Thursday, October 14, 2010

Orientation at Gustavus Adolphus

Shrimp here.

This year's new student orientation at Gustavus Adolphus College, an ELCA-related college in St. Peter, Minnesota, has become much discussed in the blogosphere thanks to some videos posted on YouTube by a student at the college. We'll point you here for a perspective from some of the more conservative students at Gustavus -- a post that includes a video of "a series of clips featuring sexually suggestive theatrics explaining to incoming students such things as: where to get free condoms on campus; how to signal to your roomate that you are busy having sex (so he waits until later to come in); and how to tell your roommate you're gay (as well as the appropriate response you are to take when recieving such information)."

We'll begin by observing that this is not your farfar's Gustavus Adolphus College, back in the days when most everyone went to chapel and administrators knew better than to offer coed dorms.

On the other hand before you go spreading the news of what incoming freshmen were, uh, exposed to during orientation, we also want to point you to the discussion over at ALPB Forum Online, particularly this post from a member of the college's Board of Trustees, which includes this:
The student-created skits depicted in the videos were not appropriate. Period. We were not aware of them before a student posted the videos on YouTube. The skits will not be part of orientation again. While they seem to represent the views of some individuals, they assuredly do not represent a college perspective.
Go ahead, read it all. We are glad that there is more to Gustavus than what you can find here. On the other hand, we wonder if "diversity" is really what a liberal arts college, especially a church-related one, is supposed to be about.

Shrimp out.

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