Thoughts on Gadkin
The Bethel tradition creates mixed feelings.
By Halle Marr
It’s that time of year: the season of Gadkin.
This ongoing Bethel tradition has been hyped up since Welcome Week, where freshmen are first exposed to the unfamiliar and intimidating word. What does it mean?
Gadkin is an event put on by BSG’s Bethel Traditions committee and has been a part of Bethel’s culture for generations. It’s “nikdag” backwards, which is the Swedish term for a Sadie Hawkins event where the girls ask the guys. Gadkin is an entire weekend of events held in the fall with a BSG-determined theme where a guy has to ask a girl to be their date for the weekend. This year the theme is “Night at the Gadkin” which involves a date at a museum, a night of swing dancing, laser tag at Grand Slam, painting canvases and eating cookies.
“The problem is there are less guys than girls,” Said Jasmine Roste, a freshman Shift leader. “Many guys don’t ask girls because they are too cool. I’ve warned my shift girls already that last year no one on my floor got asked and so they shouldn’t get their hopes up.”
Senior Harrison Hitt thinks Gadkin does more harm than good. “It creates a lot of hurt and confusion for the women on this campus,” he said. “Those who don’t get asked feel like garbage and then those who do, it creates confusion because they say it doesn’t mean anything when you ask someone but then it does.”
Others claim the event isn’t the problem, but the approach and hype are. “It is made a much bigger deal than it actually is,” said Larkin De Haan, Bethel Traditions committee member. “As a freshmen you are really bombarded with Gadkin and you’re exposed to it very early on and it is hyped up, but then the overemphasis of the event leads to the great disappointment.“ De Haan explained her freshmen year experience. “Out of my floor of 25 girls, only about 4 or 5 of us didn’t get asked. I was one of them,” she said.
Junior Ellary Kramka says Gadkin can be harmful for insecure freshmen and further isolate those who already feel isolated. “It encourages, in some regards, the ring by spring mentality,” she added. “But at the same time, it’s an event that is a lot of fun for people and just because it isolates some people doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen.”
