LSE chief offers counselling to students upset by 'sexist, homophobic and class-ist' rugby club leaflets

 
Row: the London School of Economics (Picture: Getty)
Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Anna Davis @_annadavis9 October 2014

The director of the London School of Economics has encouraged students upset by “sexist, homophobic and class-ist” leaflets handed out by the men’s rugby club to seek counselling.

Professor Craig Calhoun also apologised after the flyers were distributed during a freshers’ fair.

The LSE men’s rugby club was disbanded as a result of the pamphlets, which referred to women as “slags”, “mingers” and “crumpets” and said “homosexual debauchery” would not be tolerated. They also referred to King’s College university saying: “Quite simply put they are scum and they will all work for us one day.”

Professor Calhoun emailed students saying: “I should like to use this message to apologise on behalf of the School, especially to our female and/or gay first-year students, who had to face this abuse during their first few days at LSE. The School and the Students’ Union both have counselling and support services and I encourage you to make use of them. But the School also has organisations prepared to campaign for change and I encourage you to make use of them as well.”

Professor Calhoun said he was “proud” of the Students’ Union for their “prompt and decisive action” in disbanding the men’s rugby team for a year. He called the flyers “deplorable” and added that “the club embarrassed itself, its sport and the School”, according to the LSE newspaper The Beaver.

He said the university is currently drawing up plans for a “School-wide programme of practical action” to combat sexist and homophobic abuse.

Meanwhile the LSE athletics union has appealed against the decision to disband the men’s rugby club for one year.

The athletics union admitted the leaflet was “blatantly misogynistic, homophobic and racist”, but said the decision to disband the club “merely serves to brush these issues under the carpet, delaying progress for another academic year, and pushing the problem onto another general secretary.”

The LSE women’s rugby and hockey clubs, men’s football and the netball club all agreed with the athletics union’s decision to appeal against the disbandment.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in