Atmajaya investigates hazing day complaints
JAKARTA (JP): Atmajaya Catholic University deans have been ordered to carry out an in-depth investigation into reports of sexual harassment and other intimidation carried out by senior students during its hazing day for first-year students.
University spokesman Felix Lengkong said on Tuesday the decision was made during an extraordinary meeting held on Sunday between rector Thomas Suyatno and top university officials and faculty leaders.
"Each dean has been given full authority to carry out any necessary punishment to the senior students for their misdeeds," Felix told The Jakarta Post.
Felix said earlier that at least 40 parents had lodged strong protests concerning incidents which allegedly occurred last Wednesday during the university's hazing day for freshmen.
Vice rector for student affairs Yohanes Temaluru said one concerned parent had requested an immediate refund of their child's school tuition fees, as the individual was reportedly too traumatized to return to the campus.
To date none of the university's senior students and lecturers allegedly involved in the event have been punished.
Speaking to the Post on Tuesday, some of the students described the hazing, a traditional initiation of freshmen by senior students of many universities across the country, as "horrible".
"We had to comply with insulting treatment... and we could do nothing to object to our seniors' orders," one of them said.
The students, who requested anonymity, said that they were ordered to crawl in mud while seniors stepped on their backs.
The students alleged that those who refused to instantly follow the instruction were kicked and their heads hit by bottles.
The freshmen and other university sources also said that some of their colleagues, males and females, were sexually harassed during the hazing at the campus near the Semanggi cloverleaf in South Jakarta.
Some male freshmen, for instance, were allegedly asked to masturbate and "play having sex" with trees, the witnesses said.
Female students were also allegedly instructed to perform similar acts.
"The girls, wearing white outfits, were asked to creep on the floor while the seniors hosed water on them. So, just imagine the females' body contours," said the director of the university research center, Irawanto, who witnessed the incident.
University lecturers and other staff members expressed outrage over the incidents.
Yohannes said if he was the rector he would take stern action against the senior students, such as expelling them from the university.
"I'd rather lose some 100 students then ruin the university's image" he added.
According to the freshmen, the serious incidents were experienced by new students of the faculties of technology, law and administration sciences.
The new students acknowledged they did not refuse the seniors' requests, but claimed nonparticipation would have hampered their future studies.
Some of the freshmen continued to air concerns of continuing harassment, as a camping trip -- a traditional component of hazing -- held days before classes commence was scheduled for later this month.
Felix however, asserted that the Sunday meeting had canceled the planned trip.
He said the university was considering allowing the staff of the Faculty of Psychology to organize the hazing in 2000.
"We're still studying details of the new concept," he said.
Hazing committee members appeared unrepentant.
Committee member Yance argued that the "unjust treatment" meted out to the freshmen were part of efforts to help improve the freshmen's sensitivity against assaults.
"It's a simulation of what the seniors have been through during the recent student movement for reform" he told the Post.
He strenuously denied the sexual harassment claims, saying the hazing committee members were restricted from carrying out such acts against freshmen.
Hazing in universities has been under fire for years. Some of the "welcoming ceremony" incidents have claimed the lives of university students.
In 1997 The Manto, a freshman from Tarumanegara University, West Jakarta, was killed during an incident of wild hazing.
Three seniors from the university were tried for his murder. (04/bsr)