Thursday, October 28, 2010

Wilderness Skills Club Survives Deluge.

On Sept 25-26, the UVic Wilderness Skills Club held their bi-annual camping trip. The goal of these camping trips is to learn how to make functional shelters out of natural materials that can keep a person warm and dry at night and make fire using only sticks while providing an opportunity for the group to have fun in the woods and get to know each other better. The trip is a unique experience in putting wilderness survival skills into practice that students would be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

On all but one of these counts, the camping trip was a success, just not in the way anyone expected. The trip started off wonderfully and innocuously. The sun was shining on the Saturday and the temperature was warm. Everyone was in great spirits, with a couple of people even wanting to sleep under the stars. The group improved upon the three pre-existing shelters and built a new one. There was not enough materials to build enough shelters for all eleven people so a tent was brought to fit the last couple people in. In hindsight, the group was very grateful for the tent. On Saturday evening, however, the shelters looked great, and everyone was keen to sleep in them. Mike Divell, a first time participant in the trip commented that “neat was the feeling that these shelters really fit in to nature - on first glance they didn't even register as something built by man. Very cool.” Since April Barry, co-president of the club, and I had slept in shelters before, we volunteered to sleep in the tent so as to allow everyone else to have the experience of sleeping in the shelters. The fire making was very smooth. Said Divell, “Watching fire started from almost nothing was very impressive and memorable... I'd never seen it work before.”

Just after dark, it started to rain and everyone scampered to their shelters. At first the shelters were very warm and dry. Cherie Lavoie, who was in a shelter with two other people said she was “surprised at how warm it was in the shelter, I didn't even need my long johns!” Then the rain got heavier... and heavier. During the building of the shelters I had stressed that the inside of the shelters should be lined with debris so that they would be more comfortable and so that if it rained, water would run underneath everyone so they would get wet. But by the time the group had gotten to this point, they had all been working for quite some time, and it was only a half-hearted attempt to do a good job at this. I also didn't push them hard to make sure it was good as I didn't completely realize the importance of this insulation. As the rain kept falling murmurs could be heard over the cacophony of the clouds dumping on the tent. April and I felt really bad; here we were, the leaders of the club, laying in our mostly dry tent, while everyone else was presumably drowning in their shelters. By 2:00am I decided I had to do something or there would be a revolt. So I got out of the tent and told everyone else to pile in. All but two people gratefully got out of their shelters and got into what was at this point a very leaky tent. The two guys that stayed in their shelter decided they were at least warm where they were, if not dry, so they would tough out the night in the shelter. We got as much dry clothes on people as possible, and managed to fit nine of us in a four person tent. It was like human jenga. There were layers of people. Body parts were all over the place. Nobody knew who's legs they were on top of and who's feet were on top of them. We all became quite close that night, not only physically, but we all bonded quite well. There was much laughter, and little sleep, except, incredibly, from the two guys out in their shelter snoring away.

After about an hour and a half, everyone had settled in as much as they could and was trying to get some sleep. Suddenly there was a loud crack and a corner of the tent collapsed. Some were worried that a tree had fallen on us, but everyone seemed to be okay. It turned out a tent pole had snapped due to the pressure of so many people being in the tent. I was able to fix it somewhat, and the tent stayed standing, though somewhat more leaky. Less than a half-hour later, a tree then proceeded to fall on our tent. It was even loud enough to wake up the snoring guys in their shelter. Nobody was hurt, but it did crumple the same corner some more and gave everybody a mini heart attack. By the time morning came, and everyone had shifted several times to avoid laying in the moat that had formed around the edge of the tent, we were all quite happy to be alive. We were even happier that, as it got light, the rain stopped. The two guys in the shelter crawled out slightly more pruny than they had been when the night started, but otherwise no worse for wear. They were even able to get a fire going even though everything was thoroughly soaked. Despite the ordeal of the night everyone was in high spirits, though understandably quite tired.

