That is insane.

Are offical university clubs needed for this sort of thing anymore? Students can still organize the same groups through social media, is there funding or assistance that comes from the college?

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Long Chile was a silly place.

Fucking lawyers ruining everything.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

I only had a short stint with my University's outing club after I met my wife. It took University vans for trips and had a lot of equipment. She has some crazy stories about getting into some potentially dangerous situations, e.g. when caving. Have to remember it's just some other college kid leading the outings. Not sure how well vetted or trained they are. My impression was it was pretty much fly by the pants stuff, but this was 25 years ago.

That being said most wilderness experiences like hiking or backbacking are not really dangerous unless you're clueless, stuff like caving or kayaking much more so.

There is nothing preventing students from going on a hike. I looks like the university is just trying to avoid the liability. Seems pretty silly but I'm sure if one of these trips leads to a fall off a mountain or a cougar attack, parents would be looking at the University's deep pockets.

Or, the insurance industry has completely hamstrung our global society into a "bubble-wrap" mentality. My take is that the university is no longer able to afford countenancing the risk of officially endorsing non-revenue producing activities. Something equivalent to Title IX ought to be enacted. This would minimize the child diddling, football-focused college from decision making driven by return on financial investment at the expense of all other considerations.

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DFL > DNF > DNS

Penn State alum here.
When I was there (early-90's) there was a long-running and beloved campus tradition.
"The Mifflin Streak"..

Mifflin Hall was a men's dormitory located in a central quad on campus.
Spring semester, the Sunday afternoon prior to finals week...
The Mifflin residents come out en-masse, for a group streak through campus.
An un-official parade. Huge crowds come out to cheer them on, and have a few laughs.

Afterwards, co-eds from surrounding dorms would put on "window shows".
(Think Mardi Gras, minus the beads.) All good fun.

Banned by late 90's, AFAIK.
Disrespectful to women.

'Nuff said.

Yep, clubs generally report under a student government who dishes out funding money to each club. I'm assuming things like student lead rock climbing and cave spelunking is killing their insurance premiums.

True, but PSU has also had problems recently with more wholesome student activities such as "Find the deceased frat pledge at base of the stairwell".

I was there for grad school '89-'93. Heard of the Mifflin Streak, but never experienced it - we were kind of oblivious to much of the undergrad scene outside of that which pertained to our department (chemistry).

Spent many hours in Zeno's. Good times they were.

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_________________________________________________
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa

http://www.litespeed.com

I guess they want their young students to spend more time in the football showers?

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

So sad. Just Googled looks like the streak might it have made a comeback.
But yes, during late-80's/early 90's it would have been a casaulty of "PC".
The argument being that a Sunday afternoon group streak could be upsetting if you had ever been date-raped. (eye roll emoji).

Ever hit the Rathskeller? (Closed now).
Remember JRMangan? (Owns a local bar now).
Ever see "Queen Bee" in concert? (Deceased now)

Yes, I imagine there's nothing quite like a stampeding herd of naked college guys to give one a case of the vapors. With all the crazy shit that's gone down in Happy Valley I'd be surprised (but glad) if the streak made a comeback - even an unofficial one.

Skellar? Once - not my kinda joint for some reason, but I was bummed to hear it closed.
JR Mangan - definitely saw him.
Loved Queen Bee and the Blue Hornet Band! Was sorry to hear about her passing.

Ever see the Screaming Ducks? Can't remember the singer/guitarist's name at the moment - John something. They were awesome.

Played alot of foosball and drank plenty of Genesee 12 Horse Ale at the Brewery.

Thanks for bringing back some great memories!

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_________________________________________________
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa

http://www.litespeed.com

 
My college had a robust Outdoor Program that I took advantage of while there. Highlight was a week long trip to Zion National Park which was pretty cool.

There are a number of factors at play.

1. Our trips were heavily subsidized by the school which is what made it possible for us to go on the trips. $200 for a week in Zion is pretty dang good. The Outdoor Program had it's own stock of outdoor gear to supplement what students had. It paid student directors as part of their work study to work the program and organize the trips. And probably most importantly it gave us access to school vans to make the trip in.

2. Yes it could be pressure from an insurance company, but lets not pretend that is the insurance company's fault. Some blame the insurance companies, some blame the lawyers. But there wouldn't be as much of an issue if our society didn't look at every accident as a payday. It is the litigious asshole parents who are the real problem, without them there are no lawyers to sue for millions and without the lawyers the insurance company doesn't have to advise against trips like this to avoid paying out millions of dollars. Insurance companies just react to the reality they operate in, they don't generally create it.

There is a lot of risk in turning lose a bunch of students with a student leader/driver of a school van to head off into the wilderness. Which sucks because how the hell is anyone going to grow up if not for risky adventures?

I was a freshman at Purdue in 1980. On the coldest night of the year, had to be under -25deg, they had the "Naked Olympics". This consisted, to my very great surprise, of naked students running round an ~300m long sidewalk around a dorm interior courtyard. Mostly guys, but a few girls. Everyone had shoes and gloves on. Lots of hats. One or two "dick-socks", I'd call them. It was so damned cold, that even tho I wore almost everything I owned, I only lasted maybe 20min. To an 18yr old who thought the funniest thing in the world was Monty Python, the Naked Olympics made a big impression on me.

The winner, iirc, ran >20mi. Really quite impressive.

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Books @ Amazon
"If only he had used his genius for niceness, instead of Evil." M. Smart

The 'Skeller sold Rolling Rock beer -- but only by the case. (Thus the need to enlist friends to "do a case study".)
If I remember, there was a book "100 things" to be a real Penn Stater; Mifflin Streak and 'Skeller case study were both listed.

Was definitely a fun place to go to school.
I went back about 4yrs after graduation, to catch a football game w/ a friend.
We had tickets but no place to stay, so we tried a hotel on edge of campus.
No luck -- but the guy working the front desk happened to be my neighbor from freshman year dorm.
He'd been a scholarship athlete - shotput. Huge monster of a dude. Said we could crash at his apartment if we took him out for beers after the game....

Turns out, a pitcher of beer in this guy's hands was like a mini-coke.
Many many pitchers later, woke up the next morning on floor of this guy's kitchen.
Forensic analysis of our credit card receipts showed we done one hell of a pub crawl.
Good times, great memories. Haven't been back since.

Thank a lawyer.

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Suffer Well.