Hazing
 

I am curious to know what people think about this. Typically the issue of hazing is one reserved for National organizations, mainly because they are so decentralized. But I'm wondering if any locals have had to deal with hazing. So my question for discussion is:

If members of your sorority become aware of a situation that skirts the issue of hazing, how do you approach and respond to it?

Actually in my school the local chapters are known for hazing more then nationals are.

My campus is like that as well.

I know that not all locals haze, but the ones on my campus are notorious for hazing. From PT, to calling pledges peeons, addressing actives as "Miss So-and-so"...I've witnessed it firsthand as a pledge prior to joining my current sorority.

As an alternative perspective, the local sorority I belong to was actually founded by a number of women who were being severely hazed during the process of pleding another organization on my campus. They subsequently dropped their pledgeship and created our sorority, with one of its founding ideals being that we do not haze in any way. We are very open with our New Members and make it clear that the channels of communication are very open for them to speak up if they feel in any way threatened or hazed.

In years and years of working with sororities, the only hazing I've ever seen was done by local sororities (at OTW's campus and at the one where I work now). It was horrible. I can not imagine how fast nationals would lose their charters if they participated in what I've seen locals do.

I know of hazing in every chapter on my campus except my own (unless too much candy is considered hazing!). However, the nationals manage to keep it under wraps better and I think, sadly, that locals are far more associated with hazing. That doesn't mean I believe all locals haze. I just believe it's easier for an NPC sorority that does haze to hide under its national reputation, whereas a local does not have the same kind of protection.

Whether it is a Fraternity or a Sorority, being a local should be realized that you have more to lose than a National Organization.
As a local, there is only one. With a National there are more chapters.
Nationals can survive, locals cannot, ergo, they are gone for ever.

There needs to be a hard line of anti hazing and more loving.

If not, then why did you form and why do you keep trying to bring new members in?

Agreed.

That's why my sorority doesn't haze. We're the only local at NJIT and have never been in trouble for that kind of thing. It seems like the locals that DO haze are organizations that exist as local so they won't have a national to answer to in instances such as hazing. Because of locals like that...they've ruined expansion efforts for the rest of us who follow rules and exist for a purpose beyond hazing.

Sigma Psi Kappa's philosophy is this: The point of pledging is to make a good sister not to make a good pledge.

What practical purpose does hazing serve? "wow my pledges can swallow a goldfish! They'll make great members!"

at my college the nationals had problems with hazing. im in a local sorority but we are disaffiliated from our college. they are making it so in order to be affiliated you have to be national and we have 6 locals (2 disaffiliated and 4 affiliated). i dont know what is going to happen, but being disaffiliated isnt so bad because we still do alot of stuff with the school and go to panhel and stuff.

There will always be some kind of "Hazing" in every Greek organization because their has to be some sort of test in order to pick the week from the strong, the question remains still though, how far do you go with it?..

Right....how are your brothers in the FAMU chapter doing? Are they appealing their convictions on that whole beating/caning/hazing thing?:rolleyes:Do your dues while pledging cover the cost of those "monthly physicals"? Or is that what the risk management "health" insurance covers?

Uh. Disagree. We don't haze at all. If we did, I would have turned in my pledge pin...I wasn't so desperate to be Greek that I would put up with that crap.

Carnation probably knows which sorority I'm talking about, but to be nice I won't name them. :cool:

Before I joined AGD, I became friends with some girls in a local sorority and because they were cool, I decided to rush and ultimately become a pledge of their sorority. Sure, they were sweet and kind...but after their Carnation ceremony (similar to NM ceremony), these bitches went on power trip mode.

I remember my first pledge meeting. I was told to wear my pledge pin at all times "or else". And then I was given a list of names in which the actives wanted to be saluted and the proper greeting in which they were to be saluted--because if I ran into them on campus I was to address them as such "or else".

Not to mention I had to carry around this ridiculous box wrapped in pink cloth "or else".

I still remember my first pledge meeting when I looked at my pledgemistress and asked her, "Bitch, you want me to call you WHAT?" Needless to say, I turned in my pledge book, pin, and materials. Wait -- I take that back. I threw the shit at those bitches during their morning meeting in the caf.

Needless to say, they weren't at all friendly to me after I depledged. I shoulda known that those twats were fake asses who butter you up just to lure you into pledging. That's why I don't feel bad when I told everybody what was in those pink boxes. Yeah, they weren't too happy but I don't give a shit.

