Concerning the Sauder Frosh "Rape" Chant...
Let me start by saying this: It is not okay to express anything related to underage or non-consensual sex in a light-hearted or joking manner. There is NOTHING humourous about these two topics, and it is unfortunate that this chant has been sung for so many years.
But with so many articles accusing Sauder and UBC students of having absolutely no human decency, I thought I’d shed light on a new approach.
See, I attended Sauder FROSH my first year at UBC. It was a wild and insanely fun weekend that I know I’ll never forget. We danced, we partied, and we sang many cheers. I remember singing this particular cheer that has now received so much attention. To be honest, I thought absolutely nothing of it at the time. I had actually completely forgotten about it until now. We sang so many cheers, and many of them had much greater use of course language that had me blushing when I first heard them, so I kind of forgot about this one.
As a first year, I was so caught up in the moment that I didn’t consider the words I was saying. And I think as a Froshee, that is okay. It really is up to the organizers and volunteers at FROSH to determine which cheers are acceptable to teach the first year students. They have the time beforehand to think about what the words really mean, and if they have the potential to offend the new students, who are already nervous about university to begin with.
Obviously this song has been grossly overlooked, but does that really make Sauder students bad people?
Reading the comments online, there is so much hate being directed towards the Sauder community, and that is completely unfair! Most of us are young, fun-loving people, and we work really hard for a large portion of the year. All the FROSH organizers wanted was to create an awesome and unforgettable experience for the first year students.
I can say with 100% certainty, that NONE of those people who put their time and energy into FROSH would DELIBERATELY try to hurt or offend anyone! It was an area that was overlooked, and that is something that many people posting comments online are forgetting. This incident is not representative of what our goals and beliefs are at Sauder and UBC. These are honest people, and of course, now that others have raised their concerns about this matter, I am sure it will never happen again.
So please, show some empathy. We know what we did was wrong, and it shouldn’t have taken this long for us to realize that. But don’t curse the Sauder School of Business, or even UBC. At the end of the day, we’re just people. People make mistakes.
My sincerest hope is that none of the Sauder students who were involved with FROSH this year will have their reputations permanently scarred. Punishments may be in order, but they are good people. I can say that even though I don’t know many of them personally. They wouldn’t have volunteered their time if they weren’t.
I also want to extend my own sincerest apologies to those who were hurt by this song. I owe it to them for not seeing how awful the meaning really was, and for seeing the truth so late.
All in all, this whole episode has taught us that we need to think about what we say. Something that flies completely over your head (as it did for me), can be devastating for others.
And don’t let your anger over what has been done lead you to rage war over the internet against people you don’t even know. You could have just as easily fallen into the same trap.
Let kindness prevail.
- J.M.
Third Year Marketing Student at the Sauder School of Business