[DeltAlum]

I'm getting ill because of the number of chapters losing their charters. Is anybody listening out there?

Boston Globe
December 15, 2001

Campus hazing reportedly increasing - in sororities

By David Abel, Globe Staff, 12/15/2001

At Northeastern University, officials suspended a sorority this month
after pledges said they weren't allowed to sleep until they finished
sorting candy with their noses. At the University of Southern Maine,
administrators booted out a sorority chapter this week after pledges were
blindfolded and left alone in the woods.

And over the past semester, similar allegations of hazing have cropped up
at sororities on campuses from the University of Michigan to the University
of Colorado.

While fraternities have long made headlines for hazing, observers say a
growing number of sororities are now playing the dangerous game of mentally
and physically abusing pledges.

''There's no question that hazing in sororities is increasing in frequency
as well as severity,'' said Michael V.W. Gordon, who served for most of the
past decade as executive director of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, a
consortium of fraternities and sororities.

There are no uniform federal reports of hazing on college campuses, but
observers say hazing may be as prevalent in sororities as in fraternities.

The main difference, they say, is that fraternity hazing is often more
physical and violent, and thus more frequently captures headlines.

Since 1873, there have been 64 fraternity hazing deaths and only two
sorority deaths, said Hank Nuwer, author of ''Broken Pledges: The Deadly
Rite of Hazing,'' who has studied the Greek system for decades. But
sorority hazing, he says, does its own damage.

Hazing in sororities is usually more psychological, says Nuwer - such as
insulting pledges, making them address sisters of the sorority with special
names, and banning them from wearing makeup. Though not physically harmful,
these rituals have a bad record of leading to eating disorders such as
bulimia and anorexia.

At the University of Southern Maine, administrators were worried about both
the psychological and physical health of students when they shuttered Sigma
Iota Sigma this week. After a review, they found the sorority made pledges
dress in skimpy clothing and order adult movies at a local video store.
Disgruntled pledges also charged that the sisters forced pledges to ingest
a combination of beer, pickles, hot peppers, and the soft drink Moxie, and
that they were abandoned in the woods for a half-hour.

''We have usually expected this kind of behavior only from fraternities,''
said Craig Hutchinson, the university's vice president for student
development. ''We now know we have to be proactive about stopping hazing in
sororities.''

At Northeastern, after two pledges dropped out and complained late last
month of abuse at Northeastern's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Phi, campus
officials decided to suspend the sorority while the university investigates
the allegations.

According to officials monitoring the case, the pledges had to mark their
bellies for a week to prove they hadn't showered. When not separating candy
with their noses, they had to complete complex jigsaw puzzles before
sisters allowed them to sleep. Neither students nor the sorority's campus
adviser would comment on the allegations.

''This is the first time we've had an allegation at a sorority at this
level,'' said Michael Lopez, assistant director of student activities for
Greek life, who oversees about 500 students who belong to the campus's nine
sororities and 14 chapters. ''But we have strict guidelines against hazing.
If the allegations are true, appropriate action will be taken.''

Other recent charges of hazing against sororities surfaced this past
semester after two pledges at the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at the
University of Colorado in Boulder were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning,
and the University of Michigan suspended the Delta Delta Delta sorority
after two pledges were drugged and raped at a fraternity party.

Other examples include charges that in 1997, Kappa Kappa Gamma at DePauw
University in Indiana used cigarettes to brand pledges and the Alpha Chi
Omega sorority in 1988 used a metal stamp to brand the letters of the
chapter on pledges at the University of Maine in Orono.

The spread of hazing to sororities - which enjoy a longstanding reputation
as the civilized counterparts to frats - has given pause to some longtime
advocates of Greek culture.

''It has been enough to make me waver about whether it's a good idea for
anyone to join the Greek system anymore,'' said Gordon, of the Pan-Hellenic
Council. ''There's just too much psychological harm, mental stress, and
academic failure related to it now.''

For Nuwer, the Greek system historian, the apparent uptick in sorority
hazing may have more to do with colleges cracking down and students fessing
up.

''Even though hazing in sororities may be on the rise, the numbers of cases
that become public have a lot to do with more reporting and better
education,'' he said.

National officials of Alpha Epsilon Phi said they were surprised by the
allegations against the Northeastern chapter, but they said if they are
true, the 11-year-old sorority could lose its charter.

''Hazing is being told to do anything that a pledge normally wouldn't do,''
said Bonnie Wunsch, the national executive director of Alpha Epsilon Phi.
''We don't teach that, we don't accept that - and we won't tolerate it.''