As much as I applaud you guys for providing entertainment and events during the welcome week, I'm curious about two things:
1. Was the courtyard outside the library really the best place for a band to be playing? And loudly at that? I had a course in the lecture theatre in D building and we couldn't even hear the instructor. Between classes, when some of us went to the library to do some reading, we could barely concentrate at the back study tables.
2. Some of us girls are wondering why the guys didn't participate in the jam wrestling. In the spirit of keeping everything fair and not come off as alienating any one sex, it would have been nice to see the guys getting all mucky in their skimpy speedo bathing suits as well. I'm doing my best to fight off my inner feminist by proposing that next time have both males and females involved in this event... I know the intent was all in the spirit of fun but by only having girls participate in the equivalent of mud wrestling (yeah, I get it... Cram Jam... jam wrestling), it comes off as a little sexist, chauvinistic, and down right objectifying to women. Oh, whoops sorry... the feminist slipped out.
Two good points... and in response...
1. There really is no other place on campus to have the September Welcome Week outside that is either a safe place to do it or in an open enough area that students will actually see what is going on. It's only once a year that we do the Welcome week in an outdoor like area and if it is not a band, one of the radio stations setups a DJ with speakers often sets up to add colour to the event. We are always cognizant of students studying and that is why we usually do it in that courtyard because the classrooms are farther away from that location. Knowing it is once a year Kwantlen has always approved us doing it in that space. Having bands in the G-Building courtyard is worse as you have 3x as many classes on 3 floors right next to that court yard. The only other outdoor option left is the parking lots and yeah - I'm sure you've seen how full they are.
Compare this to the January welcome week is usually in the conference center which results in less people attending because the conference center is so far off the beaten path - band or no band / radio DJ or no radio DJ.
2. Our general manager Desmond Rodenbour was willing to hop into the wrestling ring with Derek Robertson, but apparently Derek chickened out at the last minute... I don't know if other KSA men were asked to take part. I didn't do it because I wasn't asked as I was asked to photograph and video everything that day. I was also disappointed that they mixed in tomato sauce with the jam. Why not just buy more jam? Also, I believe the idea was actually created / suggested by the ladies of the KSA who participated, not the men. It was definitely a last minute thing that came up - I first heard about it on Tuesday and some people thought it was a joke that was not even going to happen... but alas it did. And it was kinda cool - and if we ever do it again, we will definitely ensure men take part... and really, more men should have been there as I think Kwantlen has more women attending the campus then men.
Anyway - thanks for the comments. I will ensure they are passed onto our events department.
Hope to see you at CramJam,
- Steve
