Hazing: for better or for worse?
Megan Zingarelli
Issue date: 1/26/05 Section: News
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Pledgeship is to blame. The eight week rite of passage varies across the university's 13 fraternities. Most will force hours of study hall and cleaning. Some will arrange hours of vomiting.
Because of national concern over hazing, house leaders, university administration, and the IFC have been trying more to regulate pledgeship. W&L investigated 5 fraternities for hazing last year, and Beta Theta Pi had to leave campus for hazing violations.
A recent New York Times Magazine cover story noted that fraternities around the country are concerned about drinking and hazing.
After an initiation drinking ritual this fall a Chi Psi pledge at the University of Colorado died. Brothers testify to a range of hazing experiences, but they agree that pledgeship's character certainly has changed in the past few years and continues to do so. In past years, some students say, they have been forced to drink and eat vile concoctions and have been urinated on. Brothers are unsure whether this secretive ritual will lessen or intensify this year.
Each fraternity uses new member education to teach fraternity values such as philanthropy and scholarship. The process is a rite of passage, it edifies brotherhood, and it forges friendships. Much hazing is good natured, but some is cruel. By March, some men are changed for worse and hate their lives, while others will always be loyal and thankful to their house.
New Member Education will compel freshmen to learn their founders' ideals and to spend hours in study hall. Pledge class bonding is the goal, and freshmen often enjoy it. Inter Fraternity Council President Tom Pickering, a senior, said a favorite freshman pledgeship memory was dressing up as a wizard and playing Magic the Gathering on the Hill.
Tasks such as cleaning and sober driving are rites of passage, according to outgoing KA President Mark Franceski. And all brothers like making pledges do sillier things, like wearing absurd costumes.
"Everybody likes to have fun with it," he said. "I don't think it's meant to be degrading."
Another fraternity president, who wished to remain anonymous, said his house's hazing has a purpose. Every task must teach about the fraternity. He agreed that most brothers enjoy annoying freshmen, but hazing rarely goes beyond that.