Update on FAMU Hazing Incident
 

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My husband is an Alpha Xi Nupe...they don't look like they used to when I was at FAMU. They have some monsters now. Jeez. I remember when Nupes were fine.
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The article says they've been suspended until 2013. That is nuts. I guess the other frats will see a marked increase in interest :rolleyes: .

FAMU needs to address the culture of hazing that exist on campus. You have Pharmacy professional organizations that haze on campus. Let's not even get started on the Marching 100.

I'm not excusing my frat at all. If the allegations are true, those involved deserve to be punished. And what bugs me is that the other greeks on campus are now talking about how their processes are gonna be looked at more carefully now. They should be. Everyone hazes at FAMU. Hell the Gospel Choir use to haze. They had G Phi G or Glorify God. Something like that. But they hazed too. I don't want FAMU to put a moratorium on membership intake but they have to get a handle on the overall problem. To be honest, the Band/Service type organizations haze worst than the NPHC. SKEE, I know you know what I'm talking about.

:eek: :eek:

The Gospel Choir hazing?

*rereads to make sure I am reading this correctly*

The GOSPEL CHOIR HAZING

If such is the case, then dang. I guess there is a problem at FAMU?

:eek: :eek:

Are you for real? You're saying that KKY/TBS and APO/GSS haze worse than NPHC orgs? I don't ask this to disagree with you, I just have a hard time visualizing this, that's all. You are probably correct; it's that I just have to "see it", that's just my take on it.

Yes, Frat they haze worse. I likend it to an inferiority complex. They feel like they have to prove the worth of their organizations so they pledge harder. I don't know if this is the case today, but Epicurean Modeling Troupe use to haze as well. Everyone at FAMU has line jackets. It sickens me to a point. What does pledging have to do with being a part of Kappa Psi and Kappa Epsilon (fraternities and sororities respectively) have to due with hazing. Kappa Psi even have sweethearts called Kappa Psyettes. I just don't get it. It's not uncommon to see someone walking around FAMU with some sort of shirt on with a line number on the back.

You're absolutely correct N4L. EVERYBODY hazes at FAMU. 9 times out of 10 if you are in any campus org, you were hazed to get into it. The non-greek orgs haze just in an attempt to give themselves some yard credibility. At HBCU's becoming a member of the D9 is extremely desirable (to say the least). However, everybody can't join. So people try to get the same respect, admiration, attention of D9 orgs by immitating them (i.e. having "lines", getting D9 style nalia, hazing etc). I think it's a mess and people who do that are clownish. But it is prevalent at FAMU.

Coincidentally, my ex-hub was also a member of Kappa Psi, the pharmacy frat. Um....they pledge hard...harder than some frats. That is all I will say about that. I think it's corny.

Yes, people are hazed relentlessly to be a member of the Marching 100. Our band is legendary, they've played all over the world, everybody wants to be down...you have to "earn" your way in. That is the way it is.

*shrugs shoulders* Hazing is prevalent at FAMU. I wonder if it is just us or do any other HBCU's have the same problem. Anybody?

I would venture to say others are the same....and yes pledging to get in the band is no joke.

I went to two different HBCUs, No it's not just FAMU.


This is the TRUTH. I've seen people go to extremes to try and get into an org.

Yup, I've seen plenty of the modeling troupes have line jackets far more elaborate than I'll ever be able to afford.

Two things I definitely have to agree with:

1) Competitiveness of sororities/fraternities at HBCUs. I'm in the AUC and ladies and gentleman here have to devote an ENTIRE YEAR of effort to get into these orgs, sometimes more. It's not a spur of the moment decision. You have to know practically from the moment you walk through the door. And there's no schooling here. You have to already know how to play the game, or you lose.

2) EVERYBODY AND THEY MOMMA WANT LINE JACKETS. GSS and APO (very small on CAU), KKY/TBS, SAI, Sinfonia, they all got line jackets and numbers, hand signals and calls. (I seent a Phi Mu Alpha line jacket the other day and my eyes went O_O Them things cost as much as NPHC jackets) Shit, the freshman dorms get Greek letters, paraphernalia, step teams, and beef with each other. The Greek phenomenon is desirable but because of point 1 people have to find alternatives for it, or create their own.

Just the perspective of an outside, but you know. It's almost funny to watch from this perspective, but it's like desperation. I watch 100+ young men and women vy for 35 spots.

Im not in a Fraternity but I am a student leader, and people walk around my campus with line jackets and shirts on as well. The Track Team has line shirts, and a group of students just up and created there own organization and they have sweethearts, line shirts, dog tags, hand signs, and they were party walking. Its pretty sad.:( :(

Stop...
 

I think it's all gotten way outta hand but luckily I don't define my "greekness" by 'nalia. As for the hazing, I just hope we all wake up and realize that enough is enough already. Personally I think more a more demanding intake process would help resolve some of the problems but then again there will always be a few that feel they have something to prove.

