Copenhagen Business School (CBS) has confirmed to Jyllands-Posten that the allegations made by a female student that she was made to feel uncomfortable on a freshers trip – mostly due to the inappropriate activities and behaviour encouraged by its organisers – are true.

The CBS management assumes partial responsibility for not paying enough attention to what happens on the ‘introductory’ trips.

In December, an anonymous female student from CBS told Djøfbladet she was asked to simulate a blowjob on a banana and ‘build a vagina’ whilst participating in a freshers trip at the start of the autumn semester.

She said her boundaries were crossed and she felt downgraded.

An investigation revealed that similar activities of a sexist and sexual nature took place on school trips in 2012 and 2014.

New strict rules
CBS has decided to punish the 23 tour leaders responsible for organising the 2015 trip with just a reprimand, because the management believes they might have thought their behaviour was acceptable since it had been tolerated for so long.

“What we heard through the case is decidedly unacceptable behaviour,” Jan Molin, the CBS dean for education, said in a statement.

“We apologise to all the students who were affected. We would like everyone at CBS to feel welcome, and the intro tours have to be conducted with respect for each other.”

Consequently, the school is introducing tighter rules for future fresher trips.

The consumption of spirits, activities involving explicit or implicit sexuality, and nudity will not not be allowed. There will always need to be at least two sober leaders present, who will be given extra training on how to take care of delicate situations. And the trips will in the future be shorter.

Any violations of the new rules will be punished by suspension or expulsion.