‘Bad chicken’ leaves scores of sick students in exam limbo

Tuesday, 5 November 2024

More than 100 hall students fell ill, in the thick of exam time - with a chicken souvlaki meal being one suspected cause.

More than 100 university students are in limbo over the future of their degrees after a mass food poisoning outbreak left some up all night with violent vomiting and diarrhoea and others running from exams to reach the bathroom.

The students, residents of University of Canterbury’s University Hall and Ilam Student Accommodation, took ill early on Monday morning in the middle of their end-of-year exams.

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It appeared all had eaten a build-your-own chicken souvlaki for their Sunday evening meal.

Plum Olsen and Lincoln Christensen stand outside University Hall after ordering Uber Eats for lunch, after being sick all night following a chicken souvlaki dinner at the hall.

Exams run until Saturday, with 33 held on Monday.

Footage seen by The Press showed vomit falling from the hall windows, supposedly due to students not being able to get to the bathrooms quickly enough, or because no toilets were free.

On Monday evening the university was unable to guarantee that affected students could qualify for an exam resit or aegrotat grade.

The university and the Ministry for Primary Industries have launched an investigation into the outbreak. The National Public Health Service sent out surveys to students on Monday evening asking whether they had been sick, and what they had eaten.

Sam Wright, left, and James van der Voort were among a large number of Canterbury University students who got sick in the midst of exams after having dinner at University Hall.

Student Harry Browne said he woke up at 5.45am on Monday morning with “terrible diarrhoea and vomiting”.

“Students missed exams due to this and many are struggling to get medical exemptions. One student spent over an hour of his exam stuck in the toilet,” he said.

University Hall at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch has had an outbreak of food poisoning. High numbers of students in the hall have been ill since last night.

“This widespread food poisoning is terrible and has caused students worlds of hurt and unneeded stress.”

Another student, who remained anonymous out of embarrassment, said she suffered bad stomach cramps overnight and made over a dozen bathroom visits early on Monday morning.

“At 2am in the morning I had to make a run for it, there was already two people in the bathrooms near me so I had to run upstairs.”

Later that morning she tried to study at the library and “pooed my pants, I couldn’t make it to the bathroom because all of the toilets were taken up”.

Throughout the ordeal she remained concerned about her upcoming exam.

Ilam Student Accomodation at Canterbury University, where some students took ill on Monday.

“It's not even guaranteed we can resit the test, and for most of us it depends if we can continue our course next year.

“Lots of us are quite upset … we can’t exactly study correctly or perform our best.”

Even if the student was awarded a chance to resit her exam, she would not be in Christchurch to do so, she said.

University Hall student Sam Wright said after taking sick: “It’s real terrible, you kind of expect some decent food”.

One commerce student said he had “three exams in the next three days and I haven’t been able to study, which has been a bugger”.

“All the toilets were pretty much booked up this morning when I got up,” said another student who took ill.

Plum Olsen and her boyfriend Lincoln Christensen both ate the chicken meal and said they hadn’t slept at all.

“I’ve been shitting myself for ten hours,” Olsen said.

Christensen was worried about being well enough for his exam on Tuesday.

University Hall is a catered hall of residence, and Ilam Student Accommodation is an apartment-style complex. Both are managed by UniLodge, which has catering provided by the University of Canterbury Students Association (UCSA).

UCSA and UniLodge have been approached for comment.

Students said staff at first called the sickness a “tummy bug”.

UC’s people, culture and campus life executive director, Paul O’Flaherty, said students who were unwell, unable to sit an exam, or had their performance impaired, could apply for special consideration and may be offered an exam resit in the coming weeks.

When asked by The Press on Monday evening whether the university would guarantee a resit or an agrotat grade for exam candidates who took sick, a university spokesperson said it was following special consideration (SC) process “designed to support students who are unable to sit exams due to illness or other unforeseen circumstances”.

They referred The Press to their policy, which says students must apply for consideration within five days.

It the application is approved, “information is sent to the department/school for a remedy to be applied, if appropriate, which is notified at the time of results being released … An approved SC application does not mean a grade change will necessarily occur”, the policy says.

O’Flaherty said over 100 students were estimated to be sick.

University Hall, where there was been an outbreak of a sickness at the University of Canterbury.

He said the university is investigating the cause of the illness, helped by the Te Whatu Ora Health NZ, which was to visit the hall to test a small sample of students.

Students were encouraged to keep their fluids up and to call the UniLodge hotline or Healthline if more medical treatment was needed.

Ministry of Primary Industries’ New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general, Vincent Arbuckle, said they were looking into the outbreak with Health NZ.

“As part of this we are working to establish the cause of the outbreak, including possible food and non-food sources.”

Another student, who was up from 4am with a painful stomach and running to the bathroom said the hall initially told them it was gastroenteritis “which a few of us think is silly as the majority of students who ate the chicken wrap are the ones sick.”