Re: Stop...
 

I agree enough is enough already! :eek: :mad:

RAINMAN IS NOT A BROTHER OF KAPPA ALPHA PSI FRATERNITY INC. WE ARE HOWEVER BROTHERS OF ALPHA PHI OMEGA NATIONAL SERVICE FRATERNITY.

Thanks for the KlarifiKation :p :D

What's up Nupes? I know the family (Jones here in Decatur) personally. In fact, the dad is a
nupe from UAB and the moms an AKA from Miles College. The moms called me right
after the son got home for Spring break. Crazy stuff still happening all in the name of Phi Nu Pi. I and Brother Ronald Range Providence Polmarch of Southern Providence meet with the parents and they are talking legal actions against the Frat. I mean the young man will never be able to have 100% of is hearing again. THis is a sad day.:(

They were talking about this Saturday on 90.5, the FAMU radio station. A member of the Alpha Xi chapter called and noted that the father of one of the victims is the one pushing the legal action, not the son. He asserted that the father is just out to extort money for the school and the organization by filing suit. He mentioned a claim won by another hazing victim that was awarded over $1M, citing that the father is just trying to get rich.

I was thinking, you all shouldn't have given him any ammunition to get rich from. :rolleyes: *shrugs shoulders*

That is so true SKEEphistAKAte...You would think that since the guys father was a Nupe he would not sue his organization but I guess when Family is envolved it is different.

The whole incident smacks of sheer carelessness. Some of our BGLO chapters are forsaking brotherhood and caring for your fellow man for the sake of "making someone right". The fact that this young man will have health problems for the rest of his life trying to become a member of a strong bond of highly educated men is unsettling at the very least and morbid at its worst. I give undergraduate intake for the Divine 9 about ten years before insurance premiums get entirely too expensive for it to continue. (Insurance, Legal Fees, Settlements, etc.)

It's sad.

P.S.-What's up Nupeology? T-town for 27 more days!

/\ It's sad but I agree as well. The alternative is having graduate chapters completely running the process.

If grad chapters completely run the process, there will still be renegade undergrad brothers or maybe some overzealous grad brothers who still wanna beat the hell out of people in the name of tradition.

(Although the tradition, per se, was above ground intake activities that provided a rich legacy and knowledge of greek/GDI interaction. The tradition has become a packaging of pledging's salacious elements and physical aspects, with total disregard for life and limb.)

We're kinda stuck between a rock (no pun intended) and a hard place.

I agree....A lot of these issues were brought up when MIP was orginally implemented yet it was kind of pushed under the table.
You're right there aren't any easy answers. It's kind of like shooting in the dark.

Your statement confuses me. MIP came about, because these issues were already present. What MIP did was give the orgs. a better legal realm with which to discipline such behavior. Before that very few orgs had internal written standardized processes, so unless something like a death occured, it was hard to prove a violation of the rules--there were none except very general statements.

Everyone seems to blame the current hazing on MIP. But prior to it there was above ground AND below ground. What I see is reason for the current situation appearing to be worse is the advent of the internet and more stories getting told to more people.

Yes some issues were present prior to MIP however all Greeks did not feel that MIP was going to be the answer to the problem. There were plenty of Greek members who loudly voiced their opinion against MIP. It was clearly stated that they did not agree with eliminating pledging and they stated why they felt that way. There were many Greeks who were against people skating into their organizations. But they were ignored and MIP was put into place. It was obvious that there was going to be a problem. This is what I mean by it was pushed under the table. It's like trying to resolve one problem and creating a bigger one.

To me MIP opened a Pandora's Box. Just because MIP was put into place that did not change how these members felt about pledging and intake. To me it has sent pledging/hazing deep underground. This is what makes it more dangerous than it ever was before. Who is regulating what?

For every story that does make the news there are countless others that will never make the news or be reported. I just pray that we find a solution soon before this spirals any further out of control.

Some issue? No all of the issues. They were more severe pre-MIP. And trust the underground was deeper before, because there was no the fear of being caught, since there were no offical rules.

The HBCUs threatened in a formal letter to ban all HPHCs if something wasn't done. MIP was instituted to reach a compromise that would keep us on those campuses. Trust me, I was there.

And you know what? A good pledge period/MIP doesn't need to entail all of the hazing. Look at the number of folx initiated pre-MIP who aren't active with their orgs because of what went down.

MIP wasn't done lightly and without a lot of study. It took a few years for all of the NPHC to come on board. Too many deaths and maimings were happening. So the lawsuits and pending crisis forced us all to adopt our own versions of MIP.

And very honestly I think it is an injustice to anyone who goes through a strictly MIP process to be labeled as "paper.' (not that you said that.) But each previous decade of pledges could say the same thing about subsequent pledges, MIP or not. And that is what makes prospects yield to things they know are not right. Us old heads need to quit glamouizing what we went through, because it wasn't nice. Yet we didn't have the recourse then that prospects have now.

