Posted by the Editorial Board
Students thought of the college's Ultimate Frisbee team as an unofficial campus fraternity. For 20 years, first-years had happily signed up for the Wombats' hazing, keg practices and raucous spring break team trip. So when the SGA Executive Board de-chartered the club for repeatedly and egregiously breaking the college's Honor Code, the words on everyone's lips should be not, "why?" but, really, "It's about time."
On their first day at the college, every student pledged to uphold the college's Honor Code; on their first night at the college, most students happily enjoyed their first Honor Code violation. But to create a club culture based on violating the Honor Code unapologetically and at every opportunity, as the Wombats have, is to understand that your club is vulnerable to the very first instance of those violations coming to administrative attention. At some point, the college can't look the other way.
The people who police our campus, from Campus Safety officers to our SGA representatives, have long kept a polite blind eye to the club's indiscretions. But when evidence of club-wide expellable offenses starts appearing in lecture halls and administrative inboxes, our campus leaders have no other recourse but to respond accordingly with disciplinary action.
As seen in the regulatory action taken toward other aspects of the college's campus life, from the community-affirming 4/20 to the drunken fun of Moorebid Ball, there comes a point at which a tacit tradition becomes too public to ignore.
The exploits of the Wombats have become a campus institution, a piece of what makes Skidmore unique. It's easy to understand why students might mourn the loss, but when it comes to assigning responsibility for the club's disbandment, the blame doesn't lie with the SGA officers who made the decision. It falls, instead, to the club members who made it impossible for their governing body to respond in any way but severely.
The members of the Wombats can still throw around a Frisbee on the green. But when they go on this year's annual spring break trip, it will be their own money that they're spending – not their piece of every student's tuition. We look forward to seeing a wiser Ultimate Frisbee team on campus next year.