This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Students organising freshers’ events at Loughborough University have apologised after planning a “slave auction” and “slave night” as part of the entertainment laid on for new students.

The events were organised by Faraday Hall – one of the university’s halls of residence – and were included in a schedule of freshers’ events which also featured “cowboys and Indians”, a Hawaiian night and an ABC (anything but clothes) evening.

There was an outcry from the university’s African-Caribbean Society and its Ethnic Minorities Network, both of which noted that the freshers’ events coincided with Black History Month in October.

Individuals also responded with anger on social media. On Twitter, @ManLikeAyo posted: “The fact that a whole committee felt it was OK to run a slave night is problematic.”

He also posted: “Black students face several challenges when coming to university and the actions of @FaradayHall show that their voice is not being heard.”

An African-Caribbean Society statement said members were appalled by the proposed entertainment and condemned “such displays of ignorance and blatant disregard for coloured people”. It added: “To make matters worse the event was scheduled to take place during our month of black appreciation.”

The Ethnic Minorities Network said: “We are working with Loughborough University and other cultural societies to get this situation rectified and to put systems in place to make sure issues like this do not occur again.”

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It is the latest in a long tradition of controversial and offensive freshers’ week incidents. Last year, the University of Exeter began an investigation after students were pictured wearing T-shirts bearing antisemitic and racist slogans, including “Don’t speak to me if you’re not white” and “The Holocaust was a good time”.

The Faraday Hall freshers’ team, which organised the events, has apologised. A statement picked up and posted on Twitter said: “Slave night is an unacceptable and racist title. As a committee we are deeply saddened to realise that we’ve caused offence and regret that entirely.



“We take full responsibility for our actions and have removed the original timetable. We will be renaming the event to something more appropriate.”

Loughborough Students’ Union attempted to distance itself from the incident. A spokesperson for the union said: “This type of event is not appropriate and has no place at the university.



“It was not a students’ union event. Working with the university, we will sit down with students on their return and explore why this event was proposed and what we need to do better in the future so that this does not happen again.”

