A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

A simple fix to stop hazing


By DAVID LITTLE


A student chugs a bottle of blackberry brandy during a fraternity initiation and dies in the basement after passing out and choking on his own vomit.

A student dies in a car accident after returning from a fraternity initiation at the Sacramento River. The driver of the car had marijuana and cocaine in his system.

A student is rushed to the hospital with a blood alcohol level of .496, more than six times the legal limit, after passing out in conjunction with a fraternity initiation ritual. Somehow, he lives.

A student dies when he is forced to drink large amounts of water and exercise strenuously in a cold room during a fraternity hazing.

All of this has happened in a little more than four years at Chico State University.

I'm tired of fraternity apologists dismissing it as boys being boys.

It's time to call it what it is criminal.

And it's time to put an end to it, one way or another.



The best solution? Eliminate fraternities altogether. Just get rid of them. The university will survive. I promise.

There's no need to dismantle the Greek system, just the male half of the equation. Sororities not only enjoy strong participation at the university, but they also manage to have initiations without killing or humiliating anybody. Unlike the boys. What do they say about girls maturing faster?

I don't want to broad-brush all fraternities as lawless bastions of anarchy. Almost all do philanthropy and community service, and some provide structure a place to live, designated study hours for young men who need it. But it takes an awful lot of good deeds to balance out even one death.

You can't kill one fraternity brother a year and then say, "Yeah, but last year fraternities picked up trash in Bidwell Park." Sorry. Doesn't work.

If young men in the Greek system are so concerned about community service, there are many such groups on campus. Join CAVE (Community Action Volunteers in Education), for example. You don't have to prance around in your underwear or drink vodka to get into CAVE. You join, and they put you to work.

The fraternities will argue that in three of the four incidents, the fraternity was not at fault. Two were supposed to be dry events but some of the fraternity boys made the wrong decision, you'll hear. Then in last week's death, supposedly no alcohol was involved at all. But water intoxication is potentially fatal, and the practice seems to be making the rounds nationwide among fraternities. Matthew Carrington, 21, died after strenuous exercise when his electrolytes became severely depleted, reportedly sending him into a seizure.

That's not even the worst of the hazing. Carrington's mother, who lives in Pleasant Hill, told the San Francisco Chronicle her son said last fall pledges had to trade their shirts with homeless people and dress as prostitutes and walk the streets in Southern California. That's supposed to promote brotherhood?

And fraternities wonder why fewer people are joining these days?

It gets worse, but you'll never hear about it. Fraternity secret, you know. I know some very fine people, former fraternity members who survived it all, who say fraternity initiation rites (they never use the word hazing) are harmless ways to bond with brothers, important traditions that cross generations. Accidents are an aberration by rogue fraternities, no reason to abandon a system that has benefited so many.

I already hear the arguments: Disbanding all fraternities because of a few deaths is like taking all cars off the road because of a few accidents. It's easier to just police the bad ones.

But it's not. The university has little control over fraternities because all are off campus. The fraternity involved in this week's death was suspended by the university and the fraternity's national office in 2002, yet continued to exist. The nearby church and the police will attest the Chi Tau house on West Fourth Street was a modern-day Animal House. The home's owner apparently didn't care.

So who's responsible? The university and police do all they can. The landlords frequently do nothing. And every so often, one fraternity messes up and makes all the others look bad.

Then everybody says, "What a tragedy." And forgets. Until the next one.

Well, I've seen enough. The only way to solve the problem of fraternity hazing is to get rid of fraternities.

I'm tired of the turmoil created just so a few misguided youths can prove their "brotherhood."


David Little is editor of the Enterprise-Record. His column appears each Sunday. He can be reached at dlittle@chicoer.com or 896-7793.

Re: A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

So who's responsible?

. . That was my question after hearing about greek drinking issues. Well, - who is responsible- , and - who is liable - are two different things. "Adults" should be responsible for their own actions . . but greek organization will become liable for any broken law or what have you.

Listen, I feel for any young person who makes the incorrect decision to binge drink to the point that some kids do . . but to throw the baby out with the bathwater is totally incorrect.

I mean do you really think kids (and we are talking about baby adults 17-22) won't make poor decisions that may or could cause death without the fraternities. Or are you so nieve as to think fraternities force these people to do things that they would NEVER do without the powerful "brother" "hazing".

I am not saying that their are not some poor excuses for philenthropic fraternal organizations but wow "Eliminate Fraternities Altogether" . . . that is rediculous.

. . .Which I am sure the writer knows that is why he wrote the article and expected to get tons of p.o'd greeks to read and reply to him. Well, thanks to greek chat I got to vent and I didn't have to give that guy any attention for a crazy theory like that.

