Icy hazing crawl lands engineers in hot water

Ryerson University officials have condemned a campus event during which engineering students were told to crawl on ice and slush in their underwear.

The event, held by the Ryerson Engineering Student Society, was meant to initiate frosh leaders and build spirit among those who participated, said Rose Ghamari, RESS president.

But things took a questionable turn on Thursday afternoon. Students wearing only underwear were seen approaching passing strangers in –10 C weather to collect signatures so they could earn their society’s coveralls.

A YouTube video of the event shows the students crawling across a slushy rink on the school’s downtown Toronto campus in their underwear while their peers aimed snowballs and water guns at them.

A photograph taken during the event shows a female student being slapped on the

backside by a senior male student.

The university’s president, Sheldon Levy, released a statement condemning the initiation.

“The university is categorical in affirming it does not condone student conduct that demeans individuals in any way, and I am making clear our

Opting not to do it carries a certain stigma

shock and anger in the face of this departure from dignity. We have very strong policies in place that have been invoked immediately to deal with those involved,” Mr. Levy said.

The university’s administration is meeting with RESS on Monday afternoon to determine what actions to take.

Ms. Ghamari said she was not present for most of the event, and that she was shocked to see the crawling students when she arrived about 45 minutes after the

event had begun.

“If we had better practices, situations like that would not have happened,” said Ms. Ghamari. “That’s why we are going to be looking at having proper guidelines and boundaries to ensure that unacceptable behaviour does not happen again.”

In the past, the initiation event has usually involved tamer activities like dancing and singing Engineering spirit songs. Ms. Ghamari said the event was completely voluntary and students did not have to strip down or participate to become frosh leaders. About half of the approximately 100 newly-chosen frosh leaders took part.

According to Ms. Ghamari, none of the participants had complained to the university.

Ryan Hamilton, a sports psychology consultant at the University of New Brunswick, doesn’t buy the theory that the voluntary aspect of the activities doesn’t qualify it as hazing.

“There’s no free consent to be given. You’re under pressure to participate,” said Mr. Hamilton who provides antihazing workshops at universities across the Atlantic region. “Opting not to do it carries a certain stigma like you’re not tough enough or you aren’t up to the challenge, and it separates you from the people who went ahead and did it.”

It’s not the first time initiation rituals have come under fire in Canada this year. In January, Dalhousie University suspended 17 of 22 players on the women’s varsity hockey team after allegations of hazing made national news. The team had to forgo their entire season.