It begs the question: which came first: the Special Snowflakes or the enablers of Special Snowflakes?
Penn State’s 98-Year-Old Outing Club Is No Longer Allowed to Go Outside
What’s more dangerous: rugby, or a walk in the woods? At Pennsylvania State University, the administrators apparently think it’s the latter.
The student “Outing Club,” which has gone backpacking, kayaking, and hiking in state parks over the course of its 98-year-existence, will no longer be allowed to host outdoor events after administrators conducted a risk assessment, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“The types of activities in which [Penn State Outing Club] engages are above the university’s threshold of acceptable risk for recognized student organizations,” according to an official announcement.
Wait for it
A key issue for administrators was that the Outing Club frequently visit locations with poor cell phone coverage. This wasn’t an issue during the Coolidge administration, but now that cell phones exist, students are apparently expected to remain glued to them at all times.
The school has a solution
The Post-Gazette‘s Don Hopey reports that the administration is hoping to reform the Outing Club into some kind of movie-watching club:
Ms. Powers said meetings between the Outing Club’s student leaders and the university are “ongoing” about the club’s future role on campus.
Those talks are focused on the possibility of “forming a different kind of club,” [current club president Richard] Waltz said, one that still holds film festivals and hosts speakers, but can no longer lead students on walks in the woods.
Maybe they can take virtual reality walks in a padded room—provided there’s cell service.
What the of legal age kids should do is create their own group, separate from the school, and just go on their trips.
Back when I was adjunct professor at a local college, we took a group to the gun range for a morning of black powder shooting, and yearly white water rafting trips in WV. Times have changed.
Hey, the Special Snowflakesâ„¢ asked for Safe Spaces, didn’t they?
The truth is that Penn State doesn’t care about their safety, but the university does care about liability, and if one of the students gets injured, the school doesn’t want to somehow be held liable in a lawsuit. Remember, Penn State is even more lawyered up than most colleges, due to the Jerry Sandusky scandal. College administrators are being held criminally liable for the actions of a pervert because they didn’t do enough to stop him.
In addition, Penn State has “paid out nearly a quarter-billion dollars in fines, settlements and other costs associated with the scandal.” That means a quarter billion in Pennsylvania taxpayers’ dollars, meaning my tax dollars as well. Yeah, the lawyers are all over the place, warning the school about any possible liability.
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