Accountability in actions, not just words
Although the AMS is commendable for their willingness to take accountability for the hazing that sent two AMS Pub Services (TAPS) employees to the hospital, the real test of their accountability will be the actions following.
Since TAPS falls under his portfolio, AMS Vice President (Operations) Dave Walker took full responsibility for the dangerous events at the social as reported in The Journal last week. He provided The Journal with the list of tasks given to new AMS Pub Services employees at the event, although he only received the list himself the morning following the events.
While this level of transparency displays just the attitude students are expecting from their student leaders, the true judge of the AMS’s accountability will be in the events that unfold in the coming weeks.
It’s unsettling to think that the people entrusted with the responsibility of being our servers and bartenders are contributing to the negative drinking culture that’s already prevalent at Queen’s. Dealing with this issue takes much more than simply apologizing — it takes proactiveness, not reactiveness.
It’s wasn’t a secret to the AMS that hazing continues to persist during frosh week, and in Walker’s words fixing it “should have started a long time ago.” But without proper steps going forward, the same thing may end up happening next year again.
If these events are swept up without ensuring this doesn’t happen again, the AMS’s words of accountability will have been just words.
The way the AMS acts to change a culture of complicity speaks volumes. It sets an example to the thousands of new students who have just arrived and may find themselves in similar situations of pressure in their next four years here.
The AMS has a responsibility to do much more than just mop up the mess. They have a responsibility to make sure they take their own words to heart and make sure this mess isn’t made under the AMS’s watch again.
See the article this editorial is discussing below.
Campus service hazing results in student hospitalizations & vandalism
Sitting in his office in the AMS bunker on Wednesday morning, Vice President (Operations) Dave Walker held a list in his hands. “I mean, if we’re going to address the elephant in the room, this was disgusting, and it was hazing,” he said.