Re: Re: A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

The answer to the first question is no and the second is yes. Although I'm not sure who is nieve in this case.

Peer pressure is one of the toughest things to deal with at any age -- but particularly for teens and young adults.

I hate to say it, but sometimes when I read about the idiocy of some of these chapters, I can't help but believe we're better off without them.

If an entire system at a school is infested with terminal dumbness -- well, why wait for more problems?

But you have to prove the whole system is beyond help.

The best way to eliminate hazing is to ban human beings.

I may side with the author on this one...looks like the boys on this campus haven't learned.

It is possible that I have misunderstood a little bit. If the author is just talking about THAT CAMPUS then obviously I have overstepped my informational bounds. I guess I thought he may have been stepping on my fraternal toes (I know I know he said "not sororities" but some sororities make hugh mistakes too and that is a slippery slope) and I thought he was talking - or lead me to believe he wanted to get rid of all male fraternities.
\/

"There's no need to dismantle the Greek system, just the male half of the equation."

"If young men in the Greek system . . . "

So, if he was just talking about specific universities then (well, I still may have a problem with it but) I will not condemn his opinion but, if the author is on a rampage agains the "male greek system" then I refer back to my prior post.

I thought he was speaking specifically about Chico. Yes, it is a notorious party school, but there are other schools known as "party schools" that don't have the same problems with their Greek systems.

Maybe I'm just getting more and more fed up with this BS every time it happens, but maybe he's onto something.

Re: Re: Re: A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

That's thing isn't it? Even if this school got rid of the fraternities these boys would still be around, and just as likely to do something stupid.
Then theese boys would join another group and do something stupid and then you'll have this writer saying "let's ban the chess team".

yep

Re: A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

I would have to disagree. I don't know of any precedent for a situation like this, so i'll throw out a hypothetical. If Jon Doe U. were to eliminate Greek life altogether at one time, what would the effect be on the university as a whole? let's just say that Jon Doe U. is a medium-sized state school (appx. 15-20,000 students). Would admissions numbers fall through the floor? Would there be significant financial reprecussions (from Greek alums withdrawing support, etc...)? What truly would be the result of an action like this?


**If my post draws focus away from the original thread, I apologize.

Sorry. There are some schools that have abolished the Greek System entirely and survived quite nicely.

Which is one of the reasons we have to clean up our houses.

There are a few of us alums who have expressed concern that if things don't change, the fraternity system could die.

It's not a cry of wolf. Things seem to be getting worse instead of better.

I, for one, would hate to see the day that a group of us are sitting around talking about what fun the Greek System used to be. But, I've said it before, and for the most part, nobody listened.

I truely hope it never happens, but to think it's impossible is dangerous.

Re: Re: A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

Most of us would like to think that our Universities would fall apart if we weren't around.

That's not necessarily true.

Not every Greek alum would withdraw support if a school's Greek system was dissolved--especially if the system was a major train wreck. Does anyone have solid numbers on Greek donations to colleges, and how those might compare to the overall alumni contributions?

i went to a really big state "Party School" and there was more alcohol use in the dorms than there was in the greek system. Plus, there was one dorm in particular that at least once a week has a student (usually underage) who was taken to the hospital due to alcohol overdose. This was not associated with the greek system, the incidents all occured in the dorms of students, who may or may not have been greek, but none of the drinking (which resulted in the alcohol overdose) was done at greek events.

According to the author of this article what should be done, get ride of freshman? Get rid of the dorm?

What REALLY bugs me is alcohol happens outside of the greek system just as much, if not more, than happens inside the greek system.

I do think it is sad that people feel the need to use their power to get others to do some of these acts but lets be realy regardless if the greek system was disbanded there would still be alcohol use and abuse, but just not one single place to point and blame from the abuse of alcohol.

The answer to the first question is to make rules and enforce them. Really enforce them.

As to the comment regarding non-Greeks. Some of what you say is true, but we have fostered the reputation and set ourselves up for this and we're now an easily identifiable target. Other groups are beginning to be taken to task as well, but to be trite, we've made our bed and now we have to sleep in it.

Re: Re: Re: Re: A newspaper editor's "Simple fix to stop hazing"
 

I agree.

It sounds as though the school needs to take a second look at the caliber of student they are admitting and quit blaming it on the fact that they wear shirts with Greek letters on them.

Or the school needs to stop demonizing the Greek system. The more you say "Greeks are evil and bad" the more evil and bad people will join. Self fulfilling prophecy.

