Money Problems cited
Engineers cancel Stag and Stein
By Paul Clark
Originally published Mar. 6, 1980 in Volume 112, Issue 21 of the Dalhousie Gazette
The Engineering Society cancelled the Stag and Stein on Monday, the much protested SUB event which was to include a series of stripteasing performances.
The Engineering Society executive say they made the decision at the end of January not to hold the event, but did not make this public to teach people a lesson.
However, David McCann, secretary of the Newman Society which actively protested the Stag and Stein, suspects the engineers were scared off from having the event because they learned it may have been illegal.
Mike Book, the engineering representative on student council, says the Engineering Society decided to cancel the Stag and Stein because it would not be economically feasible. He says while they never told anyone, including the members of the Engineering Society, of their decision, they never actually told anyone they would hold the event.
“But the Neuman Society went ahead with their petitions on the assumption we would. We never advertised it or contacted SUB technical about it.”
Book says the Engineering executive let the Neuman Society continue their protest for two reasons.
“First, we don’t like them butting into our affairs – it’s none of their business. Second, it showed that people’s priorities on campus are way out of line. If clubs like the Neuman Society would spend their time constructively on student affairs like tuition increases it would be a lot better.”
McCann doubts whether the engineers’ claims are true and says according to his calculations the Stag and Stein would be economically feasible.
”I was told they made over $400 last year”, he says. McCann says on Monday he called Barry Ward, the student union lawyer, about the legality of having strippers in SUB. McCann says Ward thought the striptease performance “might or might not” violate obscenity laws and that the question was worth pursuing.
McCann informed the council executive of Ward’s answer, and shortly after the engineers cancelled the Stag and Stein.
McCann says the Neuman Society did not intend to bring legal charges against the engineers, but only wished to have students make a rational decision about the morality of having strippers in the SUB.
McCann denied the Engineers claim there are more important issues than the Stag and Stein.
”This is a major social issue involving the exploitation of human beings. Issues like student aid compared to human dignity are nothing. The most important thing we can be concerned with is people”.
McCann said he would be interested in participating on a council committee proposed by Book to establish guidelines for entertainment events in the SUB.
Letters to the Gazette
Originally published Mar. 6, 1980 in Volume 112, Issue 21 of the Dalhousie Gazette
Stag and Stein under attack
To the Gazette:
I couldn’t believe it when first found out that Student Union fees had been used to stage a pornographic event in the Student Union building, and that the occurrence is to be repeated this year! Is this Dalhousie, or the Harrad Experiment regurgitated?? The next thing will be legalized, subsidized prostitution on campus! One has to draw the line somewhere, and I think the Engineers have already gone way past the limit.
The letter from Anne Dunsworth in this week’s issue of the Gazette made a valid point: a crowd of drunken, horny, sexually frustrated Engineers and their followers wandering lecherously around the place after such an event is not a safe situation. If anything can be done to stop the said ridiculous event, it certainly should be. A few more signatures on the circulating petition might help.
I would like to close in stating that it has always been my opinion (and will remain so) that the pathetic males who make use of pornography are, in actuality, the ones who are unable to get “the real thing”!!
Very Sincerely,
Helen F. Jones
Engineers again
To the Gazette:
The Dalhousie Student Engineering Society are back in the news, having made the last two issues of the Dalhousie Gazette. They have done well generating three articles and one letter to the editor. The news generated evolves around the desire and intent to promote a particular display in the MacInnes Room, March 7th.
It is of interest that this display has become one of the most talked about topics on campus in recent weeks; and one to which many students are giving serious thought.
This activity besides creating a great amount of thought and conversation, also contributes very much to the image of the engineering student at Dalhousie. Unfortunately, it doesn’t contribute to building a positive image.
I am curious as to why a group of people would work so diligently to create a negative image of themselves and those they represent. Is it so important to be known as a stud … a respecter of neither person nor property? Why hang this kind of albatros around the necks of their members?
By training and profession engineers are being prepared to contribute in a positive way to the common good of society. Theirs will be the responsibility to prepare the space society needs to live in, its means of transportation, etc. Their technical training prepares them well for these tasks.
Would it not also be excellent preparation if the Engineering Society were to select extra curricular activities in such a way that their talents and energies could be directed toward other needs in our society? There is certainly no lack of energy and imagination for such projects.
May I draw your attention to the fact that another student society at Dalhousie has recently successfully completed such a useful project. The Dalhousie Medical Student Society (who are no less virile than the engineers) organized a fun evening – built around an auction. They raised a respectable $5,000 which they donated to: The Pioneer Village and Landmark East; two organizations responding to the needs of deprived children. This reaching out to others in need is certainly a credit to the students, the medical school and the university.
I would offer a suggestion, for starters, to the engineering society. Why not harness your abundant energies and talents to sponsor a fund raising event with the proceeds going to Bryon House, a house of refuge and protection for battered women, here in the city. They are in desperate need.
Such an extra curricular elective would be a real educative activity, and would make a positive contribution to your own growth and the good of society.
Fr. Joe Hattie, O.M.I
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