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Thanks Mom and Sig.....you know the more I think about this the madder I get. It is another symptom of a greater problem.....the "taking it to the extreme" syndrome. Next thing you know, somebody is going to actually try and claim harrassment or "hazing" of some sort by their professor for MAKING them do a 30 page paper.....as a matter of fact my mother was an English professor at an area university and she had a student who habitually had "car trouble" whenever she had an assignment due and didn't show up with it. After two or three times of this my mom finally told the girl she wasn't going to accept her paper. Well this little b!*@# told my mom she'd be hearing from her daddy, and ran home and raised you-know-what. Next thing you know, daddy calls up and reams out the department head, who calls my mom in and tells her she HAS to accept the paper, and she can't take off at all for it being late. What total BS. It's all about taking personal responsibility. Of course we all know the girl was totally lying about her car trouble, she was just lazy and didn't do her work on time. But even if it had been true, ok fine maybe once or twice. But after that you take responsibility for the fact that you need to find a reliable mode of transportation to class, be it catching a ride with someone else, taking a bus, walking, or maybe even trading in the junk heap for a car that drives!!!! But nooooo, whine and cry about it enough and it'll be taken care of for you. What's she going to do when "car trouble" is keeping her from getting to work? Her boss isn't going to even TALK to Daddy, the boss is just going to fire her!!!!
It's no different in a lot of these greek situations. A lot of these hazing rules came down not so much because all of these things which have been banned are really hazing.....it is a matter of people trying to cover themselves in a litigation-crazed world. Take the case that occurred at Kent a while back. At an event that involved a number of chapters (I believe it may have been Greek Week Greek games) a bunch of guys from a fraternity were jumping into a mud pit for fun. One of the younger guys (he may have been a pledge) decided to join them and dove in headfirst....well he ended up landing wrong and broke his neck.....his parents ended up trying to sue the fraternity, the other fraternities and sororities "involved" (anyone who was at the event) AND the university. I'm pretty sure it got dropped (something about negligence on the part of the son who dove in completely of his own volition)
OK, you want to hear a REALLY bad one? Try the sorority member who was slowly killing herself with a severe eating disorder. Her sorority sisters were growing increasingly concerned for her life after numerous attempts to help her. Finally, in desperation, members of the chapter contacted her parents, who brought their daughter home and got her into treatment that saved her life. So imagine the chapter's astonishment when the parents filed a lawsuit on their daughter's behalf......the crux? The chapter violated their daughter's right to privacy by telling THEM about her eating disorder!!!!!!!! Ok, hello??? These people are saying that the chapter should have kept their mouths shut and let Calista Flockhart starve herself to death....and they'd have been OKAY with that? I can just see them at the funeral, weeping over her coffin. "Yes, our little girl is gone, but darn it she went with her right to privacy intact!!! God bless those Omega Mus for preserving her civil liberties!!!!" Um, NO! They'd have still been calling the firm to file suit, only it would have been gross negligence for not intervening!!!! My chapter has specific policies in place regarding situations like that now, in order to help the sister while covering themselves.
Sorry to ramble, but it just drives me crazy that things like this are allowed to go on. Everyone is always coming down on the evil greeks...(God knows we Chi Omegas have had some of the worst accusations made on us lately!!!) but nobody is expected to take any personal responsibility. If you don't like something, just call your parents and if they can't get you your way they'll call Uncle Ralph down at the firm.....what is this teaching people about real life? How are these kids, greek or otherwise, expected to be able to handle the pressures and inevitable discomforts of life on their own? If a fraternity member can't handle learning some history about his chapter and being expected to attend some pledge class bonding sessions with his brothers, how is he going to handle the stress of a real job? There are always "dues' to be paid in life.....by taking this whole hazing thing too far we are intimating that anything that you HAVE to do is bad, anything that makes you put out any effort is unfair, that everything comes easy. And as I said in my last post, it takes away a lot of the most special and enjoyable parts of the greek experience that set it apart from the GDI life.
(Oops....I tripped getting down off my soapbox.....anyone know a good lawyer???)
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