LSU starts this semester minus one fraternity after kicking Delta Chi off campus for allegations of hazing, including paddling, harassing and yelling at pledges.
The allegations against Delta Chi also include singling one pledge out, taking him off campus, stripping him to his boxers, covering his head with a pillow and physically abusing him.
Instances of fraternity hazing aren’t limited to LSU — Southeastern Louisiana University’s Kappa Delta Tau chapter was removed from campus after forcing pledges to swim in cold water in November, causing some to be treated for hypothermia, and Sigma Alpha Mu’s University of Texas chapter is protesting its punishment following being found guilty of making pledges perform personal servitude.
These are just a few examples — LSU also suspended its chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi in 2001 after a pledge allegedly was beaten so severely that he required surgery. In addition, three other fraternities — Acacia, Sigma Chi and Phi Gamma Delta — are all on probation at LSU for hazing violations, though for much less severe cases.
This evidence supports that universities, including LSU, are not wrong in taking a hardened stance on hazing, defined as any instance of physical or psychological abuse associated with or involving an organization’s members.
Without a low-tolerance policy on hazing, the problem will worsen as long as groups feel the need to test their new members and as long as these members feel pressure to succumb to derogatory and potentially dangerous practices.
Think pressure isn’t out there? The Times-Picayune in New Orleans reports that when one of the Kappa Delta Tau pledges from SLU came to after being admitted to the hospital with a body temperature of only 85 degrees and treated for hypothermia, his first words to his mother were, “Did I make it?”
It is with this attitude that members must (and will) meet obnoxious and strenuous demands a fraternity places forth that forces universities to ban them from campus. This isn’t an overreaction; throughout the years, some pledges have died trying to fit in — author Hank Nuwer catalogues Greek deaths on his Web site, such as that of Ferris State University student Stephen Petz, in which fraternity members poured alcohol down Petz’s throat as part of an initiation.
Most hazing seems to attempt to bring members together, almost hoping a traumatic experience will form lifelong relationships between members.
In some ways, this seems like forcing something that might naturally happen anyway — tragic, traumatic things occur in everyone’s life, and stronger bonds are formed when people rally around an actual cause or event and not a shared beating or “Hell Week.”
Organizations that treat their members like inferior beings in order to encourage some bizarre sort of bonding aren’t beneficial to their members or the campus community and don’t deserve to remain at this school.
To be fair, hazing does not exist in all Greek fraternities and sororities. Publicized instances of hazing seem almost to exclusively involve fraternity men and not sorority women. That’s not to say sorority sisters don’t haze — in 1999 two Kappa Kappa Gamma pledges from Indiana’s Depauw University recounted on national television being surrounded by 15 of their “sisters” and branded by cigarettes on their hips for five seconds.
While many non-hazing Greeks will undoubtedly feel slighted negative publicity, they should remember they hold a responsibility in preventing hazing as well. By remaining silent, they are complicit in its continuation.
Peer pressure works both ways. Given that only a handful of organizations are on probation for hazing, one would assume most groups don’t haze. Those chapters should weed out the problem by not participating in events with chapters known to haze.
Also worth noting is that many chapters participate in educational programs about hazing to cut down on problems in the system.
Often we hear Greeks complain about how the community or the media perpetuates negative stereotypes about them. If the majority of Greeks don’t fit the stereotype, then this majority should shame the minority into stopping its hurtful practices.
Undoubtedly, Greeks will defend their honor by pointing to the community service and leadership roles they hold. In all actuality, good deeds should be done because they will benefit other people and not to make the doer look good.
Also, while it is impressive that so many Greeks do hold leadership positions across campus, it is curious there’s not better leadership internally — what kind of leader allows his fraternity to hurt its potential members?
Instead of complaining about negative attention to the system, I challenge Greeks to learn from this incident and weed out negative behavior before Rush week comes this fall. If they don’t, and negative behaviors persist in some chapters, they should meet the same fate as Delta Chi.