Complaints raised over Pop

**Complaints were raised over last Wednesday’s Pop! event at the Students’ Union (SU).
**

The complaints, which were principally voiced by Lydia Furse, a fourth-year French and History student, centred around what she called “the disgraceful behaviour of Disco Dave”, the weekly event’s student DJ.

Furse created an open Facebook petition the following day to gain support for concerns and calling for DJ Disco Dave to be sacked. The Facebook group aimed to “draw attention to the despicable behaviour of the so styled ‘Disco Dave’ last night”.

The weekly Pop! event included fundraising for Warwick RAG, as part of the society’s week long ‘RAG Week’ fundraiser. This included gunge tanks being poured over students in aid of charity. Many students who went up on stage removed items of clothing before being gunged.

According to Furse, “students who went up on stage were actively encouraged by (Disco Dave) – someone who should be in a position of responsibility – to strip off in front of the hundreds of other students, culminating with one boy removing all his clothing.”

Furse further criticised Disco Dave for allegedly initiating the “auction[ing] off” of a kiss from one girl on stage. The girl “was solicited”, according to Furse, into allowing a stranger to pay £5 in order to touch her breast.

The Facebook group agreed “that this behaviour [which] was not appropriate or acceptable and call upon the Student’s union to take responsibility for this horrific misjudgement and to take further action to ensure it is not repeated.”

The group asked people who supported its sentiments and wished to sign a letter to the president of the SU to join or like it to show their agreement.

However the girl, who shall remain unnamed, commented on the Facebook group that she took part of her own volition.

Speaking to the _Boar_, Rob Chamberlain from the SU’s Ents team, and Disco Dave’s line manager, commented on the DJ’s behaviour: “He’s been made aware of the fact that he crossed a line last night. In fairness, some of the sports teams and RAG themselves kind of egged on some of the stuff that happened… in the best of intentions to raise money for charity”.

“The people who were up on stage were doing it of their own accord, but maybe there’s a point where the DJ draws a line under it …that’s where his misjudgement was.”

The Ents team commented that they had not had any complaints from students, although on learning of Furse’s Facebook group, Chamberlain appreciated the opportunity to speak to her directly.
After speaking to Chamberlain, Furse renamed the group from calling for the DJ’s dismissal to ‘Incident at Pop! last night’. The group had 77 supporters but has now been removed entirely.

Sports officer Natasha Cabral commented on the sequence of events, “unfortunately I was not at the event last night so I am unable to comment on the actions themselves, however as the majority of students at the event were sports members I would like to repeat Rob’s apology in regards to anyone being offended.

“Actions are being taken in regards to future stage activity and when any third party is involved (i.e. RAG) the Ents team will brief them on the appropriate behaviour boundaries prior to the event.

Cabral also included a message from the girl on stage which the Facebook group mentioned. “I always feel 
100% comfortable and safe [at Pop!]. Last night was no different. I was asked if I would go on to the stage and after some casual egging on (not peer pressure) from friends I was more than happy to agree in the name of charity.”

Furse explained that her decision to close the group was down to the fact that she felt her position was “unsustainable” in light of the girl’s comments.

Chamberlain acknowledged the SU’s responsibility to its members, adding: “We’ll be putting measures in place to prevent this happening again. It’s easy in that moment to not want to pour cold water on fun, easy to forget where the line is. We have re-iterated to the people concerned where those boundaries are.”

“I’ve apologised on behalf of the SU to anyone who has been offended by last night.”

Warwick RAG have insisted that all students involved did so voluntarily and without pressure: “It wasn’t in any way to do with RAG – obviously we’re taking money but we’re not endorsing nudity”, president James Beavis told the _Boar_.

“In future we’ll make sure we’re watchful of anything going on, but we’re there to take money. It was a fantastic night, we made almost £400 and we’re really grateful for everyone’s donations.

Furse commented: “ultimately I’m glad RAG week made a good profit from the event but I thought the method was not worth the reward.”

RAG have stated that they are always looking to improve their events, inviting students to contact the society if they have any issues they wish to raise.