The worst thing this school could do would be to completely derecognize Greek life. Then they'd have no control over them whatsoever and wouldn't be able to discipline the students - any more than they could discipline a student if he got in trouble at an event with, say, the local off-campus branch of Kiwanis. I don't know why people don't get this, it seems fairly simple to me.

Just one gender?
 

Does anyone have any feeling if a public (or private covered by Title IX's rulings) university could get rid of only one gender of its greek system? Any ideas for legal reactions to the implementation of that suggestion?

Randy

I think you guys are missing this key statement. The fraternity has already taken steps to correct the situation, they were closed over two years ago.

Obviously the chapter has problems or they wouldn't have been closed in the first place. I think the greek system will just have to enforce their own decision a little better and try to stop groups from hang around after they have been disbanded or at least make students aware that they will be joining groups that are not reconized and there are other options.

The greek system *has* tried things, read http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/di.../3fbad4083602e . However, remember the greek system is a bunch of students, what else can they do? Give concrete examples where the Interfraternity council can do that it hasn't done. The National Fraternity and the school are *both* trying to get rid of it as well.

Randy

I posted the following disclaimer on another thread. It was listed Chico State's Social Fraternities page. Near the bottom.

To piggyback on what others have posted, this "chapter" is not affiliated with either an inter/national organization nor with Chico State. It's a bunch of guys who formed a group and call themselves by a name that happens to use Greek letters. Frankly, if the whole fraternity system was to be closed, then what's to keep other groups of men - or women - from forming associations that are not recognized by the university?

Banning fraternities - and perhaps down the line sororities - is not the solution.

It seems that the campus culture may need to change. (Maybe even the local community.) Part of that change needs to include enforceable rules of conduct. Not just for GLOs but for all organizations and all students. Perhaps under the Student Code of Conduct or what ever CSU might call it. If an organization or student breaks the rules, then the organization and or the student is suspended or expelled as appropriate. Continue to do this until the 'old school' students are gone.

At my school we had a similar situation with a national that went local. One thing our ifc fraternities did is boycott any sorority that participated in any social activites with said group.

We have no proof either way as to whether the IFC at Chico tried that. Do you believe that if that were in force that either Chi Tau would cease to exist or that their rituals would involve less hazing?

Randy

holy crap was that article anti-local. Blech. It does sound like these guys are trying to skirt the rules of the system....but the thing is that they AREN'T IN the system. If they're not by the IFC, then what can the IFC do to them?

Frankly, no. XT is not recognize by the either the university or IFC and the group does not have to abide by the rules that governor fraternities. Or clubs or other organizations for that matter.

As I said before, they (XT) are a bunch of guys who formed a group that just happen to use Greek letters.

Which is why the individuals need to be held accountable. Both by the school (i.e. student code of conduct) and the local community (i.e. city & county laws, health, zoning etc.).

CO-SIGN. Well put, DA.

This seems to be yet another example of the "It Can't Happen Here" idiotic mindset coming home to roost.

It can. It did. And someone lost their life.

The entire Greek system will not disappear at one time, there are GLOs & chapters more likely than others to disappear. (some of these comments are brutal, but I don't think cruelly so)

At the most likely end:
The NPHC Fraternities. The number of undergraduate pledges for NPHC fraternities is less than 10% of the number of undergraduate pledges for the NIC fraternities and they run almost as many hazing deaths as the NIC fraternities. And the NPHC hazing deaths for the most part appear to be more "they should have known what they were doing was wrong, dangerous, etc..."

Private schools in the Northeast and California. The more liberal the campus, the more likely that the administration will decide that the solution is the ban fraternities. The conservative private schools (fundamentalist Xtian based) that don't want fraternities, never had them (or have a completely school controlled system, where everyone is guaranteed a place).


At the less likely end.

NPC Sororities. The alcohol is largely gone, the hazing (what there is) appears to be more mental. Even if this mental hazing gets out of hand, suicide is less likely to lead to large judgements against nationals.

NIC Fraternities with alcohol bans. I don't know if there is enough information to tell whether the NIC fraternities with alcohol bans are having fewer hazing incidents, but its either positive in that regard or (if it's a wash) at least is positive PR (in situations where every little bit helps).

Public Schools especially in the south. There it is viewed by some as a significant part of the school culture. SEC & Big 12 schools are probably the best examples.


Or to put it another way, just because Omega Psi Phi (NPHC-fraternity) gets driven to only doing graduate chapter pledging, doesn't mean that Delta Gamma has months to live...

Randy

The Greek system has done all it can to get rid of this fraternity, but it keeps going on. What are we supposed to do? Get the recognized fraternities to firebomb the house and kill the members?