So again, imo, the issue is more of things being communicated more widely, than an upsurge. And what you have now is a reporting of suspensions and expulsions on some national websites of chapters and individuals that should give prospects information for making an iformed choice. Maybe everyone should institute that. Because before MIP there was NO regulation. of such.

Yes, we are still at a cross roads, but MIP is not to blame. Human behavior is. And that is a whole 'nother issue about who we bring into our organiztions.

I believe that the MIP needs to be revamped. What the MIP has become is a massive photocopy machine that each of our perspective organizations are using to spew out members who do absolutely nothing for our frats/sororities, but wear t-shirts. Pledging has been push deep underground and is being compressed into short periods of time. Old heads talk about how long they were on line and what they went through. Commonly I speak to "old heads" that I have been through more than and endured in 2/3 or some cases 1/2 the time they did. What would have been done in 12-14 weeks is being done in 6-9 weeks. No wonder people are being hurt. Trust that they are being hurt more frequently now than before, but few cases are reported. There has not been a semester where I have not seen blood leading to one of the frat rooms or heard of someone "falling down the stairs" and having to be rushed to the emergency room. The more we think that this MIP is working, the more you will see that our D9 organizations will be fading and disappearing (although there will still be t-shirts present). I know people who are so afraid to even submit applications because of the nonsense that they heard. When did having skin burned off your back make you more of a brother? This and other happenings are unheard of in the past.

Pledging doesn't need to be eliminated, it needs to be controlled.

To make a long story short, in my opinion this is a ticking time bomb. It’s just like if you have a child and that child keeps trying to tell you that something is wrong and you keep ignoring them & then you’re surprised when the problem escalates to a proportion that you’re not prepared to handle.... I hope we don’t wait until we are forced to try and resolve this before we look deeper into this.

COSIGN 100%

Yep. You are who you make.

enigma_AKA

I think that this right here is the key!

IMHO, I think that the 'upsurge' is related to a larger societal issue of entitlement. Prospectives feel that if they meet the requirements, then they are owed membership, regardless of their reputation, legacy status or work ethic. On the other hand, members feel that they must make someone 'right' in order for them to wear the same letters, without regard to brotherhood/sisterhood, earning respect or their personal example of living the principles.

Based on this larger societal problem, I don't think that eliminating collegiate intake or passing control over to graduate chapters will work either. If the process is modified to give all sides what they NEED, then it will work better. I am not naive enough to think that everyone will be satisfied but the more needs addressed by all parties, the better the process will work.

Update
 

Five Kappa Alpha Psi brothers accused of beating a pledge with canes have just received their official letters of dismissal from FAMU, but their lawyer contends the university had no right to ban them from class or from campus without a formal hearing first.


http://www.wctv6.com/home/headlines/2654836.html

And the madness continues......

Speak for your frat only. And how do you know how any of the other respective org's MIP is structured?

But this existed way before MIP.

MIP is controlled pledging. At least it is in Delta. The bleeding you refer to is NOT part of MIP. It is hazing. And no folx are not being hurt more frequently than before. When MIP was put into place it was because the hazing had almost reached epidemic proportions--it was the norm, not the exception. And guess what back in the day most HBCUs had a limit of six week pledge periods, anyway--some even shorter. Truth be told, a pledge period over 6 weeks long was mostly about servitude, and how many people you could get to drop line.

I call it like I see it, for all organizations!

Laughing so hard right now!!! 6 weeks!!! How much punch and cake can u consume...that's pledging under MIP!!! How many times can u meet up and study in one week. HA!!!!:D

Hijack

I am so glad my cousins have graduated and left town and didnt get caught in that stuff. They both die hard Kappas out of that chapter. I came to their probate shows.
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I really hope this ends ok. I kinda feel bad that those boys (the one who got expelled) are going to be the ones who get made the example of when hazing didnt start with them nor will it end with them.

You feel sorry for what? That they were made an example of? Overboard is overboard and thats that... you cant feel bad that they got caught doing wrong. I'm sure no one FORCED them to beat the hell outta them guys with canes, do you? If enough people get punished the right way for hazing it will die down. People will see the risk in what they are doing and at very least be smart with it next time around.

It sucks their future at the school is over but knowing that worse could happen they should chalk it up as a loss and keep it moving. They didnt lose their letters did they?

I always get sad when i see a young student do something to harm their future.

I hear you. The hazing is the wrong thing to do, absolutely. But those guys didnt invent.hazing.

Its sad that they were hazing and actually hurt someone. Its sad that someone has permanent and long term damage as a result of hazing. Its sad that the Kappas havent that long been back on the yard and are now kicked back off (if Im not mistaken). I think that it is sad that if you ask a Famu student about their Kappas they would prob say something about the hazing and not anything about the good the Kappa's may have done.

I'm close to my cousins and I know how much they love their fraternity and all the work they've done for their fraternity. I just think the whole thing is sad.