HALIFAX, N.S. — New data released by the Dalhousie Student Union shows it’s now harder to get tickets to the Dalhousie Outdoors Society’s trips than it was for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
The highly anticipated report, shared with the public on Sept. 22, highlighted a 400 per cent gap between available trip tickets and student demand.
“It’s really disappointing,” says Blunden Stone, a third-year sustainability and earth science
student. “I’ve been at Dal for three years and have never gotten a spot.”
Stone wiped tears out of his eyes with the sleeve of his new fleece, which he noted he’s never
been able to take hiking due to the ticket shortage.
“People from around the world talk about the great Ticketmaster war for Taylor Swift tickets, but they don’t understand we’re facing an Eventbrite massacre every day,” he says.
Perhaps, more concerningly, the report detailed Dalhousie Security Services’ seven open cases accusing the student society of fostering a cult around their trips. Evidence includes the making of flower crowns, singing songs and an alarming amount of dried Kool-Aid packets found in the DOS gear library.
Treela Ver, a fourth-year marine biology student, who denies being a part of the cult, expressed disappointment in the lack of loopholes available to her in the DOS system.
“My dad works for Rogers, so he got me tickets to see Taylor in Toronto, but I don’t know any of their trip leaders,” says Ver.
“It’s just so hard when it’s always hard-working students like me who miss out on these events,” she says.
Patrick (Pat) Agonia, a spokesperson for DOS, maintained that the society is doing everything it can to get more students involved.
“We’re aware there’s an issue,” said Agonia, who chose to take the interview over Zoom from a tent in the gear library. “We want to get it fixed, we want to get more people out in nature.”
When asked why DOS trips with no gear requirements are limited to 20 people, Agonia said including more students would “just be too much paperwork.”
In response to the cult accusations, Agonia swore there was nothing peculiar going on with the society and became hostile toward the Mackerel.
“Don’t you all go to King’s?” he said. “Aren’t we talking about Taylor Swift? How dare you accuse me of creating a cult, you smoking philosophy nerd!”
This has prompted the Mackerel to open an eighth case investigating DOS.
By Mira Posluns