Monday, April 11, 2011
Regulations hurt Booth tradition
The Tartan Online: "As an alumnus, I have fond memories of Spring Carnival and, in particular, Booth. I was never part of a fraternity, so Booth gave me an opportunity to work with other members of an organization to build something great that would be enjoyed by hundreds of visitors. Booth gave me an opportunity to meet alumni and general Pittsburgh residents. Booth was collaborative, spontaneous, and open. Booth was fun. However, as Carnegie Mellon becomes increasingly paranoid and restrictions are added to the process, I worry that bureaucracy is destroying much of what Booth is at its core.
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13 comments:
I don't really see any reason that the safety (and legal) precautions are ridiculous. If I'm not mistaken, people have been wearing hard hats while building Booths for years -- one guy I know really likes them. It's true that people will always manage to wander in, but there's no reason trying to keep track is bad. I was surprised to see that the writer thought people would be deterred from Booth because they had to sign a form promising not to sue. It's a construction site, basically, and you take risks. It comes with the building. Why would you not do it just because you couldn't sue someone if you get hurt? I know none of the safety measures would stop me from doing Booth if I wanted to.
I don't think that these precautions are ridiculous, either. It's not liking wearing a hardhat is going to hurt anyone. The university has a right to protect their liability. I do agree with this author, though, when he says that a course on safe construction practices would be a good idea. I saw some scary stuff going on the other day. While I love that anyone can participate in booth, not just students who know about building things, I do believe that anyone working on a booth should be taught about safety. I think that some of the students are just ignorant about safe practices, and that the added element of commotion makes things worse. It would be a tragedy if booth led to a major injury or death, and the university should do more to teach the students about being safe in addition to covering themselves for liability. The university would have to worry less about liability if they did their part to prevent safety issues in the first place.
While I wholly and completely agree that there should be stronger safety regulations for building during Carnival, it seems to me that this is not enough. The grumbling and promotion of "hurting" the tradition does not help. Honestly hard hats are an improvement, but not a great one. Of course they are safer, but not by much. What really should be done is a required safety course, or some sort of instruction before building. What scares me most is watching students use a circular saw in their shorts and flip flops without supports. The sea of hard hats isn't doing enough.
I don't see any of these added things to booth as ridiculous or ruining traditions. Granted I'm a freshmen but adding hard helmets is probably a good idea. You never know when something could just fall right on your head and your head is kind of an important part of your body. Also random people can't just walk into the Midway during the building of the booths. There is safety tape all around in to warn you from crossing into a dangerous area.
As for the wrist bands I don't think that's going to stop people from going to see Booth. If they add some kind of payment then people might not come but to sign a waiver or wear a wristband it's going to stop me from going to enjoy myself. I think this author is just stuck in the past and is exaggerating.
This article is ridiculous. How hard is it to sign a waiver or wear a hard hat. Stop wining. The author is a hypocrite. He says that signing waivers and hard hats are causing people to not want to participate yet he suggests a training corse on safety. while a good idea, that seems like it would be more of a deterrent. What students would be willing to take time out of their schedule to take a safety corse. I'm not saying its not important, but most students don't even realize how much they dont know or care to know about safety.
It seems like this person feels like all these new regulations are imposing on her fun environment and are not successful enough for it to be worth it. It would certainly ruin this fun tradition if a student or worse innocent passer-by was killed. Safety classes seem smart. To me, the hard hats seem like a way to make thugs a little safer, but they also seem fun. I haven't seen a lot of decorated ones, but i can see how the hard hats might become a new fun part of the tradition. I don't think the waiver will cause less students to participate. I actually think that having to sign the waiver to participate makes it more of an exciting commitment. And CMU is smart to be keeping themselves safe legally.
I understand why this article is a little upset. But in many ways, it represents the kind of knee jerk reaction that it cautioned against.
This is just an extension of what is becoming a more and more litigious society. Costs are high for everyone. Both for liability insurance, and when lawsuits settle in court and out of court. The problem is larger than CMU, it's societal. People love suing other people. Many think it's a golden ticket. There's no cap on pain and suffering claims. Hard hats are, relatively, a mild step against lawsuits. And those waivers you signed? Proven case law shows that they don't always hold up in court.
ABSURD. Hard hats and waivers are a deterrent... I don't think so. So many people have been walking around campus in hard hats this week, it is more of an advertisement for Booth and carnival in general. It give is more of a public appearance. The author is being melodramatic and whining for attention. Hannah puts it best, the bummer of wearing a hard hat or the trauma of a serious injury or death. We have all heard the crazy stuff like this our parents used to do, but the safety has changed because people have been hurt. I am surprised that we do not wear hard hats in our theaters. I think it should be required.
Training is always a good idea. It would be difficult, but not impossible the figure out what kind of training Booth construction would require... Nothing is too hard to save people from injury or death.
I understand the writer's point that some of the safety measures are motions rather than actions, but I think the overall stance on the matter seems highly over dramatic. If waivers and hard hats are scaring people away, then what will booth be like when and if they start making people go through safety training. Setting up booths is more dangerous than most of the students are aware of and that's because they don't seem educated enough to even recognize the hazards, let alone lead the project. Of course there are time constraints which cause rush and stress but telling the university to back off and allow the danger and risk is a rather uneducated response to the university's concern about carnival safety. It's not just a liability, as the writer believes. It's a general concern for someone's safety and the people around them.
Comment above should say "Nicole Addis". Oops.
The precautions that the university is taking arent that ridiculous. Wearing a hard hat and signing a waiver when working on a construction site is a simple task. The students can easily obtain a wrist band, waiver, and hard hat from the Carnival Committee. More training in safety would be better, but if someone could not attend, or scheduling the training would be a pain, then would they not be allowed to participate? Hard hats are just one step to increasing the safety on the booth construction site. Safety glasses where going to be required as well which would have been a whole other issue to get students to wear them. There is much more SCC can do in coordination with the university that would up safety. As much as a pain it may be to wear a hard hat, its better to play it safe. The community knows the dangers as well, they just ignore them. There is caution tape and signs by the main entrance that say "Hard Hat Required", they just choose to ignore it. If you want to help and join, just get a hard hat, I can see where the author is coming from, but it doesnt take much to do it.
The author states, "it seems like a badly implemented knee-jerk reaction to a problem that doesn’t exist". Now, I don't know particular details, because I myself was not here when this happened, but I do remember being told how a few years ago there was a girl at the top of a booth who fell off and cracked her head open on the pavement. That does not seem like "a problem that doesn't exist".
Not only would CMU be more than warranted to require hard hats, safety glasses, and other PPE while building booths, I agree that safety classes would also be a good idea. And not only safety classes, but a class with a few basic building standards as well.
As someone who works in the shop, it is especially scary to see the way many of these booths are constructed. Stairs that do not have the treads on top of the rises, railings that would never in a million years stop a fall, too long of spans with no supports, the list goes on and on. Obviously, part of the fun of carnival is for students who normally wouldn't be constructing things to get out and try something new, but it is so dangerous without having any knowledge on the subject.
The recent requirements are not only justified, but are not even close to enough. There should be more restrictions and regulations then they currently have in place.
I understand where the author is coming from but I am not opposed to the new safety regulations though, granted I was not around in the olden day of Carnival. From what I have heard there are several head injuries every year and I imagine hard hats will be a good way of preventing these incidents. Plus I think the hard hats will become a neat tradition, there is something about wearing a hard hat or carrying it around while you are on break.
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