Engineering students at Ryerson University who participated in an apparent hazing ritual that was posted online will not be punished after student representatives on Monday met with school officials to apologize.
In the YouTube video of the annual “slush crawl,” students are shown crawling on their hands and knees while others pelted them with snowballs and water.
The video, which also shows a female student being slapped on the backside by a senior male student, was quickly condemned by school officials and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne who said the annual event was “outdated” and “dangerous.”
Over the weekend Ryerson President Sheldon Levy released a statement calling the event “unacceptable”.
“Anyone who contends it is ‘just fun’ or ‘builds community’ has no place at Ryerson,” he said, adding that he is determined to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
But on Monday, student leaders of the Ryerson Engineering Student Society met with university administrators for what the school described as a discussion aimed not to punish those involved but to prevent and educate the students.
The RESS released a statement later saying they understand that the activities that took place on Thursday were “unacceptable” and take “full responsibility.”
“RESS has already begun developing new guidelines and best practices for their organization and have committed to working with the university to make sure their policies and procedures are in according with Ryerson’s to ensure incidents like the ones on Thursday never happen again,” the statement reads.
The slush crawl is a tradition in the engineering department and is held as a way for students to earn a chance to serve as frosh week leaders in the following school year.
While this year’s event was not the first of its kind, it’s believed to be the first time footage from the crawl was posted online.
Ryerson Engineering Student Society president Rose Ghamari said students she spoke to about the slush crawl didn’t raise any concerns.
“Everyone I spoke to and saw after the event was really excited about it and it seemed like everyone had fun,” Ghamari told CTV Toronto on Monday.
However, the aviation and aerospace student admitted that this year’s slush crawl, which saw scantily-clad students crawling across a slushy ice rink in -10 C weather, crossed a line.
“We know that what happened this year was unacceptable and it should not have happened.”
The event also drew sharp condemnation from school officials.
“The fact that there were senior students standing above those students who were crawling in the slush, spraying them with water guns, throwing snowballs at them, yelling at them through megaphones, that’s what made it feel like it crossed the line into hazing,” Heather Lane Vetere, Ryerson’s vice provost, said Monday.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Zuraidah Alman and files from The Canadian Press