At least I didn't have to carry around a stupid fucking pumpkin throughout Fall semester. Yeah, I said it.

I never really got to see what "or else" meant because I didn't stick around too long, but the pledges who did stick it out did have to go through intense PT at effed up hours in the morning.

I did experience missing windshield wipers from my car after I DP-ed, though. And that's despite the fact that I'd park my car at different areas of the parking structure. Who the fuck does that, for real?

OK, what do they carry in the pink boxes?:D I'm sure they won't care if you tell since they no longer exist!

LOL about the pumpkins. To be in that group when I was there, you had to be "cosmopolitan" (the local term for mixed race) and I never could figure out what the pumpkins had to do with anything.

The pink boxes were actually schoolboxes -- you know, the hard box kind with the flip top lid kids use to throw their crayons in. We had to get pretty contact paper/shelf liner to cover the outside. The inside then had to be divided into six sections and six types of candy was put in each section.

IT WAS JUST CANDY THAT WE HAD TO SERVE THE SISTERS. When people found out, they were like, "THAT'S IT?" For years and years and years they made it seem like there was some uber classified precious thing the pledges had to carry in their boxes. The boxes were covered in pink cloth, and tied the old Japanese way, to be carried in the proper manner around campus.

As far as the pumpkins go -- I have no idea why the other sorority chose that. I know their pledge period begins in mid-September and lasts till Hell Week in the Spring. If I'm not mistaken, their pledges carry the pumpkins around till the end of Fall semester.

These two sororities, to my knowledge, haven't held rush let alone pledge anyone in recent years. I visited my collegians during Greek Week and another local (one that was dormant while I was in school) is going strong, and from what I hear from my collegians...this group has a great bunch of girls and are NOTHING like the locals in the past. Good for them.

I had a similar situation where I went to school. I rushed and pledged a local (well we only have local socials) sorority to only depledge 4 days later. Doing sexercises (no joke), carrying around stupid stuff I had to go buy and waste my money on, standing a certain way..blah. Yes I got the threatening phone calls too. :rolleyes:

I looked at the UH website. Was it Beta Beta Gamma you're referring to? I think they were Korean back in the day.

I was happy to see that Hui Po'okela and the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe are still active! I was co-advisor to the first and active in the other.

Yep..that'd be the BBGs. They were nowhere to be found when I was in school 10 years ago, but they're back!

Decades ago, these local sororities were pretty much exclusive to their own ethnic group. The BBGs were mostly Korean, Wakaba Kais were obviously Japanese, and Kappa Sigma Chi (was it?) was predominantly Chinese. Then you had the "cosmopolitan folk" like the Gammies and Phi Sigs. If I'm not mistaken, these groups eventually took on Greek letters once the University stepped in and said to stop being exclusive, with the exception of Wakaba Kai.

I'm sure these groups still hang on to their traditions, which I assume still have characteristics that date back to their founding -- but each group reflects the diversity of the present-day campus.

As far as Hui Po`okela goes -- their membership boasts a bunch of AGDs each year. My pledge sister was even president of Mortar Board prior to becoming our chapter president!

We almost have the opposite problem. Organizations are worried about carrying on certain traditions because others will try to pick it apart and claim that we're "hazing." Yes our pledges have tasks they need to complete in order to be initiated; but it's all group building activities like "go out to breakfast together. then sign a sheet so we know you were there." Scandalous? Well some girls think so.

As far as anything dangerous, degrading, or harassing goes, there's absolutely zero tolerence for that in our organization. Personally I don't see why anyone would want to affiliate themselves with a group that's just going to treat them like crap.

i agree. But I think universities are most concerned with the types of hazing that are abusive and cause any physical harm, severe emotional distress, or verbal abuse due to the pledging process.

Just use good judgement with activities in your new member process. If you have any doubts clear it with your university and/or headquarters.

not exactly hazing
 

My school only has locals, and I've gotta say, I'm kind of surprised with some of the things people are objecting to here. Wearing pledge pins and addressing actives and stuff...I thought that was pretty standard.

