he became with the standards and values, the habits and the hierarchy. It was not easy for him to leave. “They try at all cost to prevent you from leaving. They have invested in you.”
He continues to live in Maastricht. “I had another life here too, with other people, I didn’t want to give all that up.”

Read Circumflex's reaction below in the box 

Justification

Student association Tragos messed up during the last hazing. This led to a package of sanctions by Maastricht University. But what happened exactly? That is a relevant journalistic question. Observant tried to let present and former Tragos members talk about their experiences during hazing, but that turned out to be extremely difficult. And, as Observant knows from experience, that has been the case for years. Nobody wants to say anything, not even off the record, and that doesn’t just apply to Tragos: for the other associations too, mum’s the word when it comes to this topic.

Mid-September, Observant received a spontaneous anonymous e-mail from a student. Yes, this time things went wrong at Tragos, but things could also go wrong at Circumflex, he writes. He shares detailed experiences of the hazing at Circumflex in September 2016. He experienced the period as “humiliating”.

During Circumflex’s introduction period – working on the basis of this student’s story, which was corroborated by a second source – the Code of Conduct for the Introduction Period was clearly violated on several points. At the same time, that very association claimed in an interview with Observant on this same theme in October 2016, that they followed the Code to the letter. Nick Sanders, the then chairman of Circumflex, said: “There are strict protocols that are always respected. We don’t want to risk being banned from having an initiation.” One year later, after the hazing of September 2017, it appeared that they had violated the Code of Conduct after all. They received a warning from the Executive Board.
In short, Circumflex is also not without sin. However, they are not transparent about this. So, it’s guessing whether the hazing in 2022 was that much different than the one in 2016. Former chairman Sanders said in the same interview that the introduction programme “was, in principle, the same every year”.

Of course, Observant would have preferred to have received a report of the situation in 2022, that much is clear. With this culture of silence practised by the associations – on a national level, by the way - this interview about the hazing in 2016 was 'second best', that is justified by the authenticity and - in all its details – credibility of this testimony.

Did everything actually happen as the student detailed? Obviously, Observant put this question before Circumflex. We also wanted the script that they handed in to the Maastricht Introduction Period Committee, (Commissie Kennismakingstijden Maastricht) at the time, containing the hazing programme. The association did not respond to those questions.

Observant approached a number of other students from the class of 2016. For this purpose, the websites of various Circumflex disputen were consulted, where members of earlier classes were named. With the exception of one student, who confirms the story but who wishes to remain anonymous, nobody reacted.
The chairwoman of the hazing committee of 2016 was also e-mailed. She is on long-term leave, says her out-of-office message.

Student association Circumflex’s reaction

The present board of Circumflex was asked for a reaction. Although chairman Loek Goslinga initially wanted to respond by telephone, he retracted that later: he only sends a written reaction. He would also pass on Observant’s questions to the former chairpersons (from 2015 and 2016), he e-mailed. Whether the latter happened, is not clear. Observant did not at any rate receive a reaction from the former chairpersons.

Circumflex says that they “regret” “that our introduction period was experienced in this way by this person.” At the same time, they emphasise that they “strictly” observe the Code of Conduct. In 2016, the association, in co-operation with the then director of Student Services, the Executive Board and various psychologists, “took another look at the aspects of the introduction period”; this led to ‘check-up visits’ by the UM. After this, Circumflex writes, a “number of issues were highlighted which were implemented immediately”. (Just to be clear: those checks did not take place in 2016 but in 2017, 2018, and 2019.)

Furthermore, they insist that prospective members always participate voluntarily. The fact that the student in the article wants to give a warning, they feel is “fruitless, as the story is outdated”. They also feel that the “interview lacks journalistic value”.

Here you can read the full reaction (in Dutch):

 

Author: Wendy Degens

Illustration: Simone Golob

Categories: news_top, Background
Tags: hazing,circumflex,introduction period,student associations,instagram
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Responses

Michael William Keith

I am speaking as a past student of UM, a past active member of Saurus (2018/19), a past member of the United Nations Student Association (I sat on the board as Head Editor of the Maastricht Diplomat 2020/21), and as someone who is extremely concerned about the abusive and toxic nature of these large Dutch student associations.

