Thursday 10-05-2018 - 16:24

Last week, Palatinate published a shocking investigation into initiations within Team Durham. Throughout my year as Welfare and Liberation Officer I've heard similar stories about what students have been through during initiation-style events, stories which have left me feeling physically sick. I’m so grateful, then, that we have people in our community who are bravely speaking up about what they have experienced and fighting to make sure things change. Durham needs to hear these stories.

Not only do initiation-style events dissuade some students from staying part of a sports team (or even from joining in the first place), but the stories told in Palatinate are also part of a broader landscape, one which Durham prides itself on taking sector-leading action to tackle: sexual violence. Coerced consent, a blatant disregard for the word ‘no’ and the abuse of power dynamics should alarm us wherever they take place in our community, and however they manifest themselves. The normalisation of such behaviours, and an attitude of ‘it’s just one of those things that happens’ has no place in Durham.

It is devastating to hear, then, that Team Durham breached the confidentiality (and in doing so, the trust) of a whistleblower who spoke up about a toxic culture within their club. Not only will this inevitably have had a damaging effect on the individual – in the Palatinate article, the student describes how he was “shocked and upset” to find out his identity had been revealed – but it is also likely to deter other students from coming forward. Team Durham desperately needs to rebuild trust. But I’m still not convinced that the importance of trust, or the value of whistleblowers is fully recognised. To make real, meaningful change, we cannot afford to underestimate either.

Initiation-style events are, at their root, about maintaining power and establishing social control. Any attempt to tackle this issue must recognise this. A Code of Conduct will not get to the root of this culture. Nor will surveys, awareness campaigns, or ‘open, honest conversations’ uncover the magnitude of what is going on: one US study found that 95% of students say that they wouldn’t report hazing activities, fearing that they might get the team in trouble, see negative consequences, or become an outsider. That is not to say these codes of conduct, surveys, campaigns and other such actions are not valuable – of course they are. But until Team Durham, Experience Durham, and our wider University community give whistleblowers the support and respect they deserve, and truly invest in student leadership, these efforts will be undermined.

The leadership of Experience Durham needs to demonstrate an open-minded, honest approach to listening, in order to restore trust: to hear not what they want to, or expect to hear, but what is genuinely being said. Whistleblowers are fundamental to breaking a cycle which has been allowed to continue for too long: one of collusion, tradition, absence of sanctions, the protection of senior club members and the illusion of consent. In order to break that cycle, people who speak up need not only to be protected and supported, but to be actively encouraged. This is something student leaders themselves can take action on, by starting difficult conversations about traditions and initiations with fellow students, and encouraging bystander intervention in any team welcome materials. We need to foster the open culture that we want to see from Experience Durham and start making change from the ground up.

Given that so many Experience Durham events occur in advance of freshers’ week, it would be wrong for Experience Durham to stay silent on the issue until an incident takes place. First years should be talked to about these practices before they arrive: they should come to Durham knowing who to talk to if they experience initiation-style events, and feel reassured that the confidentiality of whistleblowers will be respected and protected. Pre-freshers certainly aren’t naive to this issue, so recognising it and talking to them about it is vital. It is key to achieving the long-term, genuine, cultural change that is needed, and the path to a safer, more inclusive Durham.