Frosh Week festivities perked up this week when thousands of sober Gaels and ArtSci frosh danced to this year’s song, “Jerk It Out,” by The Caesars. The song choice raises the question of how the Orientation Round Table (ORT) perceives its responsibility to make Orientation more inclusive.
The Gaels have had to sign contracts in recent years promising to keep Frosh Week a dry event, and the traditional beer cheers have been prohibited for the past two years.
Although most frosh are underage when they arrive, many have been exposed to alcohol since high school. A beer cheer’s unlikely to make students start or stop drinking.
It doesn’t make sense for the ORT and SOARB to create policies around alcohol, yet ignore the exclusivity suggested by The Caesars’ explicitly sexual song.
The ORT and SOARB appear unprepared to explain why alcohol issues take precedence over sexuality issues, instead choosing to arbitrarily impose regulations students can’t be expected to understand, much less follow.
The alcohol ban’s ineffectiveness calls into question whether such regulations are necessary at all. Gaels’ contracts are mainly enforced on an honour system and anybody who was in Kingston last weekend could point out many frosh who weren’t sober.
First-year students should be treated as adults, capable of making their own choices rather than being patronized by self-important policies that are out of touch with reality.
The ORT and SOARB don’t appear too concerned with properly implementing their policies, being content to have them in writing to pad the University’s inclusive image to curious outsiders.
Frosh Week would be better geared to students if they were allowed frank discussion on issues of healthy sexuality and alcohol use raised by the Orientation songs and cheers. It might blemish Queen’s attempt at a squeaky-clean image to it students can be irresponsible about alcohol and sex, but it would teach students how to become safer for the future.
The beer cheer might create the proper momentum to discuss alcohol issues later in the year or, at the very least, frosh performing their song will feel part of a tradition of cheers and the occasional pelvic thrust.
Sometimes it’s necessary to take these instances with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
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