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After this spring, the Penn State University Outing Club isn’t going out anymore.
A risk assessment by the university determined that the club’s typical activities -- hiking, running, backpacking trips and the like -- are too risky. The club earlier this month told its members that the university has deemed them above its “threshold of acceptable risk for recognized student organizations.”
The 169-member club, founded in 1920, announced the change earlier this month on its website and Facebook page. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Don Hopey wrote about it last week, noting that a university review of two other groups -- the Nittany Grotto Caving Club and the Nittany Divers SCUBA Club -- found them too risky as well, and the groups will be disbanded.
By contrast, Hopey said, Penn State’s archery, boxing, alpine ski racing and rifle clubs passed the review.
Richard Waltz, the Outing Club’s 2017-18 president, said club leaders talked to the club adviser and university staff about safety issues, but that they didn’t get the chance to talk to the risk assessment office, which made the decision.
“Safety is a legitimate concern, but it wasn’t an open dialogue,” Waltz said.
Michael Lacey, president of the Caving Club, told the Centre Daily Times that Penn State has "just been clamping down really hard on the nature of activities" since the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
The caving club is 70 years old, while the outing club is even older: 98 years old.
University spokeswoman Lisa Powers told the Daily Times that the groups were losing their recognition "due to an unacceptable amount of risk to student members that is associated with their activities."
Christina Platt, the outing club's incoming president, said she could “hardly blame Penn State for protecting itself against further litigation after a number of high-profile scandals in the past decade,” but she told Hopey, “Our increasingly litigious society is making it far more difficult for people to get outside without the fear of lawsuits for any misstep.”
In its posting, the club said the community that has grown around it “is not going anywhere” and that officers are working with the club’s adviser and Penn State staff “to find the appropriate structure” within the university to go outdoors again.
