Michigan Schools Crack Down...
 

Michigan becomes 44th State to enact anti-hazing laws...

U-M, MSU get tough on fraternities, sororities

The Detroit News
November 26, 2004

U-M, MSU get tough on frats, sororities
Lawsuits, campus rules and a new state law put Greeks under the microscope
over hazing and drinking.

By Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News

The University of Michigan is investigating four fraternities and two
sororities, and Michigan State University Greeks are rewriting rules of
conduct, amid concerns that hazing and parties are putting students and the
time-honored tradition of fraternal groups on campus at risk.

The crackdown follows laws passed by the Michigan Legislature earlier this
year that make hazing a crime and lawsuits that have resulted in
significant awards against fraternities that sponsored drinking parties
that led to accidents.

Greek organizations in Michigan and across the country are investigating
allegations of drinking, hazing and other behavior they fear shows the
organizations in a bad light and risks more lawsuits. As a result, the
organizations are increasingly getting tough on members and activities.

Jared Stasik, a University of Michigan senior and member of the
Interfraternity Council, which governs the university's fraternities, said
hazing is a persistent problem, and the anti-hazing legislation is a
positive step.

"But one thing with fraternities that's so difficult to manage is that you
have 100 percent turnover every four years," said Stasik, 22, executive
vice president of the council.

"Someone who was hazed as a freshman will want to carry it on as tradition."

Michigan State University sorority leaders this month issued a list of new
standards for its 13 sororities that include additional codes of conduct
and academic policies to ensure there's no doubt what's expected of them.
Fraternities are expected to follow with their own standards.

Membership in fraternities and sororities has long ebbed and flowed on
individual campuses, depending on the groups' popularity and recruiting
efforts.

But the closer scrutiny of the groups nationwide this year in light of
several incidents comes at a time when fraternity membership nationwide is
down 25 percent from its peak year in 1990, according to the North-American
Interfraternity Conference.

U-M, for one, facesan onslaught of allegations and concerns. In Ann Arbor,
where U-M is investigating six Greek houses for hazing allegations, three
fraternities so far have been suspended by their national organizations,
pending the outcome of the investigations.

In four states, five underclassmen appeared to have drunk themselves to
death this fall; three of them were found dead at fraternity houses.
Samantha Spady, 19, was found Sept. 5 at a Colorado State University
fraternity; Lynn Gordon Bailey Jr., 18, was found dead Sept. 17 at a
University of Colorado fraternity house; and Blake Adam Hammontree, 19, was
found Sept. 30 at a University of Oklahoma fraternity house.

While fraternities agree that the wild and reckless stereotypes of
fraternities made popular in the movie "Animal House" are outdated and
inaccurate, isolated incidents of poor judgment have tainted the entire
Greek system, which prides itself on leadership and community service,
state Greek officers said.

Some say a harsher crackdown is needed.

"You have a collection of young men -- many of whom are underage and away
from home (with) very few restraints put on them -- and ... they can get
away with almost anything, particularly behind the closed doors of a
fraternity," said Steven J. Matz, a Farmington Hills attorney. Matz sued
Sigma Chi fraternity over the death of a West Bloomfield Township motorist
who was killed by a fraternity member who drove drunk.

On March 14, 2002, Kevin Cook, a 19-year-old honor student from Troy and
member of Sigma Chi fraternity at Western Michigan University, drove his
car the wrong way on Interstate 69 in Calhoun County after drinking beer
that night at the fraternity house, according to the lawsuit. He collided
head-on with David Hull, 52, a husband and father of three.

The Hull family was awarded $1.7 million in a settlement reached Nov. 3 in
Oakland Circuit Court. Sigma Chi was ordered to pay $1.45 million, and the
family of Kevin Cook was to pay $294,000.

February will mark Cook's two-year anniversary of incarceration. His
earliest release date from prison is April 2005; the latest, 2018, when
he'll be 35.

The fraternity was sanctioned -- privileges were taken away -- by its
national organization, based in Evanston, Ill., and Western Michigan
University. The frat since has returned to good standing with the
university.At U-M, officials launched an anti-hazing advertising campaign
in light of new state legislation passed in May that makes hazing that
causes injury or death a crime punishable by imprisonment.

