900 members of the club came back from a COVID-19 hotspot last week
As reported last week, the return of Vindicat’s ski trip to Groningen became international news, with both the BBC and New York Times mentioning the ski-trippers. Four students were tested on Friday by the GGZ in Groningen to see if they were infected, but the results came back negative.
According to Vindicat rector Floris Hamann, and reported by both oogtv and the Dagblad van het Norden, the student association needs a few days of rest before re-opening its den of iniquity on the Grote Markt. The pub in the building will remain closed until Wednesday.
According to Hamann, members have been shocked by the way the media has dealt with them in recent days: “It was all very one-sided. We are really portrayed as a student association that only celebrates without worrying about anything. Even though we were in talks with both the mayor and the GGD before we left for Italy. ”
It should be noted that in the association has been in the media quite a lot recently, aside from its ill-fated ski trip, several high-profile stories of ‘hazing’ rituals have reported that new recruits were sent to hospital with head injuries (among other incidents). The student association has also come under fire following some of its members creating a ‘bang list’ of female members, and an article in the members magazine ‘De Ster’ that named a ‘slut of the summer’.
A full history of Vindicats’ misdeeds can be read (in Dutch) on nu.nl, however the actions of the society as a collection were deemed so bad that the University of Groningen and Hanzehogeschool pulled funding from the organisation in 2018.
“The news of the past few days has been quite heavy for us,” said Hamann. “We need time in the coming days to put things in order and to catch our breath.”
Image via WikiMedia user Papoise. License here.