I can safely say that my experience at the Saurus initiation weekend was not quite as bad as this interviewee makes theirs out to be, but it was awful nonetheless. Mostly due to my own second-hand embarrassment of the behaviour of the initiation committee. We were also given the no-names-only-numbers treatment, the same white-tees-for-uniformity treatment, and the same inane yelling for hours on end. My own weekend was the second of such weekend for Saurus, mostly comprising of international students (it is a rather international association, due to the sporting nature) and it was clearly obvious the difference between the attitudes of the Dutch and the internationals (as if we belong to two separate categories and no more, a strange way of thinking in this country. As a South African, I am no closer to a German than a Spaniard - yet we might as well be all the same). The Dutch students had a clear this-is-the-way-it-is-done attitude and followed orders without question while the rest of us held no such regard for the behaviour of the hazers. In short, we could not have cared less. This really frustrated the initiation committee, something which I came to hear quite a lot as my time went on in Saurus that year. In my mind, this displayed a total lack of creativity or thinking out of the box.

What also shocked me was the continuation of this behaviour once I was a 'proper' Saurus member. Some members of the initiation committee were very much surprised to learn that I was much older than them and was to be a coach in the race rowing section - i.e. a position of (some, but not much) importance within Saurus. Once initiation was over and I could take on my duties, there were many members who could not look me in the eye. I can only assume that this was because they were embarrassed for yelling at me as if I was inferior to them. Which says a lot, of which I can only assume they knew that the whole debacle was nonsensical. The tables having turned, and I was the instructor, was an awkward position for some members.

Further, I was often told explicitly that I was not good enough because I was not a Dutch speaker. This came from a coaching/sporting perspective and it also came from a social perspective. Alongside, I was often given fines for not making first-year bar duties - despite the fact that I have always worked during my studies to financially support myself. I was often given responses along the lines of having to change my shifts to accommodate Saurus, rather than Saurus having to adapt to the real-world necessities of its members. The list could go on, but these few examples do serve my point well enough.

My point being, these associations are not likely to change any time soon because they rest on the importance of tradition. Anything else is not in the realm of possibility. They rest on the importance of the members going through the motions, going to the bar every week (and being socially pressured into drinking, regardless of what the official line may be) or risk ostracisation, following the rules of the bar or risk having drinks thrown on them (a coercive culture), being forced to be a member like everyone else instead of being encouraged - or even given a place - to be themselves. This is a story that has been told time and again. It is not only Tragos, or Circumflex, or Saurus, or Koko. I have heard similar stories from independent associations, I have seen it with my partner (who wishes to stay unnamed in this) and her own dispuut where she complained of having to drink every Wednesday despite what it did for her physical health while she worked through her medical studies - 'because that is the way it is done and I will be asked to leave if I don't come every week, that is what it means to be a member'.

It is in the culture and while it is important that UM recognises this, I fear that there is little UM can and will do in this regard. Circumstances such as with Tragos are only exceptional in that there was clear and public evidence, but otherwise I fear that UM will not react in the way students demand it to. These associations and the cultures ingrained therein are highly unlikely to change, because at the foundation this is what these associations are. They are nothing without these cultures.

What the solution may be? I am not sure. Taking away funding unless initiations are removed is only a small step in the puzzle. Introducing dialogue from the outset is unlikely due to the hectic nature of Inkom. Removing Inkom entirely? Not going to happen. I would disagree vehemently with the board of Circumflex in that your article is not of journalistic importance (especially on a personal level, this would be insulting if it were not so absurd), but I would expect nothing less on their part. I would say that it is of utmost importance, that dialogue in this space is encouraged - especially for Dutch students to hear the stories of other unhappy students and to know they are not alone in their distaste for the way of Dutch association life.

P.S. for any of those Dutch associations to take insult at me for emphasising the 'Dutch-ness' of this behaviour, I would point out that international associations at UM do not partake in such behaviour. I would also like to emphasis the amount of Dutch people, students and non-students, who also baulk at this behaviour. It is a Dutch association thing, not a Dutch thing.

Ezgim Mistikoglu

As a former president of a sports association (Lagakari), I feel incredibly disgusted and bothered by the incidents in these associations. I believe every student needs to come forward and explain what's happening in these hazings. It is their responsibility to warn next year's "babies" who will be deceived, again, during INKOM.

The grants these associations are receiving from the university are coming from each and every student studying at UM. And this money goes to psychological torture, physical abuse, and many mental issues which will arise due to the rituals.

As a student and a former president, I strongly believe UM needs to change its policies. Use these grants for a better purpose, use them wisely. Do not let students suffer!
I refuse to believe my tuition fee is supporting and helping hazings to go through.

p.s. I am ready to raise this issue and reach wider communities. If Observant wants to have a page from the perspective of the SSAs (Student Sports Association), I will call every one of them to act on this problem and I will make the boards speak about it.

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