The law followed a hazing incident at U-M in September 2003 in which a
Sigma Chi pledge suffered kidney failure after being forced to exercise for
long periods of time without water.

The fraternity was closed in the wake of the incident.

Police and students say the heightened awareness led to more reports of
hazing, not necessarily because hazing has spiked.

Reports of fraternity pledges being put in trunks of cars and forced to
drink excessively, and sorority pledges being improperly touched, trickled
into university staff in early October, according to Ann Arbor police and
university officials.

The university has conducted nearly 300 interviews, but not all of the
allegations have been substantiated, including allegations of sexual assault.

Criminal charges are unlikely in the cases, however, since no victims have
stepped forward, said Ann Arbor Police Detective Lt. Chris Heatley.

But the university is likely to find some students in violation of its code
of conduct, and Greek national and campus organizations still are
investigating the hazing and might issue further sanctions. Many Greek
organizations are working to better police themselves. At MSU, fraternities
must register parties in advance, with guest lists. Keg parties are
forbidden. Fraternities can't pass out beer, and guests of legal drinking
age who bring alcohol have to do so in nonglass containers.

Signs must be posted in the house with taxi phone numbers. And the "party
patrol," made up of Greek members, will inspect gatherings. Breaking rules
hasn't been a serious problem this year, said Chris Sorgi, outgoing
president of MSU's Interfraternity Council. "Fraternities got really used
to dealing with the rules and working with the (Interfraternity Council),"
Sorgi said.

At Central Michigan University, fraternities once were forced to register
parties with the office and provide a guest list, much like MSU.

But Tom Idema, assistant director of student life at the university,
learned quickly when he started his job four years ago that the guest lists
weren't accurate, with names such as Mickey Mouse, Pac Man and Spider-Man.

The staff gave up on registering parties, reasoning that it would be a
greater liability to know about the parties but not have the manpower to
patrol them than not to know about them at all, Idema said. "We hear about
all the negative stuff, and there is some of it out there, but by and large
there is a whole lot more to Greek life," Idema said. "Unfortunately, the
positive gets dwarfed by all the negative things."

At Western Michigan University, leaders took extra steps to educate
students about the new anti-hazing law because initiation traditions may
now be considered hazing, said Patrick Daniel, director of student
activities and leadership programs at WMU.Despite these educational
programs, Greeks across the nation often find themselves targets of
lawsuits, making fraternities one of the most difficult groups to
insure.HRH/Kirklin & Co. LLC, an Omaha-based company, works with 51 members
of the North-American Interfraternity Conference in designing liability
insurance programs with a minimum coverage of $1 million.

"The perception of fraternities in most people's minds is not positive,"
said company president Ned Kirklin. So he must spend time "explaining the
difference between perceptions and facts" when designing insurance policies.

Cost of such insurance ranges from $100-$225 per fraternity member a year,
with sororities costing from $10-$45 per member, he said.

Enrollment in U-M Greek organizations last year was 3,474 -- a steady
decline from 1992, with 4,963.

The quality of membership is more important than the quantity, said Jon
Williamson, executive vice president of the North-American Interfraternity
Conference. One-third of the members of U.S. chapters have a grade-point
average higher than 3.0, and the amount of community service they perform
also has increased, he said.

Greeks are the largest network of volunteers in the United States, raising
hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for charities. Plus, the
graduation rate among Greeks is higher than non-Greeks, Williamson said.

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Hazing rules

• In May, Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation that makes hazing a
crime. Hazing that results in physical injury can be punished by 93 days to
five years in prison, depending on the severity of injury.

• Hazing that causes death can carry up to a 15-year prison sentence.

• Michigan became the 44th sate to enact an anti-hazing law.

• Hazing is defined as actions that endanger the physical health or safety
of someone for the purpose of being initiated into a group or maintaining
membership.

• Hazing includes actions such as physical brutality, sleep deprivation,
confinement in small spaces, calisthenics that pose risk of harm and
forcing someone to ingest food, liquid, alcohol and drugs.