Freshers’ initiations are a chance to do something special that we should embrace

A couple of years ago, at some rather remote university in England, a student died as a result of an initiation ceremony, apparently involving physical activity and alcohol. The details were never quite made clear, but it left many universities and colleges across the land with no option but to ban such ceremonies formally.

This of course, no one could argue with – it would seem dangerous and futile at best, to attempt to. Our own College was particularly clear on the matter. As one may expect, Imperial students were able to adhere to this but retain a pervasive sense of celebration. Thus, I am pleased to say that welcoming parties do still continue, despite the excesses reported of other places which would have otherwise damaged this tradition.

It does, however, raise the question of what they could or should be, instead. Added to which, from the perspective of running a club, it is unthinkable not to welcome new members and start proceedings off in a celebratory mood, and so the current crop of chairs/presidents/captains/[insert other pompous name here]s may be justifiably congratulated on their efforts in treading this delicate line.

This year has seen several such parties, involving various sorts of fancy dress, physical exertion, food, venues, and even measures of (usually ill-advised) nudity. The knees-ups have been apparently spontaneous, starting as bar nights or 'meet and greet' affairs, suggesting that planning of these events is limited, for good or ill.

A range of parties and ideas and themes is all very well – possibly even statistically likely, given the number of clubs – but are we not missing a trick here?

Some commentators would dive in here with a long-winded and self-important tract about "disappointment and failure of originality and things not being as good now as they were in their day, and aren't these people supposed to be intelligent and don't you know about Oxonian or Cantabrigian tradition..." but even making that up is boring me. Even the more concise "Is getting pissed on blackthorn and stripping down to your knickers the best way to welcome freshers?" still retains something of being told what to do by someone whom should never be involved in doing it.

Trouble is, with welcoming fresh blood, and even re-kindling semi-past-it blood, we do have a superb opportunity to really create something immense and even special. Sabbaticals consistently make the effort to provide an arena for it – and why shouldn't they? – so how about we grab it by the proverbial and run with it? On your marks...