Ohio State band director fired for "sexualized culture"

[oaknightshockey1]

Ohio State fires marching band director Jonathan Waters over 'sexualized culture' - Land-Grant Holy Land

You can read the specific allegations in Section III of this PDF:
http://www.osu.edu/assets/pdf/Investigation-Report.pdf

I feel like this is a bit of an overreaction. To me, this looks like college kids being college kids, and if people felt uncomfortable, they did not have to participate in certain activities.

 

[ellupo]

It may be an overreaction but if the director should not be involved. It is the land of the offended so the director has to pay the price.

 

[oaknightshockey1]

It may be an overreaction but if the director should not be involved. It is the land of the offended so the director has to pay the price.

I get that...I just hate that everything has to be so "politically correct" nowadays. The stupid stuff they did is the stuff that you look back on in 20 years and laugh about. Pretty much any group of college kids in the country does dumb stuff like this. College is a time to have fun and do stupid shit before you get into the real world. Here's a comment on the article from someone who says they were an alum of the band:

I can’t speak specifically to the actual incidents mentioned in the report, but as a proud TBDBITL alum, I can tell you a few things about my own experience.

1. Almost all of the behaviors described in the report were going on when I was in band in 1989-1993. And they had been going on for at least a decade before that.

2. The “Midnight Ramp” – marching a Ramp Entrance in your underwear in the Stadium at midnight – was one of those traditions. It was also completely voluntary. I know it was completely voluntary because I never did it even once. I received no pressure whatsoever to do it. That by itself means it was not “hazing.”

3. There were a lot of sexual jokes, sexual talk, nicknames. But if you had an issue with it, they stopped. I didn’t like it so they left me alone on that basis. It was uncomfortable at times but didn’t hurt me or anyone else as far as I could tell.

4. We were given lectures every season by university administrators about “hazing.” Nothing I saw qualified as hazing, either legally or practically.

5. The songbook with the, um, revised lyrics for other schools’ fight songs is not unique to OSUMB in the slightest. In fact, we exchanged songbooks with bands from other schools.

6. This behavior has been going on for decades. Dr. Waters, perhaps the best band director in the country, had had the job as head band director for one season.

 

[Goldbug]

More pussification of America. At OU we're stuck with a douche band director that came from Wisconsin. He's trying to change tradition and is running into a brick wall. The fans don't like him and the band members hate him but Mr. Big Time Liberal David Boren adores the guy. We'll see how that turns out. Ohio State should be ashamed of itself. You do have a great band and that starts with the band director. Hope he lands on his feet with a good job somewhere else.

 

[ellupo]

More pussification of America. At OU we're stuck with a douche band director that came from Wisconsin. He's trying to change tradition and is running into a brick wall. The fans don't like him and the band members hate him but Mr. Big Time Liberal David Boren adores the guy. We'll see how that turns out. Ohio State should be ashamed of itself. You do have a great band and that starts with the band director. Hope he lands on his feet with a good job somewhere else.

The admins at Ohio State had to bow down to the media and the PC police. It really sucks how things are turning and I agree 100% with the pussification of America.

 

[oaknightshockey1]

I posted this in the thread about fraternities...

I think my favorite thing we did was the "Fun Run". The night before the first home football game, after coming home from whatever party we had that night, the freshmen strip down into boxers and have a race down Greek row knocking on every sorority's door and finishing it off by diving into the fountain in front of the student union. For whatever reason, the campus police never cared much for it.

That's very similar to the "Midnight Ramp" thing that they are getting in trouble for. From the sound of things, it was not mandatory (ours wasn't either), and in fact some people really looked forward to it. I know I had a great time, and my friends and I still look back at stuff like that and laugh at ourselves.

 

[Acrux]

If they only knew what went on at OU those poor bobcats would have their school taken away.