Govt probe hazings

campus has ordered an end to all student initiation ceremonies.

Following a meeting yester¬day on the Uthen Thawai case, Education Minister Jurin Laksanawisit instructed Higher Education Commission (HEC) secretarygeneral Sumet Yaemnoon to assign a committee to investigate whether Uthen Thawai authorities had allowed senior students to violate the Education Ministry's regulations on student initiations. The committee would report in three days and students or col¬lege executives found guilty of violations would be punished accordingly, said Jurin.

Protection for students

Sumet said the HEC had asked college executives to ensure that senior students didn't threaten or hurt those freshmen who wanted to remain at Uthen Thawai.

Dean of the Architecture Faculty Sompong Cheethaisong said a meeting of teachers and students yes¬terday had decided to cancel all initiations until everything was back to normal.

Affirming that the universi¬ty had a scale of punishments - verbal warning, academic points deduction, onesemes¬ter suspension, twosemester suspension, expulsion - Sompong said that five students had been expelled and 100 given a twosemester suspension last year for their involvement in a hazing ceremony that led to the death of a student.