Recent news about sexualised activities at orientation camps have made Singaporeans go all tut-tutting, with many decrying the debasing activities touted as part of campus 'traditions'.

A common myth surrounding these orientation camps is that they were part of the government's plan to put males and females together to engender sparks of love - and by some convoluted magic of forcing people to kiss or doing push-ups on top of one another - upping the birth rate of our country.

The funding part is true - up to the 2010s, the Social Development Network and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) was sponsoring orientation camps on campuses around the country through the Familymatters@School grant and the U! Interact Fund. The parts about forcing people to kiss and weird push-ups remain a myth.

These initiatives provided funds for social interaction events - which included orientation camps, dinner and dances and sports events. Both co-fund up to 80% of expenditure capped at $5,000. The events had to achieve a gender balance of at least 60:40 among the participants.

In publicly available application forms and FAQs, the MSF distanced itself from the sexualised 'traditions' of camp organisers:

In 2015, the MSF split the campus component of the Familymatters@School grant and spun it off into the U! Interact Fund, which required organisers to provide the a list of emails addresses of participants who agreed to be on the SDN's mailing list, alongside a list of participants.

The funding would also be on a deficit-incurred basis - i.e. student clubs and societies were reimbursed instead - and the application became more stringent. Events had to see a minimum of 100 people with the requisite 60:40 gender ratio.

The MSF ceased the U! Interact Fund on 22 Janurary 2016. This means that the NUS Union Camp that made the news recently would not be eligible for U! Interact funding.

So what effect has this had on student camps?

The NUS Students' Union budgeted around $46,500 for the academic year 2014/2015 for its annual Union Camp - the biggest camp in NUS. (The NTU Students' Union does not publish its budget.)

Orientation camp organisers also need to reduce the cost of their camps, and prevent costs from being passed on to students, who may be turned off from joining them.

Thus, organisers are dependent on sponsorships and funding to run a camp. Unlike the NUS Union Camp, most smaller orientation activities do not have backing from campus union fees.

To get funding from MSF/SDN, camps had to follow the imposed 60:40 gender ratio.

The gender ratio was problematic for student clubs, especially schools that had more males - leading to allegations like these happening:

Screenshot of NTU Confessions page, 2013

MSF's funding, which emphasises social interaction between genders and implementing a gender ratio, may have created an impetus within organisers and camp facilitators to create games and activities to achieve social interaction. Unfortunately, despite MSF's guidelines on the type of activities allowed, student organisers and facilitators may have perverted the nature and objectives of these activities.

But as recent events have shown - stopping funding doesn't mean that these 'traditions' would have stopped.

The number of students defending these 'traditions' on sites like NUSWhispers is a sign of how difficult it would be to change 'traditions' like this without alumni and students bemoaning their loss to 'political correctness'.

Orientation activities are fun, and most camps have been great way to create a campus culture and camaraderie amongst students, as many students have tried to tell the public:

Perhaps this might be a signal from the government to stop the 'traditions' and replace them with something else.

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.