St John's College at Sydney University is facing scrutiny over accusations about ongoing vandalism, violence, misbehaviour and initiation rites.
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: They're like scenes from the American college film Animal House. Students drinking themselves sick, disgusting initiation ceremonies targeting newcomers, young women routinely reviled as "slags" and "moles".
These practices are apparently commonplace at the elite St John's residential college at Sydney University.
It claims to be a bastion of fine Catholic education. Now, some insiders are saying enough is enough and calling for drastic action to clean up the college.
Adam Harvey has this report.
ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: This is one view of life at St John's College, the oldest residential college at the University of Sydney, owned by the Catholic Church and home to 265 students from around the nation.
WALTER FOGARTY, FMR HON. DEAN, ST JOHN'S: We provide that environment for young adults here to explore their faith.
ADAM HARVEY: And this is another view of life at St John's. The college is now notorious for its extreme initiation ceremonies and destructive behaviour that's celebrated in videos posted online.
ROSLYN ARNOLD, FORMER ST JOHN'S COLLEGE FELLOW: It's entrenched, it's pervasive and it debases people and they probably suffer without even being able to speak out.
ADAM HARVEY: Professor Roslyn Arnold was one of the 18 fellows who govern the college through its council. She's speaking out about bullying and intimidation of the college's younger student, "freshers", routinely subjected to degrading initiation ceremonies.
ROSLYN ARNOLD: Making people drink the most foul concoctions. Making people shave their heads to stigmatise them as a lesser human being because their head is shaven. They work to dehumanise people. They work to disempower people. They work to frighten people. And they work very effectively.
ADAM HARVEY: The rituals were exposed in March after an incident which left a teenage girl in hospital.
(male voiceover): "... the incident involved 30 male residents who are also students of the University coercing her and a small number of other first year girls to drink a potentially life-threatening mixture which contained dog food, off milk, Tabasco sauce, various forms of alcohol and shampoo. The circumstances in which she was coerced into drinking the mixture involved her and the other girls being surrounded by the more senior residents in a common room and then made to kneel. ... Throughout she felt intimidated and frightened."
ADAM HARVEY: The incident was investigated by college rector Michael Bongers who was brought in to try and reform the culture at St John's. He's encountered fierce resistance from students and some former students. His report into the incident has been obtained by 7.30.
MICHAEL BONGERS' REPORT (male voiceover): "The incident was part of a covert 'tradition' in the nature of an initiation process inflicted by second year students upon new students - "freshers". The students (it now appears, as a result of our investigation) have a number of unwritten rules amongst themselves, breaches of which carry penalties. One or perhaps the main purpose of rules is to perpetuate a 'hierarchy' ... in which freshers acknowledge older students as their superiors."
ADAM HARVEY: Dr Bongers suspended 33 students from the college for two weeks. But his attempts to make the students perform some community service were overruled after submissions from lawyers engaged by parents of some of the students.
DAVID MARR, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: A bunch of privileged brats did the wrong thing and they have fought for a year with an army of lawyers on their side to not have to own up, not have to come forward, not have to identify themselves and not have to do the really very mild punishments that were laid down for them by the rector of St John's.
ROSLYN ARNOLD: The discussion in the council was around the consequences that the perpetrators might have to suffer and what that would have on - the effects that would have on their future careers. There was no concern for the young woman expressed.
ADAM HARVEY: Professor Arnold says some councillors thought the teenager could've easily walked away.
ROSLYN ARNOLD: The young woman surrounded by 32 men being urged to drink this vile concoction. When the comment was made to me, "She had a choice," I think that summed up the attitude.
ADAM HARVEY: Because obviously she didn't?
ROSLYN ARNOLD: No, because when you're frightened and you have no support, you are paralysed.
ADAM HARVEY: A number of former students have told 7.30 that there's long been a culture of misogyny at St John's.
MARY GARDINER: They had a tradition of screaming "moll" at women as we walked back home across their oval into our college. And during Orientation Week we were invited to a social event where they sung us a song which went - the lyrics went, "Yes means yes and no means yes," chanted over and over again.
ADAM HARVEY: Mary Gardiner was a resident of Sancta Sophia College at the University of Sydney in 1999. It's beside St John's.
MARY GARDINER: At one point they took what they called the menu, which was the photographs of all of the Sancta Sophia residents and displayed it in their college as a menu, things of that nature.
ADAM HARVEY: And it seems that little has changed. This was what the college looked like just last week. These photographs were taken after college rector Michael Bongers complained to the council of ongoing dysfunctional student behaviour. He described this as the worst case of vandalism he'd seen at the college.
Sydney University's Vice Chancellor Michael Spence says the problems at the college are damaging the whole university.
MICHAEL SPENCE, VICE CHANCELLOR, UNI. OF SYDNEY: I have five children. If I were reading these newspaper reports, I would have serious questions about sending my children to a college at the University of Sydney at the moment. That's something that concerns me. And it concerns me particularly 'cause I know that these are also remarkable communities that take pastoral care very seriously with high achieving students and that this is only a very small part of the story. But there has undoubtedly been reputational damage for the collegiate system at the university.
ADAM HARVEY: The colleges are independent legal entities and the university doesn't have any authority over what goes on behind their walls.
MICHAEL SPENCE: This is an issue that we take very seriously indeed and have been working with the colleges through new consultative organs that we've set up to ensure that this kind of behaviour is eradicated because it is entirely unacceptable in a university community.
ADAM HARVEY: No-one from the college council would be interviewed on camera. In a statement, it said it was committed to ensuring the highest of standards were adhered to at St John's.
ROSLYN ARNOLD: This behaviour has to be brought to the attention of the authorities. Now, I mean the police.
ADAM HARVEY: Her advice for parents thinking about sending their children to St John's?
ROSLYN ARNOLD: I'd say don't do it. Because the only thing that will bring an institution to its knees will be if it suffers financial damage. And it needs the cash flow of the student fees to keep going. And if that's at risk - I'm hoping that it doesn't come to that, but that's the other option: stay away.
LEIGH SALES: And 7.30 invited senior officials at the college for an interview. They all declined, but we'll keep pushing to find out what they and Archbishop George Pell plan to do.
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