Apr 27, 2018 4 min read

No matter how sedate our lives might be, we all deal with some level of risk.

Even if we don’t venture outside our homes, we have the risk of falling and injuring ourselves, or perhaps burning ourselves while cooking.

When we go out into the wider world, there’s always the risk of an auto accident or some other such mishap.

Some of us pursue activities that put us at greater risk than normal, whether it be through sports or outdoor activities such as bungee jumping or skydiving. Others smoke or consume too much food or alcohol.

The point is, each person makes a decision about how much risk he or she is willing to assume as part of everyday life.

At Penn State, the powers that be have decided that after nearly a century, the university’s student-led Outing Club is simply too hazardous to continue.

The Outing Club, according to a recent report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, sponsors such activities as backpacking in Rothrock State Forest and day hikes in the Laurel Highlands. They’ve also offered students the opportunity to kayak, camp and build trails.

It’s one of the oldest student-run groups at Penn State, and its days are numbered because, according to an announcement posted by the Outing Club on its website, “an assessment of risk management by the university … determined that the types of activities in which PSOC engages are above the university’s threshold of acceptable risk for recognized student organizations.”

A caving club and a scuba club also got the ax after the school’s safety assessment, but passing muster were clubs for archery, alpine ski racing, rifle shooting and boxing. So, the Outing Club’s hikes are too risky, but shooting, flying down mountains on skis and beating another person in the head are OK. We’re guessing that you are as puzzled by all this as we are.

Richard Waltz, current president of the Outing Club, told the P-G that club leaders had discussions with club advisers and university staff members regarding safety issues, but they had no interactions with the risk-assessment office that made the decision to pull the plug. A university official refused to provide the P-G with a copy of the risk-assessment report on the club.

“Safety is a legitimate concern, but it wasn’t an open dialogue,” Waltz told the newspaper. “What’s happening to the club is a shame and negatively impacts the student experience.”

Another interesting facet to this story is that the university has its own organization that provides similar trips to those offered by the club, but it charges significantly more for the experiences. A typical trip with the club might cost participants a total of $25, the P-G said, but costs of trips with the PSU-run Outdoor Adventures organization run between $90 and $130. Is this a case of following the money to determine why the decision really was made?

The P-G found quite a few angry responses on Penn State’s Reddit site.

One poster said, “The absurdity and hypocrisy of this decision is not lost on me. Looking at what Penn State allows for other student orgs on campus (ahem, I’m looking at you, frats & sororities) and even university-sponsored sports, yet they draw the line with students going hiking in Rothrock?”

A post on the club’s Facebook page from Charlie Walbridge, a Bucknell University student in the late ’60s and early ’70s who joined the Outing Club, referenced the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal in the football program and the hazing death of a fraternity pledge who suffered fatal injuries in a fall after heavy drinking.

Said Walbridge, “After all the problems with hazing, harassment, and sex abuse they’re worried about the OUTING CLUB? Ridiculous!”

In the end, it seems that Penn State’s decision to close the club is based largely on fear of litigation should a club member be injured. Operating out of fear is really not a great lesson for the school to be teaching its students.