For us, there's no physical hazing, or drinking yourself into a stupor or anything like that. In fact, our pledging is dry, even if you're of age. It's an automatic DP if you're caught drinking (or high or whatever), and we're very serious about enforcing it. But there are definately mind games going on--I found pledging to be pretty emotionally traumatic. The thing is, I can honestly say that everything we did during pledging served some purpose, and I feel like changing our new member education program to make it "nicer" would also make it worse.

Yeah--if you were joining the Army maybe "emotionally traumatic" would make sense, but you're not--you're joining a sorority. All of the team building objectives that you've described can be accomplished with positive team builders and get to know you activities--what happened to you is hazing, and illegal, and therefore, wrong. If you were smart, you would work to change the culture in your group and on campus.

"Traumatic" is a pretty strong word. Sounds like hazing to me...

Anything that new members are required to do that actives are not required to do is hazing. We encourage them to wear their badges, but since initiated members aren't required, they aren't either. I'm not totally sure what addressing is, but assumed it's showing some sort of "respect" to initiated members. We view new members as members too, and therefore it wouldn't occur to us to have them address us differently.

In fact, requiring the new member period to be dry would also be hazing, since we do not require our initiated members to abstain from alcohol while they are members.

I wouldn't have joined an organization that hazed me in stupid ways. I personally don't see an issue with things that serve a purpose, but on the other hand, I do see why it's hard to draw a line and enforce it...it's safer to just put a blanket definition out there fore hazing and then ban it, and if that prevents harm to new members, fine. That and I choose to always abide by my organization's rules anyway, out of respect.

I DON'T understand requiring automatic submission to initiated members. I'm sorry, but seniority does NOT always mean the person is in fact the most mature, wise, or kind. I do understand required bonding events, provided they involve no harm to anyone involved.

The only local sororities I know of as hazing here are the multi-cultural ones. The social ones from what i know are better, atleast most. I know one guy who is pledging a local frat and he has to clean a lot. As for the Nationals at my school oh my the horror stories Ive heard. If your having a problem with hazing and your sorority isn't supposed to haze (I really don't know how it works in other locals with no school rules) you might want to let the founders know. Thats the best thing I can think of if your only a pledge.

i'm in a local, and i'm sure i'll be nailed to cross for agreeing with the people that discussed wearing pins and doing things for a purpose. NM's have to greet sisters that they see on campus or in the house, but its not an "or else" thing, its just the right thing to do, we greet the NM's as well. It is not emotionally traumatic, its basically all about teaching our traditions, songs, chants and learning about the sisters. I pledged a sorority (a national) a experienced awful awful hazing and lasted about 3 weeks before i finally depledged. I had a really bad panic attack and the pledgemom and member at large gave me a glass of water and told me to get in the basement... or else. THAT is hazing. I understand that some definitions are broader and more encompassing than others and to some, the traditions of my sorority and others that were described are seen as hazing. I would never put any of my girls in a position that was emotionally detrimental or hurtful to their overall wellbeing. It is a dry program and we pair up sisters with tutors if needed, they have library hours and any events are planned around their schedules, including sickness, family and personal. I think that the NM's work for their letters and I know that all are very grateful for the experience... I guess it just varies from chapter to chapter but any activity that is hurtful (emotionally or physically) is unacceptable.

hazing :p

lol but they don't have to go if they don't want to, and allll the sisters go, actually the sisters have mandatory hours that they have to do per week
but good catch though lol

Everyone knows that being forced to do something out landish is wrong. Greek life shouldn't be based on proving that you deserve letters. At my campus thats one of the reasons why people shy away from joining. Greek life should be about expansion. Members should WANT others to expand themselves in a positive manner and represent their org because of that. Our new members learn about our sisterhood. And they do things that sisters do, as part of their education process. Letters aren't something to dangle in front of someone as a way to get them to run circles, it should be about producing people who care about what you care about and placing them in the community. I think many organizations simply have lost the true meaning of what their letters stand for and now they go along with whatever they *think* should happen, during pledge. Sure you have to have respect for your letters, but you can get that without being suject to degrading, demeaning, or mindless tasks. A sweatshirt with XYZ written on it, just isnt worth loss of self dignity and respect

Hazing has such a broad definition that it means like any kind of process could be considered hazing. The way they present greek life at my school, especially with panhel is pretty ridic. They want all the orgs to basically give their letters away, bake cookies, sew teddy bears, etc. dreampeace, it doesnt sound like your process was too crazy to me because i dont think you were touched in any way.