Research Topic

“Making friends or Making out.” This is one of the article headlines in The Straits Times forum a few weeks ago. A writer wrote in to express her concern about the nature of orientation games that are being carried out in the universities. There have also been other articles reporting that university orientation games have taken a more sexual and lewd approach over the past few years. Gone are the days when seniors will bully the freshman and what comes in are forfeits that have more body contact between males and females. An example of such forfeits is asking a male student to do pushups on a female student. This brings up the question whether this kind of orientation games should be allowed to carry on? Or should school advisors step in to regulate these activities?

The aim of orientation is to allow freshman to meet new friends in their university life. The Social Development Unit also makes use of this opportunity to promote more interaction between male and female students. However, encouraging interactions between the genders through this kind of physical and sexual games may not be desirable. Attraction between the genders may become more of a physical attraction rather than base on an individual character.

I have been through as a freshman and senior in orientation. In my opinion, orientation games are indeed more and more daring and physical. Such games can really add more spice and laughter to the camp and boost the spirits of the campers. However, I have to agree that there are still conservative students who deem these games unacceptable. Unfortunately, they often have to participate in such games to prevent being labeled as spoil sport.

To answer the research questions, surveys can be targeted at freshman and also students that are about to enter university life. Since these students are the ones who will have been through or going to participate in the orientation, it is important that their views are being taken into consideration.