Students fined over necrophilia chants in freshers’ week

Both men and women are seen singing along in a video captured by a first year student taking part in the freshers’ week activities.

Students were singing a song about digging up and having sex with a corpse, and the superiority of their halls of the residence. The song is reported to be taught and passed on to students each year.

A number of the representatives of the students’ union who taught the students the chant have been punished and reportedly fined £150.

The students had already signed contracts promising they would not promote the singing of such songs.

The woman who uploaded the video told the University of Nottingham magazine Impact that the chant had been taught to the students by students’ union reps hosting the first week of university celebrations.

She told the magazine: “We were taught this chant by the week one reps on Monday, the first night of freshers’ week. I refused to join in with the chant, and said to a week one rep that I wasn’t going to sing.”

The chant the students are singing references Cavendish halls of residence in Notttingham, and part of it says “Dig her up and f*** her rotten. You wish, you wish. You wish you were in Cavendish.”

Angharad Smith, co-ordinator of freshers’ week, said: “All reps sign a contract stating that chants are specifically not to be promoted so it is hugely upsetting that this has been ignored.

“This [incident] should not detract from what was otherwise an extremely well run programme that many students enjoyed”, she added.

A University of Nottingham spokeswoman said it worked with the students’ union to investigate but it would not confirm that students had been fined.

Image credit: Impact magazine video still