When Discipline Loses Its Human Side: Lessons from the UNNES Orientation Tragedy

New student orientation activities should ideally serve as a person’s first gateway to the world of higher education. At these events, students are introduced to the academic environment. They are shaped to understand responsibility, learn to work together, and adapt to their new life as university students. However, an important question must be asked. When an activity aims to shape human beings, are its participants actually being treated as human beings? This question has resurfaced after a new student at Semarang State University (UNNES), Rivaldo Aulia Reza, died following a traffic accident while returning from an orientation activity. According to police statements reported by detikJateng, the accident occurred on Jalan Koesbiyono Tjondeowibowo, Gunungpati, Semarang. The victim, who was riding pillion with another student, was suspected of lacking focus while riding. Their vehicle swerved and crashed. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. UNNES has confirmed the tragic news and urged students to be more careful when riding.

Humans Are Not Merely Participants Who Must Obey

In humanistic psychology, humans are viewed as distinct from mere objects controlled by stimuli, responses, or instinctual drives. This approach sees humans as individuals with potential, free will, and the capacity for self-development. With this view, new students should not be seen merely as ‘orientation participants’ who must follow all instructions from the committee. They are individuals with differing physical conditions, experiences, needs, abilities, and limits. Here, the meaning of humanism becomes important. Orientation activities do need rules. Students must learn to respect time, obey regulations, be responsible, and work together. However, discipline does not mean obedience without limits. The boundary of humanity can actually begin with how the rules are made. The committee has the authority to determine schedules, durations, activities, and various rules that participants must follow. Therefore, humanistic values should not only be visible in how the committee speaks to students. These values should also be visible from the very process of designing the activity. A rule can be firm and still humane. The question is not whether students may be given challenges. What matters is whether those challenges have a clear educational purpose, and whether their implementation still considers the human condition of those facing them.

Food and Rest Are Not Enemies of Discipline

One important idea in humanistic psychology is that humans have needs that drive their developmental process. Abraham Maslow, in A Theory of Human Motivation, explains that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy. Physiological needs are among the most fundamental. He explains that when physiological needs are severely unmet, those needs can dominate attention and push other needs into the background. Once basic needs are sufficiently met, other needs can emerge and become drivers of human behaviour. This thinking is important when discussing student orientation. Eating, drinking, sleeping, resting, and feeling safe are not forms of participant ‘coddling’. All of these are basic human needs. Therefore, meeting participants’ needs should not be considered contrary to character building. On the contrary, an activity that aims to shape human beings needs to understand the condition of the human beings being shaped. Imagine an activity designed to train concentration, but its participants are extremely tired. Or an activity that aims to build critical thinking skills, but participants have no opportunity to recover their physical condition. The question now is not only whether participants can complete the activity. The more important question is: Do the methods used actually help them grow?

Not All Students Have the Same Condition

Another issue that needs attention is that students are not a uniform group. There are students who can follow physical activities for a long time. There are also those who tire more quickly. Some can express their complaints openly. Yet others choose to remain silent. Everyone’s experience is also different. Humanistic psychology focuses on the subjective experience of humans. However, this approach also has limitations because subjective experience is not always easy to measure objectively. Because we cannot know the condition of every participant with certainty, the activity system must have a way to deal with these differences. A humane orientation does not mean the committee must know the condition of every participant in detail. What matters is that there is a system that allows participants to get help when they need it. The availability of rest time, adequate food, access to health assistance, mentoring, and ways to convey complaints are simple examples of such a system. So, treating participants fairly does not always mean giving exactly the same treatment to everyone. Sometimes, a person needs more attention because their circumstances are indeed different.

The Committee Is Not Merely a Holder of Power

This issue then brings us to the side of leadership. The committee has more power than participants in orientation activities. They make rules, give instructions, and ensure activities run according to plan. However, power without responsibility can turn into mere demands for obedience. One important leadership approach is servant leadership. In the study by Dirk van Dierendonck, servant leadership is characterised, among other things, by efforts to empower and develop people.