New medical students at the University of Oslo have been prodded into stripping, licking rats and other forms of hazing after drinking themselves silly. Faculty officials and doctors say they’re disgusted.The incidents allegedly took place during an orientation week known as “fadderuke,” when older students act as guides for those entering their first year.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported Monday that the new students were urged to drink alcohol, and then give the older students lots of “extra attention.”
Simulated intercourse
“We were encouraged to be as intimate as possible with older students of the opposite sex,” one student told NRK. Like the others who spoke to NRK, he refused to be identified for fear of reprisal.
The students were prodded into removing most if not all of their clothes, forming body towers and simulating sexual intercourse. Others ran in circles around barrels of beer to make themselves dizzy, while some were asked to drink soya sauce, all to earn “extra points.”
The organizer of the event, at which 70 of the 108 new students took part, claimed other faculties had “much worse” hazing rituals but that she was sorry if anyone felt forced to strip.
The secretary general of the Norwegian medical association (Den norske lægeforening) called the hazing rituals “reprehensible.”
“This has nothing to do with helping students,” said Terje Vigen of the doctors’ group, saying the students should instead be concentrating on ethics and respect for one another.
