Students at the University of Northampton have leapt to the defence of vice-chancellor Nick Petford after he was criticised for his antics at a recent university sports awards evening.
On the evening in question, Professor Petford was photographed competing in a “dance off” with students, downing drinks, and crowdsurfing across the room.
His behaviour prompted one student to christen him “the Wolf of Northampton”, in reference to the booze-fuelled lifestyle of Jordan Belfort depicted in the recent film The Wolf of Wall Street.
An open letter from the Northampton branch of the University and College Union said that many staff and students at Northampton found it “disturbing” when the hashtag #WolfOfNorthampton started appearing on Twitter in reference to Professor Petford.
“Some may think laddish behaviour nothing more than harmless high-jinx, worthy of the hashtag #lad adopted by other student revellers,” the letter, from the Northampton UCU branch executive, says.
“However, such behaviour is not victimless. Those of us engaged as personal tutors have dealt with incidents of racial bullying in halls by lads returning late from bars and the academic literature is littered with research showing direct correlations between fraternity style student drinking cultures and complaints of sexual assault.”
It alleges that “behaviour of this type by Senior Managers undermines the hard work that the majority of staff and students at the University put in to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment” at Northampton. Some staff and students, “especially those with particular religious or cultural beliefs or with direct experiences as victims”, will be “deeply offended”, it adds.
However, after coverage of the evening appeared on websites including ITV News and the Huffington Post, Northampton students began defending their vice-chancellor, as the tweets below – which were retweeted by Professor Petford from - demonstrate.
I think University & College Union needs to chill & get over their sorry selves
— Compton Pauncefoot (@JasonMcCrossan)
