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.