Another U. of Central Florida Fraternity Being Investigated (Alpha Tau Omega)
 

Florida stations are reporting that Alpha Tau Omega pledges were allegedly "spanked" inside one of the buildings on UCF's campus. One report is:

http://www.wesh.com/news/10254843/detail.html

I love how the article claims the hazing incident for the SAEs was a "ritual." Thats just great.

"Great" local reporting there and here:
http://www.local6.com/news/10243667/detail.html

Wow, weshtv finally posted something about that? It's older "news" than the SAE incident. This happened after the Human Nutrition nite class on Oct 23rd around 10pm in HPA I building in room 0125...which totally grosses me out coz I have a class in that room this semester & had another class in the room last year.

I'm glad the university is starting to crack down on these incidents. Whether they are "hazing" or innocent fun gone awry, these images of public spankings, fairy wings and underage intoxication don't represent the university nor the mission of university Greek Life very well.

Fairy wings... that's a new one to me.

We often are frustrated by the use of the word "ritual" when it comes to describing hazing. Most, if not all of us consider "ritual" as the ceremony by which we are inducted into our organizations.

On deeper consideration, I think that many acts of hazing are, in fact, rituals:

From the online Cambridge Dictionary:

"Definition
ritual:

a set of fixed actions and sometimes words performed regularly, especially as part of a ceremony:"

From Wikipedia:

"A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community.

A ritual may be performed at regular intervals, or on specific occasions, or at the discretion of individuals or communities. It may be performed by a single individual, by a group, or by the entire community; in arbitrary places, or in places especially reserved for it; either in public, in private, or before specific people. A ritual may be restricted to a certain subset of the community, and may enable or underscore the passage between religious or social states.

The purposes of rituals are varied; they include compliance with religious obligations or ideals, satisfaction of spiritual or emotional needs of the practitioners, strengthening of social bonds, demonstration of respect or submission, stating one's affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event — or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.

In any case, an essential feature of a ritual is that the actions and their symbolism are not arbitrarily chosen by the performers, nor dictated by logic or necessity, but are, at least in part, prescribed and imposed upon the performers by some external source."

While most of you know that I don't approve of hazing, some of the language above is much the same as that used to justify some form of hazing during our pledge processes.

So, my conclusion is that, while hazing may not be part of our initiation "ritual," it may be a ritual unto itself.

I don't like the use of the word in stories, but I don't think it is totally incorrect.

If you conceive of a ritual as a rite of passage, I could see the connection between someone calling hazing a ritual.

Yes, while we consider ritual the long-held traditions identified in our formal ceremonies, not everyone is Greek and not everyone understands that not all chapters haze. Our HQ's consider hazing a criminal act and take steps to prevent it through membership education and anti-hazing policies. But the majority of the world isn't Greek and they don't need to know those things.

Correct. Including many, probably most reporters.

HQs also consider what is being done when a chapter is accused of hazing.

There are also people who consider things like brushing their teeth every morning "a ritual".

I understand what you are saying. However, I believe the reason they referred to it that way is because when the police first tried to enter the SAE house they were told that they could not because a ritual was being performed.

The News is The News.

If it is not sensational, then it is not The News.:rolleyes:

Who cares about any GLOs doing charity events, they want to know about a spanking.

God, some of them should go to sex tapes, there are folks who like that type of thing!:eek: