Oz students request uni fee refund over sex games at guild-run camp

Melbourne, June 25 (ANI): Teenage girls were forced to expose themselves to more than 50 people in a drinking game at an orientation camp run by the University of Western Australia Student Guild, documents have revealed.

In a new complaint, lodged with the University last month, a current student said they felt compelled to speak up about their experiences at a 2009 camp because it "violated my ethical and moral principles''.

The Sunday Times obtained the documents detailing the student's account under Freedom of Information laws this week.

The documents also reveal alumni of WA's most prestigious university have threatened to withhold donations and angry students have requested a refund of the 198 dollars compulsory Student Services and Amenities Fee, of which 70 per cent is directed to the guild.

The student said they left the camp early after "everyone was pressured to participate'' in a game that required them to remove "as many items of clothing as possible and (put) them in a line while drinking".

"Leaders encouraged females to remove all their clothes. It was at this point I left to go for a bushwalk as I thought this violated my ethical and moral principles,'' News.com.au quoted the student as writing.

"In such an intoxicated state, no under-age woman should be pressured into exposing herself to 50-plus people around her," she wrote.

The student said "sexual harassment was definitely condoned, with leaders 'promoting' those freshmen who hooked up the most''.

"I don't understand why a party such as this needs an affiliation with the university in any way," she wrote.

"It goes against the values of the guild and the university... I am still embarrassed of many of the disgraceful behaviours I bared witness too (sic) whilst on the camp, and I am glad to this day that I participated in so little of them.

"I am pointing this all out, as it is likely nobody else will, and I feel as though it is my duty to provide a complaint if none have been received," she added.

According to the documents, student callers reported five of the 361 alumni contacted as part of an annual fundraising drive in the two days after the allegations first became public raised the scandal.

One alumnus, who had donated in the university's 2009 annual fundraising drive, said they were "withdrawing all further funding until the matter is addressed''. Another said they needed to be "convinced the (money) does not go to the guild'', and the other said she "would like her concerns addressed''.

Students have also requested refunds of their compulsory SSA fees, with one saying they did not think the guild "deserve, nor have the maturity, to be allowed access to this money''.

Meanwhile Professor Johnson said the "reputation of the great majority of students should not be tarnished by the actions of just a few''.

He said none of the proceeds from the fees were used for orientation camps, but he has warned that the guild's funding from the SSAF was at risk if it could not prove that the money was used responsibly. (ANI)

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