Patcharin Jongjai 2019/08/10 , ( 346 views)
Each year at the beginning of the first semester, one of the most well-known activities among students in schools, colleges, and universities is a hazing ritual that is normally organized as a tradition. The activity is usually organized in various forms depending on each institution. However, in the past, it appears that some educational institutions organized the events with a lack of serious concern on participants’ mental and physical safety, as well as their basic human rights. Nowadays, the younger generations are more aware about people’s rights and safety. Therefore, many institutions have emphasized creating more creative hazing ritual activities such as social voluntary activities, religious activities, and cultural preservation activities. Focusing on these types of activities could help reduce many dangerous hazards towards people’s lives. Moreover, last month, the Faculty of Engineering at UBU organized a social voluntary activity where the faculty’s members, alumni, current students, and its freshmen got to meet and greet each other while also completing a community task together.
On 10 August 2019, the Faculty of Agriculture ran another creative hazing ritual for its 2019 freshmen. This event allowed current students and the freshmen to learn more about the agricultural life style by planting rice trees. Mr. Narintorn Boonbrahm, Dean of Faculty of Agriculture led approximately 300 students in planting trees at the faculty’s experimental fields. The rice products produced from the planted trees will be used to support the students’ activities.
Mr. Chaiwat Jekmadun, 4th year Animal Science student and the President of the Faculty of Agriculture’s Student Union, stated that the faculty organizes this activity every year as a tradition. It transfers from generation to generation. The rice tree planting activity is one of the many creative agricultural activities organized by the faculty. The activity aims to help the freshmen understand the whole process of rice production, to create consciousness on the value of rice, and to create awareness on Thai farmers’ difficulties. The rice trees planted in this activity consisted of sticky rice trees and paddy rice trees. The trees were planted throughout 1.28 hectares. Some of the rice products will be used to support the students’ activities while the rest will be stored for the Congratulation’s event for the faculty’s graduates of this year. Besides students from the Faculty of Agriculture, the faculty also welcomed other students from various faculties at UBU to attend. Therefore, this event helped strengthen the entire student body’s relationship and network, promoted team work, and created more unity. After they finished planting, they all had lunch together in a friendly and harmonious atmosphere. While completing this activity, participants were able to think about and reflect on how farmers in the past helped one another, just like they were able to, while completing self-sufficiency tasks, such as planting trees.
UBU organizes several cultural preservation activities. This activity, in particular, is one of the creative hazing rituals that help students become more comfortable with one another while also appreciating each other. It also further expands and supports the university’s philosophy: “UBU produces intellectuals for a society based on sufficiency.” By engaging in this voluntary activity, students are learning skills on how to be more self-sufficient, paying respect to and praising farmers for their continuous contributions to society, and creating more love and unity amongst themselves, their faculty, and staff. Moreover, it helped raise their pride and joy to be a part of the institution that provides more than just academic knowledge that will help them further contribute to Thailand’s development.
Translated by: Jarinda Boonjan
Original (Thai) version by: Plern Wichaiwong
English revised by: Thaviny Shaipitisiri
Photos by: Plern Wichaiwong