I mean, continually telling Greeks to do something when they've already done all they can is kind of insulting. Once again, this appears to me to be more of a statement on the caliber of the students the school is recruiting. They're the ones who continue to join fraternities that have a well documented reputation for hazing. And don't give me that peer pressure/I didn't know BS either. This is the most well informed generation ever, and it takes about half a second to google "chico fraternity hazing."

Here in once again is the Problem Tri Fold.

Anytime there is A Organizatin with Greek Letters, We as National GLOs take a lot of heat for this.

A Local at Alfred did something and they dismantled the Greek System, no if ands or buts.

As I said, any organization with Greek letters raise a Big Red Flag. But, when a well known GLO Organization pulls some stunt or someone dies, then while it has a lot of validity, it kills all of us.:o

It is like measure twice, cut once. Think before you leap per sey!

Incidentally, we locals catch crap for the things that nationals do. We have to distance ourselves from the bad press that nationals get and reinforce the differences between our organizations and their organizations.

True, and locals often have less in common with each other (especially ones at different schools) than the NIC fraternities have with each other. The question is whether, per initiate, the locals have a higher or lower incidence of problems than the NICs. At my wife's college (Frostburg State U. (MD)), the administration, *definitely* was in favor of Nationals over Locals.

Randy

Proactive or inactive
 

I have no idea what the specific situation is at this school, so I won't try to judge, but clearly this article demonstrates a dangerous view of the Greek community.

The author mentions clearly the "boys" are the problem not the "girls" - and I am most certain that is not a unique opinion. I heard similar debates at my school for years. It wouldn't exist if there were not a ring of truth to it.

The difference between the sororities and the fraternities is that Sororities are dry. If fraternities want to stop these kind of problems from jeapardizing the entire system, they have to do the same - go dry. Even if the problem is just "a few bad apples" clearly the perception is that this continues to be tacitly tolerated and ignored.

In the sorority system, those who break the rules tend to get charters revoked or other disceplanary action from within. National organizations and NPC at times have sticter punishments than universities. And although there is still some truth to the fact that sororities are still engaging in hazing, taking alcohol out of the equation solves a great deal of problems.

This proactive approach to makeing clear no-tolerance rules for hazing and alcohol gives national organizations and upperhand when dealing with incidents when they happen. It is a far superior morale ground to be able to say "We catagorically ban and actively discourage this, but it happened without our knowledge. We are taking immediate and decisive action to correct the situation and it we are doing everything we can to educate our members and make sure it never happens again." National Panhellenic went so far as to not only correct their behaivor, but to impose a ban on NPC members from even socializing with organizations that are not themselves dry.

The author of this article is dead on. Philanthropy or not, Alumni pressure or no, college administration will continue to allow through inaction or negligence the death of students. The legal risk alone is daunting. And as all the posters here seem to confirm - most folks think "it's not the fraternity system its the bad apples, or the nature of being a young male - they'd kill themselves anyway. " And as fraternities, you're either on the side of ending alcohol abuse and hazing or your part of the problem.

The fraternity leadership at a national, interfraternity, and local level needs to stop reacting to the problem and start seriously thinking about. I worry not about the immaturaty of the 17-22 year old collegiates but rather the imaturaty of the adult alumni to take the decisive action to make all fraternities dry. Honestly, if the brotherhood can't exist without hazing and substance abuse, I can't blame anyone else for thinking poorly of it.

I don't want to be holy-than-thou about how great the sorority system is over the fraternity system - we have our own challenges for sure. But it does irk me to see that National Fraternities still fail to see the problem even as people continue to call for the complete ban of the entire system.


Paula

Re: Proactive or inactive
 

100% not true.

For starters, it's beyond NPC to enforce something like this - it would be like if NPC told every group to have the same minimum GPA. The only things they can make hard and fast rules on are those regarding interaction between NPC groups (like rush and expansion).

The majority of NPC sororities follow the "functions" policy, which means that cosponsored events between a sorority chapter and a fraternity chapter must be dry if held at the fraternity house. If the fraternity drinks like fish in their house the rest of the week, that's their business.

Some NPC groups (KKG is one of them) do have the "facilities" policy, which means their chapters can only socialize with fraternity chapters that are dry on that campus. (I add "on that campus" because some chapters are nationally wet but campus-ly dry.)

I hardly think that NPC groups are on "superior moral ground" with these policies - putting all the onus and blame for the Greek system's problems on fraternities when there are just as many drunken sorority members out there is the height of hypocrisy, IMO.

Here again lays the problem. Any Greek Letter so named Organization who has problems, lays this right at Our door step, Local or Inter/National.

