Study: Hazing Hits Half of College Students Belonging to Organizations
 

PORTLAND, Maine — Virtually every college bans hazing, but more than half of college students belonging to campus organizations say they have experienced it in places from the glee club to the fraternity house, according to a new study.
Academic clubs and social and cultural organizations all haze new members, students told professors Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden from the University of Maine's College of Education and Human Development...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336788,00.html

This is REALLY Faux News.

Drinking games and drinking until you pass out, 99% of the time have nothing to do with hazing.

What about this one?

singing or chanting in public

So, at our Convention, all of the attendees, while arranging ourselves on the beautiful circle staircase at the hotel for a group picture, spontaneously broke into song together. It was one of the most touching and beautiful moments I've had as a sister. If you're going to count that as hazing, then I'm surprised that 100% of all sorority members didn't come up as being hazed. Greek Week? Greek Sing? Come on folks!

ETA: And if the GLEE CLUB can't sing in public, then what is the point???

How bad is the singing? ;)

This story illustrates the big problem with "hazing" which is identified in about half the threads in this subforum -- that we have no clue what the actual definition of the word is.

Getting drunk in college or playing drinking games is "hazing"? I think about 99% of our rule books probably would agree. Would very many of us see a table at a party, or a room full of people playing "Captain Dickhead" or something like that and call that hazing? I really doubt it.

There's a disconnect between the definition and reality in my opinion. If I were in charge, I'd really want to nail the definition down a bit better, and try to make it universal between organizations, or at least within umbrella organizations.

In case anyone wishes to read the whole report:
HazingStudy.org is pleased to announce the release of the Initial Findings of the National Study of Student Hazing: Examining and Transforming Campus Hazing Cultures.
This investigation is the most comprehensive study of hazing to date and includes survey responses from more than 11,000 undergraduate students at 53 colleges and universities in different regions of the U.S. and interviews with more than 300 students and staff at 18 of these campuses.
What is hazing? Hazing is any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person’s willingness to participate....
http://www.hazingstudy.org/
http://www.hazingstudy.org/publicati...n_view_web.pdf

I think that the above definition gets fuzzy with the word "endangers." Jaywalking endangers, but I don't think it is hazing. I think that so long as the person IS consenting to the act, it needs to be something causing pretty significant and direct endangerment.

Skylark;
Since I posted the above, I am on page 5 of report. You?

So if I choose to dress up in an embarrassing feetie-pajama bunny costume for an Easter egg hunt I'm being hazed?

I am now on page 10 of report; how far have you gotten:confused:
And key phase in your comment: "I Choose".
Page 9-10 include this:

The survey included more
than 30 types of hazing behaviors including the following:

Associate with specific people and not others

Perform sex acts with same gender

Junk science in my opinion.

Unless you ask the totality of every college student in a fraternity/sorority in the United States (which I know this hasn't been done, because I haven't been asked), this studies worthless.

So every study or survey ever done is, IYVHO, junk? Hummm.

To some extent, yes.

As she said, to some degree "yes".

Only if it is "expected of you." If no one in the group is telling you to do it, it's not hazing by that definition (which is a better one, IMHO, than most of the definitions I've seen).
________
Vaporizer Wiki

"Attend a skit night or roast where other members are humiliated"


This is, a lot of the times, one of the most fun nights of the year for many fraternities. Senior roast , big brother roast, etc.

This junk is ridiculous. I'd say that 95% of people at my alma mater "deprive themselves of sleep" several times a semester for academic reasons. Is the university hazing them? If their organization has grade requirements, thus forcing them to study and possibly deprive themselves of their God-given right to 8 hours a night of sleep, is that org hazing them? If a pledge is playing linebacker in intramural flag football, and the other team fumbles, and a brother yells "FUMBLE!" at the pledge, is that hazing?

I completely agree.

I agree here too. Often these roasts are done before campus administrators, parents, grandparents etc. The key word is "humiliated". The issue being that what might be humiliating to one person, may not be to another. Problems arise when members do not know where that line lies.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that the ones I have been involved in would be grandmother/administration/parents friendly, haha.

Also........I just realized, what does a roast like this have to do with pledges or hazing? Usually this activity is for, like I said, big brothers or seniors.

True. Usually an "in-house" event like a big brother roast. But I have attended chapter hosted events where the honoree (member) was "roasted" prior to being presented his award. Administrators and parents are invited and often present at the event.

Study cites prevalence of hazing at colleges
 

As a new Sigma Nu pledge class ran across the Meyer Library lobby in the nude last Thursday, a gathered crowd of bemused bystanders and sorority girls gasped and giggled.
“They were clapping and cheering, and a few had their hands over their mouths, saying ‘Oh my god,’” said Chris McCarty ‘09, who witnessed the naked run.
The fraternal right of passage is nothing new, to Stanford or to universities across America.
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/20...zingAtColleges

AAAAGH!! (not @ you Jon, @ the author of the article)

It's RITE of passage.

Can we not even expect a student at STANFORD - one of the most prestigious colleges in the US - to use proper grammar anymore?

What's the matter with people??

Old school: LOLPIPROF:D. Just made my day.
And yes, I agree with you. I saw that and thought about editing it.