Ragging

Abolish Senseless Varsity Orientation

I AM a first year student at a local university and I am writing in because I think our orientation is the most stupid activity which must be abolished.

I do not understand why we are being screamed at, made to run around getting hundreds of signatures and not being allowed to sleep.

Picture this - on our very first day of orientation, we were allowed only three hours of sleep.

The following days we were only allowed an hour of sleep. Everyone was feeling really tired, and we were not given time to bathe. Everyone was grotty.

Seniors were screaming at us and meting out all kinds of punishments. I do not understand why.

We came to university to study. We did not come here to learn how to live without sleep.

It is annoying to have to get our seniors' signatures when some of them are so nasty when we go to them. They scream at us, degrade and humiliate us.

Is this supposed to foster goodwill?

Lectures have started and now a second unofficial orientation is going around. You can hear everyone coughing away in classes because orientation made them so sick.

Everyone is still bleary eyed from their lack of sleep. Everyone hates the seniors because the seniors are being so mean.

And yes, people might say, orientation it is an experience. But what type of an absurd experience is this where we are not allowed to sleep?

What type of experience is this where we are screamed at so much till our ears hurt? I was extremely sick the other day but my seniors refused to let me go home.

I finally went to a doctor and it turned out that I was suffering from dehydration.

Do the seniors care? No. All they could think of was when you would return so that they could continue torturing you.

I know many students went through worst orientations. I do not know how they tolerated it. But what I went through was not what I had expected as part of university life.

I had expected undergraduates to be mature and intelligent human beings.

This is the first time for many of us to be away from home. Were we made to feel welcome in the universities? No, not at all.

Orientation should be abolished. This form of senseless torture should not be allowed because it is not the least bit productive. It is, in fact, harmful and insidiously destructive to many freshmen.


TIRED FRESHMAN,
Petaling Jaya.



Ragging Still Going On Despite The Ban

I AM pursuing my second-year studies in a local university and it saddens me when one of my juniors told me she and all of her peers in the first year suffered ragging in her hostel.

They had to undergo a very painful and embarrassing activity during the first week in university. Each of them had to crawl on their knees and make a few rounds in and out of the Sixth College's common hall.

This really caused an uproar among the students, as all of them completed the activity with badly bruised knees.

This activity was done after they had endured sleepless nights having to attend all the speeches, seminars and activities organised by the university during the orientation week.

They were angry and hurt but were too terrified to speak up and protest against the ragging for fear of being further punished.

This is something which should never have happened in the first place, considering that ragging has been banned in educational institutions in the country.


WORRIED STUDENT,
Penang.

( 原文载自 http://thestar.com.my/news )



昨天和我的朋友们喝茶,
大家也都聊到了自己在本地大学的 Orientation 经验.
虽然没有以上两位那么惨,
但活动都有些类似...

看了之后,有着莫名的愤怒.
这样对待学弟学妹,
只为了报复自己一年前的处境?
这样的大学生,这样的思想,
没问题吗?

我还没开始我的 NUS Orientation,
但或许我该庆幸.
因为在我自己报名的 Orientation 当中,
所有的 senior 都很尽力地在帮我们解决问题.
尤其是 NUSMSL 和 KE7 的 senior,
真的很谢谢他们.

希望我的 orientation 是愉快的,
虽然它还是个未知数...