'Drunk, rowdy' men disrupt law lecture

The University of Otago's Campus Watch were called after a group of ''drunk and rowdy'' men, including one who could hardly stand, disrupted a first-year law lecture last month, the university has revealed.

An Otago University spokesperson sent to Critic Te Arohi student magazine and later the Otago Daily Times an internal email from a lecturer confirming the incident happened

The lecturer said in the email, which was sent internally and later passed on to media by the the university's communications team, one of her lectures was disrupted by a group of ''around four to five men who appeared drunk and rowdy''.

''They sat at the back of the lecture theatre. They were calling out and shouting at the beginning of the lecture.

''After they refused to calm down, I went up to them and told them all to leave - which they did,'' she said.

''Unfortunately, two of them then came back into the theatre by the ground entrance door and started shouting again.

''One started arguing with me but he was so drunk he could hardly stand up.

''At that point I went to call for Campus Watch. They'd left by the time I came back.''

Critic described the men as ''drinking Billy Mavs [bourbon and cola] and brew-filled Pump bottles and calling out, clapping and shouting excessively throughout the lecture''.

A first-year student who said he sat next to the group said they smelled strongly of alcohol and were ''just a group of lads'' of about 20.

''They didn't really cause any harm; they were just loud, mumbling back what the lecturer was saying which was unheard of from our 4pm lecture. It's hard to say if they were students or not because they weren't making any form of coherent sentences.''

One of them knocked over a water bottle filled with alcohol and coke as he left.

It was ''definitely a lecture to remember, for all the wrong reasons'', the student said.

The university did not comment when asked whether similar incidents had happened before.

However, proctor Dave Scott described the behaviour as ''unusual and highly inappropriate''.

The proctor's office was still investigating, and if the men were found to be students, exclusion from the university was a possibility.

''A request has been made for the CCTV footage to be reviewed, in accordance with our CCTV policy.''

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