Alice Wu

Opinion | ‘Tradition’ of bullying and sexual abuse at university orientation camps must stop

Such acts have been known for decades. Universities must now step in and stop ‘ocamps’ from degenerating into sanctioned abuse, hazing and harassment

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Undergraduates on the campus of the University of Hong Kong on December 20. A sexual harassment survey found that such incidents in orientation camps “have become something like ‘seasonal influenza’”: expected to occur every year. Photo: Dickson Lee

Alice Wu

Published: 2:30pm, 10 Sep 2023

It’s all fun and games until it’s not. And from what we’ve seen hitting the news in the past few weeks, university orientation camps are not all fun and games. Arrests have been made after allegations of sexual abuse at orientation camps for two universities. Video footage of inappropriate activity at other orientation camps have surfaced.

Things have become so bad that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu spoke out, condemning such acts as “intolerable”, calling on universities to “cooperate with law enforcement” and pointing out that society expected proper conduct from university students.

Orientation camps, it seems, have crossed the line into initiation rituals, hazing and even violence. It’s not a recent phenomenon. News of “ocamps”, as they are called here, have been making the headlines every few years.

That this problem keeps cropping up makes it absolutely necessary for universities to do more to safeguard their students, including and especially incoming ones. And by doing more, I mean going beyond stating their “zero tolerance” policies towards bullying and inappropriate behaviour and updating their guidelines on organising student activities.

Clearly, orientation camps have deviated from their intended purpose – to welcome newcomers, offer a chance to make friends, and introduce them to a supportive and inclusive community and university life – into some sort of initiation process, a rite of passage for newcomers to be “accepted”.

Initiation rites are a part of human existence and an important part of socialisation. A community with a strong identity fosters conformity and stability. Power is obviously at play. Outsiders must prove themselves worthy to be accepted. Once upon a time, it would have been justified by, say, the survival of the tribe.