In the end it turned out to be an unforgettable experience. We survived. We all bonded in a way that only such extreme conditions could facilitate. We learned valuable lessons about what it takes to build a shelter in the woods that will actually protect you from the elements. Divell summed up his thoughts on it with this comment, “Of course the rain is unforgettable too. The feeling of 'wow we built some awesome shelters' quickly turning into 'ooops. needed more work'”. The following week our workshops focused around building shelters, and the people that went on the camping trip definitely had a few tips for those who had never done it before. As for me, I need to find a new tent.


Rob McDonald

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Fraternities and Sororities Denied Recognition at UVSS AGM

I know I am a little bit behind in writing about this as it happened on Thursday and other bloggers have already writted about this at length, but I believe I can provide a little bit of a different viewpoint to what happened at the Annual General Meeting.

Many things were said at the meeting from both sides of the issue. I was impressed with the actual arguments from both groups. I also feel that both sides were stating the truth. This may seem to be a wierd thing to say, as the two sides of the issue were saying opposite things, but I feel that in most cases there is no black or white, just the grey middle ground of reality, and this was no exception.

So what was said, and why do I feel it was all true?

First the anti-frats/sors side that won the vote:

The basic claim is that faternites and sororities are, by their nature, exclusionary and hierarchical. Historically they have a negative reputation of brutal hazings and sexualized violence.
I agree with both of these arguments. They have a selective admission process, even if it is only by gender, and fees to join make it so only those who are economically able to join can do so. I have also heard both first hand and from newspapers about the issues of hazings and sexualized violence.

The arguments of the pro-frats/sors group was:

They are groups that are created to build communities, network with other student bodies, and have fun. The group that wanted to organize on campus said that they would include any self identified woman and not implement any hazings. The fraternity also claimed to not practice any discrimination.
Again, I agree with everything said above. I believe fraternities and sororities can be a lot of fun for many of those involved. I believe that members of fraternities and sororities become part a network of people that will last beyond their university careers. I also believe that the girls that wanted to start a sorority had nothing but the best of intentions and wanted to create a cool space to do their thing.

So how do I reconcile these competing arguments?

I believe that while there are some fraternities and sororities that exist that are good community citizens as described by the pro group, I also believe there are fraternities and sororities that are not. I also believe that if we were to allow fraternities and sororities on campus, it would be difficult to differentiate, at least initially, between groups that are problematic, and those who are not.

Therefore, it comes down to a benefit/cost analysis. The benefits of fraternities and sororities are as stated above: They build longterm networks, they can be fun, and they give those involved a sense of belonging to something.
The costs are: A feeling of exclusion by those who don't get admitted. Potential for psychological and physical hazings. Potential for sexualized violence. Perpetuation of unequal relations that exist in our society.

For me, the benefits do not outweigh the costs. One can say that we should give them a chance. Maybe they won't have brutal hazings. Maybe women wouldn't get raped. But how do you quantify when it isn't okay anymore?
How many people have to be excluded?
How many people have to be hazed?
Do we have to wait for an incident of sexualized violence to happen before we don't allow them? What do we say to the victims of these things?
Sorry, we had to let it happen to you before we decided we don't want these groups? I don't think that would be much consolation to these people. That is assuming these things would even be reported. It is well known that incidences like these are vastly underreported for a variety of reasons.
It is for these reasons that I am very happy that the students of UVic came out to not recognize fraternities and sororities. I feel that the atmosphere at UVic is great as it is, and I hope it stays that way.

On a related note. As frustrating as it was when a certain member tried to subvert the voting process everytime he went up to the mic (I can't remember the name, but I know every person who was at the meeting know who I am talking about). In the end I am happy to hear how people reacted to this guy. I talked to people that said they came to the meeting either undecided or in favour of frats and sors, but based on the conduct of this person, they changed their vote to against frats and sors.
This is a great reminder that no matter how well you know the rules and are able to manipulate them, in a forum that involves voting, and is therefore political, you can't go around being a first class jerk and using those rules to shield you. People don't like it very much.

Rob McDonald

New progressive blog! It is called UVic Underground, and it's a cool new progressive blog for UVic students. I have posted this post on there as well. Hopefully everyone can check it out and contribute.