But once again, there are Many Big Named Greek National Organizations who refuse to listen and then do something regardless of wht HQ doctrine is. We all know as We see it everyday on GC!:(

Many of us on G C are Alums and are trying to do our best, but it becomes a quagmire. True?

I agree with whomever said that in this case, the students should be consequented as individual students. Write policies (and enforce them) that state if a student is participating in or promoting an underground/unrecognized organization, they are subject to discipline all the way up to expulsion. They aren't allowed any honorary memberships, Dean's list honors, whatever. If this had been a group of people who lived on the 5th floor of a residence hall and required some sort of hazing activity to be "popular" on the floor, they would be dealt with as individual students.

Now I have a question...all throughout this school year, many deaths have occured in a "group" setting (at a party or function with others around). Why can't these students cut someone off or tell them they've had enough? What is keeping them from feeling empowered enough to draw a line in the sand to keep someone alive?

PsychTau

To Be Blunt!

Stupidity, or More's.

Learn from others or dont. Learn by yourself Heed Others or be gone.:(

The Main Point is Saddeness for what ever happens!

We are Greeks With Greek, thoughts. !!

to ban something that promotes brotherhood is seriously wrong. unless you are greek you have no understanding of our rules and traditions. i think before you talk about banning greek organizations you should spend some time in the greek system. yes people have died, a lot of them through their own stupidity. if they don't want to do something all a pledge has to do is say no. i was pledge mistress for my organization last semester and no one died. so should my organization be punished because someone in another organization did. i'm not saying hazing doesn't happen because it does. however there are other ways of dealing with it than by banning greek organizations.

lambda omicron psi

The situation at Chico has nothing to do with a national or a local fratnernity. It's a group of students de-recognized by the university and the fraternity as a student group. In this case, its a student death that needs to be addressed by the community and the university.

Chico Greeks should band together and continue to enforce dry and zero tolerance policies toward hazing.

When I was actively invlolved with Greek Life on the West Coast, it was widely discussed that Chico is an excellent university, but it is plagued with problems that inhibit good Greek risk management-- sequestered location, lack of advisory support, hazing culture, etc.

I don't think the answer is doing away with the Greek System entirely, but an assessment of the Greek culture, hazing and membership benefits specific to Chico students and chapters should happen. From there, a taskforce of Greek students, non Greek student leaders and university faculty should work together with the chapters to encourage a culture that supports membership without hazing conditions, and the Greeks should continue to promote this culture through special events, new member programs and community life.

I'd be curious to see the statistics of students that die from binge drinking and regular debauchery who arent in fraternities and who just die on thier own accord. Also i'd be interested to see the statistics of athletes who die from hazing or binge drinking. Here's an idea lets get rid of the football team too !

If you're talking about Alfred University in New York State that was an NIC Fraternity, one that does not allow pledging or hazing of any sort (and the members did it anyway). I don't know how much more I can spell it out without actually naming them (I have several friends in the chapter on my campus, in fact, I'm dating one of them)- as far as I know there's only one fraternity that mandates that members are initiated 72 hours after recieving a bid.

Regardless... I understand how local incidents affect the whole fraternity. When my mom was in college, a chapter of this fraternity started a race riot on her campus. When I was a senior in high school, the Alfred U death occured, in relation to a chapter of this fraternity. There is a chapter of this fraternity on my campus, and my parents almost didn't let me come to Gannon because of it (they did their homework as far as greek life was concerned). When I joined the greek system, they worried about me, because there was a chapter of this fraternity on my campus. When I started dating one of them, he had a lot of work to make up as far as my parents were concerned, because they had a misconception that every member of that fraternity was a racist hazer.

Not true. I think they're the nicest guys on campus.

A couple of things.

First, there are a lot of folks on this board who have a pretty good understanding and have spent a pretty fair amount of time in the Greek system...like from before your were born, probably.

Nobody who contributes here regularly would advocate banning the system. But that doesn't stop some of us from being concerned that if we don't change things that it won't self-destruct.

To touch, briefly, on another post, times are changing. There are now situations where an entire marching band, and at least one sports team have been banned for a year. It wasn't the football team, but at least a couple of schools have acknowledged hazing outside the Greek community and begun to address it. I think we will see more of that.

Finally, a comment on the last quote above, because therein lies a big part of our problem. Hazing does still exist -- and it has to end. It doesn't matter if there are 500 alcohol or hazing related deaths outside the Greek system and only one inside. One is too many.

To say what I've said so many times before, it's not only dangerous -- it's against the law.

I believe Alfred University had a death in a NIC AND a local fraternity, which lead to the demise of their Greek system.

PsychTau