U. of Florida Suspends ATO Chapter
 

The U. of Florida has suspended the Alpha Tau Omega chapter pending the ouotcome of an investigation of allegations of sleep deprivation and other alleged forms of hazing. The November 8, 2007 Alligator reports:

http://www.alligator.org/articles/20...ffairs/ato.txt

Brief excerpt:

A UF fraternity has been accused of hazing new members by depriving them of sleep, ordering them to clean older members' rooms and throwing them in a "mud pit."

UF's chapter of Alpha Tau Omega is suspended until further notice while UF's office of Student Judicial Affairs investigates the accusations.

Incidentally, several of the readers' comments posted with the article seem to support at least some forms of hazing.

The student paper also has an editorial:
http://www.alligator.org/articles/20...ials/eddy1.txt

I must be sleep-deprived... When I first read this, I thought it said "sheep deprived...."

Hey, considering the highly variable quality of my tap-tap-typing, it could have.

(However, lots of us do try to stay away from "sheep" references -- don't want to encourage the old stereotypes and horror stories, y'know.)

What do ya'll think about the comment from I wonder if it is true that the allegation was made by the disgruntled relative of a pledge who wasn't initiated because he didn't attend all the required pledge functions.

Anyway, I think the university is overreacting if what the Alligator has reported as the "hazing" is all there is to it. Chores, pledge taxi, learning fraternity history, etc. sound like a pretty tame pledge period. Even the throwing in the mud pit sounds like a fun thing, unless they are thrown in in a dangerous way.

Sounds like silly boy stuff to me (I have 3 sons and there was alot of throwing in the mud over the years by each other, accompanied by alot of laughter).

There is also an editorial on this written by the editorial board. The comments are interesting. Seems that the Alligator may be heavily anti-Greek and they are being called on it.

At the same time, there is an article titled from October 30.

Ummm, OK, - but cleaning rooms and being a designated driver is bad.

What a crazy paper!

What a joke.

No allegations of violence, alcohol violations ....

But suspended nonetheless. Does this really make sense?

If people think learning fraternity history is so bad, then shouldn't learning history as a whole be considered hazing as well?
This so-called hazing allegation doesn't make sense.

We do not think it makes sense, but, it actually does.

Sleep deprevation is a form of hazing, throwing them in a mud pit is hazing.

Do I want new members to learn about my Fraternity and Chapter damn right!

But in this day and age, it is not just alcohol and beatings that mean hazing.

It is anything that can bring physical or mental harm to a PNM.

That is just the way it is, period.

So either follow the rules or get banned and that helps none of us as GLOs.

They told their pledges they couldnt wear jean shorts for a week... terrible.

I dont consider those things to be hazing

Historically and today, ATO is one of the most prominent fraternities at the University of Florida. With their political strength it's surprising that they can get suspended for something that sounds so trivial. However, the State is very sensitive about hazing right now; and if there is one thing to which universities respond with Draconian over-reaction it is bad publicity.
In Tallahassee, undergraduate members - graduating seniors - of a black fraternity at Florida A&M were sentenced to prison for beating a pledge with canes.
Here at Florida State we've lost four very large, very prominent fraternities in just a few years: SAE in 2001, Pi Kappa Phi in 2005, and both ATO and Sig Ep during the 2006-2007 school year. I think it's significant that none of these were for drinking or general hell-raising; all of these losses were for hazing.
Trends change, but the universities right now seem to focused on hazing first, then fighting, and drinking issues last. This could just be limited to Florida, and I could be wrong about the whole thing. I'm trying to be open minded because my normal instinct is to look for mid-level student affairs bureaucrats who simply like to boss people around, especially uppity fraternity boys who will make more in their first job out of college than they ever will.

I was hazed and I hazed others. It was fun. But hazing has caused more trouble for fraternities than almost anything else. We were able to get rid of it when we came back to campus and in seven years the lack of it has not seemed to hurt our chapter in terms of brotherhood or performance.

Update: Penalties Summarized in Short Article (ATO - U. of Florida

See December 8, 2007 short article in the campus paper about restrictions on social events, rushing, and other requirements:

http://www.alligator.org/articles/20...campus/ato.txt

The article says ATO will accept the sanctions.

Firehouse, you made some good observations. As a non-Floridian (is that the word?) even I wonder if some of the attention being paid to hazing has to do with the fairly recent tightening of Florida's anti-hazing law, and the substantial publicity the new law got. (I think this is the state sensitivity about hazing you mention.)

In a lot of places, not just Florida, the state colleges and universities have to work constantly on maintaining good relations with the state legislature and governor. Can the tougher law be an example of political forces in the state saying "jump," and the state schools then saying, "we're jumping"?

All that aside, I'm glad you mentioned that getting rid of hazing hasn't hurt your chapter's brotherhood or performance. Congratulations.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/2...ISTS/712110313

More recent and correct article.

They may have been alright if the mud pit was not used!