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Home » Top Story

B&L and ArtsSoc fined €5,000 over offensive posters

Contributed by Bridget Fitzsimons on Tuesday, 13 October 20094 Comments

The Business and Legal Society (B&L) and Arts Society have been fined €5,000, to be split equally between the two societies, for a poster advertising their joint event ‘The Virgin Ball’.

posterThe posters were placed on campus on Thursday 3rd September, but were removed later that day on the advice of UCD Societies Officer Richard Butler.

The punishment was decided by the Recognition Committee of Societies Council and Academic Council, to which Butler acts as secretary. The committee found that not only were the posters offensive, but that the event itself was “in breach of the basic standards of propriety and consideration.”

ArtsSoc auditor Niamh Kiely and B&L auditor Aoife McGuinness were asked to submit a joint defence of their societies’ actions, which was emailed to Butler in advance of the meeting. Neither Kiely nor McGuinness were permitted to attend the meeting, which took place last Thursday. The societies were informed of the penalty the following Tuesday, again via email from Butler.

Kiely and McGuinness maintain that they did not deserve a fine of such severity. While Kiely acknowledged that “we may have gone a bit close to the line” in deciding on the event’s title, McGuinness voiced their distress with the fine, stating that “we’d completely accept a fine, but not €5,000. It’s a lot. I don’t understand how they’re justifying it.”

In a statement sent to The University Observer, Butler elaborated on the reasons for the size of the fine imposed “The Committee considered that the message conveyed by the poster was insidious and dangerous, and that it constituted a deliberate act of emotional manipulation designed to prey on the fears and worries of students.”

However, Kiely explained that “they said that we maliciously set out to try and harm the wellbeing of the student body, which isn’t the case at all. We’ve given our time to the Welfare Crew to help out with various student campaigns.”

Kiely felt that the “decisive and rapid action” to change the posters taken by the two societies on Butler’s orders, and the fact that they “took on board exactly what [Butler] was saying,” should have lessened their punishment. They also took the decision to rename the event ‘Slave to the Rave’. However, Butler’s statement went on to describe the defence offered by the societies as “mendacious” and that “there was a very real danger of the poster triggering significant harm to members of the university community.”

Kiely and McGuinness said that big societal events such as the Arts Ball, the B&L Ball and Arts Day will most likely suffer due to the severity of the fine. Kiely conceded that she “wouldn’t be entirely sure if Arts Day could go ahead” in light of ArtsSoc’s resulting financial state.

The societies have not yet been given a deadline for payment of the fine. The fine in its entirety will be donated to the Student Welfare Fund.

4 Comments »

  • Chris said:

    Wwwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy overly harsh. Nanny state.

    - 14 October 2009 at 1:10 am
  • Cian said:

    So…anyone have a link to the posters? I cant remember what they were like.

    - 18 October 2009 at 5:00 pm
  • Dru said:

    Was there actually anything more to it than just the name “The Virgin Ball”? Please tell me that there were x-rated graphics on the poster image or that the by-line for the header contained sexually explicit descriptions. Please tell me that it wasn’t just that title “The Virgin Ball”?? Heck, the UCD thought police better immediately bad all use of “Virgin olive oil” on campus. Heck – what about Sir Richard Branson’s dirty little multinational corporation and its sinful offspring like VIRGIN airlines and VIRGIN records – they must be censored! No, there must have been more to it. Hell, I watched Rodge and Podge for the first time last night, were they featured on the poster, perhaps? Someone please explain in lay terms what the Recognition Committee was really concerned about…

    - 21 October 2009 at 11:07 am
  • Simon said:

    While it is important that the societies were not allowed to make their defence in person, I believe an equally important issue has been overlooked. According to the mandate the committee profess to adhere to, the posters were taken down in ‘our’, the students’, interests. Personally, I find this patronizing and offensive. The age of consent in Ireland is 17, anyone who saw the posters would have been above this age (and, while I may be wrong, I presume that were the event the poster described to limit entry only to those whose fears it apparently preyed on, attendence would be low. To assume that university students are all terrified virgins is naive and a relic of an Ireland that we have outgrown). I don’t need anyone looking out for my interests. By going to University a student has made one of the most significant decisions they will in life, what they experience there will determine their career, some of their future relationships, and their personality. The choice to go is made independently; the decision maker is an adult. I am old enough to make this decision, to consume alcohol, to decide the fate of my country and of europe by voting, to go to jail rather than a juvenile detention center for a crime…yet apparently i cant control my carnal impulses on viewing a puerile poster? Posters describing drinks or food offers arent being removed… yet obesity kills 2500 people in ireland and ‘alcohol-related death, illness and injury is one of the largest public health issues in Ireland’ (irish times). How many people die of ‘sex’? And if ‘they’ were genuinely worried about the psychological issues due to the fears these students apparently have, then surely this ‘virgin ball’ is exactly the antidote they need?

    I believe there are 2 possibilites, 1, that this decision was honestly made in our interests and that it, like the (ludicrously extravegent) fine it (inexplicably) lead to, is ill-advised and unintentially insulting, but ultimately innocent or 2, the decision was actually made in an attempt to proserve the university’s sense of reputuation/outdated sense of morality, but since noone would agree to pay a fine for such an antiquated concept, it has been disguised as ‘we’re doing it with your interests at heart’

    How do you get on this committee? What qualifies its members to question the rationality, will-power, moral code, and psychological well-being of other responsible adults, its peers? Is it composed of the world’s greatest philosophers, psychologists, doctors and priests? Get your nose out of my interests.

    PS I am not affiliated with either society, never saw the posters, and dont find them funny (according to how they were described).

    PPS sorry this is a bit of a rant.

    - 21 October 2009 at 5:58 pm