Snowflake Manufacturing

[rogue06]

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Source: Penn State says wilderness is too risky for outdoors clubs

Penn State University says it has banned its near-century-old outdoor recreation club from going outside because it is too dangerous out in the wilderness.

The 98-year-old Penn State Outing Club announced last week that the university will no longer allow the club to organize outdoor, student-led trips starting next semester. The university’s offices of Student Affairs and Risk Management made the determination that the hiking, camping and other outdoors-focused activities the student-led club has long engaged in are too risky.

The Outing Club’s current president Richard Waltz tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the decision wasn’t an open dialogue and they weren’t briefed on the determination.

A Penn State spokeswoman says student safety is the school’s primary focus. Two other outdoor recreation clubs also have been directed to end trip offerings.



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Source: Penn State calls 'outing club' too risky, bans it from going outside

Penn State University’s 98-year-old Outing Club – whose mission is to “experience the outdoors in every possible capacity” – is no longer allowed to go outside because the college deems it too dangerous.

PSU’s offices of Student Affairs and Risk Management determined the Penn State Outing Club’s activities of backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, and trail maintenance as too risky, according to an announcement the student organization made earlier this month.

PSOC said they “will no longer be organizing and running outdoor student-led trips” as a result of the university’s “assessment of risk management” that found the club’s activities “above the university’s threshold of acceptable risk for recognized student organizations,” adding that the club is not going away.

“The groups are being disbanded in their current high-risk model and are actually being re-organized to provide more oversight of activities by trained and professional staff,” PSU spokesperson, Lisa Powers, told Fox News.

Powers said “the behaviors of some students on unsupervised trips have become a concern” which has “included the misuse of alcohol in the context of already risky activities.”

PSU conducted a proactive risk assessment for 79 clubs, which found 20 clubs had some element of risk, including the Archery Club, Boxing Club, and Rifle Club, but only three were determined to be high-risk activities: PSOC, Grotto Caving Club, and the Nittany Divers SCUBA Club.

“Safety is a legitimate concern, but it wasn’t an open dialogue,” Richard Waltz, the Outing Club’s 2017-2018 president told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “What’s happening to the club is a shame and negatively impacts the student experience.”

Powers said the university is currently working with club leaders on how to help them reach national safety standards for their activities.



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By this time next year the #1 item manufactured in the U.S. is going to be snowflakes

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Harder








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[guacamole]

Yay, liability! I imagine they could reorganize as private clubs and just not have the university's stamp of approval. I wonder if they lose funds or whatnot. Anyway, bummer.

[rogue06]

Yay, liability! I imagine they could reorganize as private clubs and just not have the university's stamp of approval. I wonder if they lose funds or whatnot. Anyway, bummer.

You have to wonder just how we survived for so many millennia.

[guacamole]

You have to wonder just how we survived for so many millennia.

Can't the university have a better personal liability waver or something?

[Sparko]

Maybe they can start a VR outdoor club where they all sit around in a nice padded room wearing VR glasses staring at Google Earth.

[One Bad Pig]

As far as I can tell, the issues are that 1) the trips are currently student-led and 2) students were taking alcohol on the trips. It seems that the university would rather have professionals lead the trips and ban alcohol on them. It doesn't sound like the university thinks the trips are too dangerous to continue.

[Sparko]

Well I got the OP beat:

'Snowflake' school bans students from touching snow

A school in Britain is defending itself after being mocked for banning students from touching snow on school grounds.

Ges Smith of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, England, claims the ban is a “duty of care issue” that protects the school from potential lawsuits, the Telegraph reported.

“It only takes one student, one piece of grit, one stone in a snowball in an eye, with an injury and we change our view,” Smith said on Good Morning Britain.

“The rules are don’t touch the snow. If you don’t touch the snow you’re not going to throw it,” he added.

http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/201...hing-snow.html

-Topper

[Mountain Man]

As I always say, it's impossible to tell the difference between satire, and sincere liberalism. This thread is a perfect example.

[demi-conservative]

Helicopter parenting reaching colleges, also schools, well done progs.

[Starlight]

Dunno what this is supposed to have to do with "progressives". It's just lawyers worrying about liability.

I suggest banning lawyers.

Or, at least making laws like we have in my progressive country that prohibit lawsuits over such things. (There's a government-run national insurance scheme that simply pays out money to the injured and nearly all lawsuits against at-fault parties are banned). Then people can go do dangerous things to their hearts content without worrying about lawsuits.

[Mountain Man]

Dunno what this is supposed to have to do with "progressives". It's just lawyers worrying about liability.

I suggest banning lawyers.

Or, at least making laws like we have in my progressive country that prohibit lawsuits over such things. (There's a government-run national insurance scheme that simply pays out money to the injured and nearly all lawsuits against at-fault parties are banned). Then people can go do dangerous things to their hearts content without worrying about lawsuits.

Forcing the tax payers to pay for other people's injuries is exactly the sort of stupidity I'd expect from a progressive government.

But I appreciate that it's called a "scheme" when you consider the negative connotations of that word.

[One Bad Pig]

Dunno what this is supposed to have to do with "progressives". It's just lawyers worrying about liability.

More or less.

[demi-conservative]

Dunno what this is supposed to have to do with "progressives". It's just lawyers worrying about liability.

Also goes with prog dogma of 'safe spaces'.

[One Bad Pig]

Also goes with prog dogma of 'safe spaces'.

Er, no.

[demi-conservative]

Er, no.

Actually, yes.

50 years ago there would be massive outrage from students, also parents, also public, that college students need to be coddled like this, would be ompletely ridiculous.

Now, so much coddling so that Outing Club is just meekly accepting this, no outrage at all. Spokesman of college can give excuse of 'student safety is the school’s primary focus'.

Sad!