Colleges Look to Control Fraternities, Hazing As Tragic Incidents Multiply

By and | September 29, 2014

  • September 29, 2014 at 11:46 am
    ExciteBiker says:
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    Banning pledging entirely is going too far. I was in a fraternity that got thrown off campus/charter suspended while I was in school.

    Here is a list of the kind of stuff pledges were required to do:

    -Wear a blindfold on rare occasions.

    -Maintain an acceptable GPA.

    -Attend regular study hours at the house.

    -Recite the organization’s mottos while sometimes being yelled at.

    -Do a handful of pushups (~10) or a wall sit for a minute or two.

    -Eat something “gross” like condiments mixed together with salt & pepper or dinner entree mixed with dessert.

    -Be able to recite member’s names, home towns and college majors if asked.

    -Spend one assigned day per week at the house when not in classes. Time was to be spent studying, doing homework and doing minor chores at the org. house like sweeping and mopping common areas.

    -Wear a “pledge uniform” on campus- white t-shirt, jeans and work boots.

    -Build small structures for events (plywood walls, small step stairs, maybe a booth)

    -Serve meals and assist the kitchen staff with washing dishes.

    There were no dangerous activities, there was nothing physical (pledges were never hit etc), there was never any forced drinking or use of illicit substances. Any members acting outside these guidelines were dealt with immediately and severely. For example, one time an active member threw an empty cup at a pledge. He was suspended from the organization.

    Many, many years later, I still wonder what about our pledge program was inappropriate. I am certain it pales in comparison to a large number of programs still in use for high school athletics, college athletics, professional athletics, police and fire departments, and the military.

    • September 29, 2014 at 1:48 pm
      Libby says:
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      I think things may have changed since you were a pledge.

    • September 29, 2014 at 5:12 pm
      SWFL Agent says:
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      EB, there must be something missing from your list. None of the items you mentioned would, individually or collectively, get a fraternity “thrown off campus”.

    • September 30, 2014 at 2:15 pm
      KY jw says:
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      How could you not know what the frat did to warrant expulsion?

  • September 29, 2014 at 2:25 pm
    REALLY? says:
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    I am older than all of you…guaranteed. I refused to participate in a fraternity in Junior High School (yeah, really) because I would not join the hazing ritual. It was childish, humiliating, and possibly dangerous. Being the only letterman athlete not in the fraternity, I was pressured, threatened, and hated. I stood my ground. In high school and college, I did not participate either. I wish that I knew how to make it stop. It appears to me to be bullying behavior. I don’t see any significant changes in 49 years.

  • September 29, 2014 at 2:35 pm
    blu lightning says:
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    Things are getting out of control. When I was Greek-late 70’s/early 80’s, we didn’t have to do anything but be able to say the Greek alphabet at will, get every actives information on a 3″x 5″ notepad, take a double shift in cleaning the house and taking the actives on a weekend trip to another chapter by rasing the funds to do so which meant things like car washes and calendar sales. We also had to keep a full time GPA greater than or equal to the men’s average on campus.
    And the initiation ceremony was harmless-repeat words and phases in front of the actives.
    My house was Pi Kappa Alpha and I am proud to be an alumni of that Fraternity.
    I can’t imagine 1 death from being associated with being a pledge. I am astounded at these numbers. Where are the house mom’s and other reponsible adults who are supposed to make sure that the boys and girls don’t do something stupid? There were plenty around when I was in college.

  • September 29, 2014 at 4:16 pm
    Nebraskan says:
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    I was not in a Sorority in college…(dorm rat!)….and my opinion of this kind of behavior (because this stuff happened quite frequently while I attended), is that it’s not just necessarily limited to fraternities and sororities…they just seem to get caught a lot more (don’t get me started on the athletic department).

    I met several people throughout my career that were in sororities and fraternities and there were some really great people, who were very nice. I think the required study time and mandatory GPAs are great for students at college…I certainly didn’t have that living in the dorms. And the networking available is pretty great, too…It seems a lot of people stay in touch with their “sisters/brother” throughout there whole lives.

    I’m not trying to evangelize for sororities/fraternities by any means, but there are always going to be jerks who take things too far. Always. (seriously, don’t get me started on the athletic department)

    Side bar: Let’s combine arguments, just for fun! Just like the NFL, you know what you sign up for, so you get what you deserve!

  • September 30, 2014 at 9:32 am
    AT says:
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    The fraternity system in and of itself is not what’s causing this behavior. Recently new found freedom in young men is the cause. History has shown time and again that 18-25 year old males are abnormally risk prone, we should be the first to understand that. Banning fraternities will not rectify this issue. In fact, a fraternity is really just a collection of young men with some fancy Greek letters, that live together and pool funds for the occasional social event. Take away the Greek letters and not a lot about the risk profile changes. This is a bad case of miscategorizing cause and effect – young men with new found freedom will flock. Currently, that mechanism of flocking is a fraternity, but that does not mean it’s the mechanism that is the cause of the activities.

  • September 30, 2014 at 10:21 am
    Libby says:
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    I think it’s the hazing you have to endure to get into the frat that is being condemned. The the fraternity itself.

    • September 30, 2014 at 10:22 am
      Libby says:
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      Not the fraternity itself.

  • October 1, 2014 at 6:14 pm
    Mike says:
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    As a fraternity alumnus I’m continually amazed at the pressure they face politically for ‘hazing’. There is immense pressure to create this ‘zero tolerance’ with respects to hazing, which means what? Where is the line drawn? What constitutes ‘hazing’? There are always examples of extreme hazing which are inappropriate and should be punished. However; new members at any institution are asked to do tasks which aren’t considered hazing there, but in the context of a fraternity they almost: hazing. The military academies have specific sets of rules for incoming freshman, including making them walk of specific sides of the hall at all times or dressing a certain way. Don’t think requiring them to dress a certain way is hazing. At Alabama all freshman pledges at each house are required to wear a specific pair of shoes. For some houses its hush puppies, others its converse or doc martens. This allows pledges of each house to be recognizable on campus – they call that hazing down south. In the NFL, rookies are required to carry pads off the practice field and pay for team dinner outings. When the Richie Incognito scandal hit, they said his form of hazing was bad, but carrying pads was, ok. So what’s Zero Tolerance, and why the double standard of Fraternities? For a vast majority of fraternity pledges cleaning dishes, wearing a pledge pin, singing some serenades to the Sororities, and being focused during initiation week is a rite of passage that makes you a better more confident person in the real world.

    Obviously these alcohol related deaths are preventable which is much of the focus. However, too much focus is played to Fraternities. What are the numbers of alcohol and drug related deaths compared to campus populations as a whole? Statistics say 1,400 college students die each year from Alcohol related deaths. The Greek system is anywhere from 10-25% of a college campus, and we’re overly concerned about 60 deaths in a group of over 10,000? In order for the Greek System to be on par with the general population, the number of deaths from the last 10 years would need to be 600 – that’s 94% less than the total no. of deaths.

    The universities like to go after the fraternities because they’re easy targets. Instead of trying to prevent the actions of every student they can point to the institutions to which a select group or individuals belong and demonize them as the problem and divert the attention from the issues with the masses. That’s fine, shut down every frat and then look at your statistics.

  • October 2, 2014 at 5:16 pm
    Agreek says:
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    My fraternity was the “Animal House” on campus and our pledge rituals would probably be considered hazing today. There was the normal forced memorization of fraterity history, rituals, & songs, and goofy “challenges” each evening for the pledges. But there was also heavy alcohol consumption forced and while no true physical hazing, the mental and emotional games played on the pledges would be considered inhuman today.



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