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With the Aggie Band, you've got to remember that they're a special unit of our Corps of Cadets, B-Battery. While the Band members are kind of the "nerds" of the Corps, the Band generally gets great respect. They're a precision-marching MILITARY band, not the traditional funny, feathered-hat wearing, goofy theme song playing university band. If you've ever seen the Aggie Band march, then you know what I mean. They're AMAZING! The Corps is commonly referred to by non-regs as "the biggest fraternity on campus", or "the 2000 member frat". Yes, the Corps has plenty of hazing issues that officials (inside & out) have been trying to get a handle on for a good number of years now. What most people don't understand is that the reason this has gone on for so long has everything to do with the way that the Corps works (we call it Old Army, but it's really a perfect example of the "good ol' boy" system)and the way the University has traditionally functioned. As a formerly all-male military institution (only accepted women after 1973 and sororities recieved University recognition in 1990) , this university has a LONG history of Corps activity that under today's standards are counted as hazing. Most hazing activities have been incidents of requiring "fish" (Corps freshmen) to do excessive amounts of exercise such as "class sets"(year you graduate) of pushups, really long marches etc. This band incident is WAY out of line and unfortunately follows a few other band-related hazing incidents that I can assure you will NOT be tolerated. The University & Corps have been trying valiantly to work on all of this and has made great strides. A&M is an ULTRA-conservative place--a wierd little bubble of confused conservativism where "from the outside looking in, you can't understand it, from the inside looking out you can't explain it". This isn't always the greatest motto. (personally, I can't stand the way things work here)
Students here are VERY aware of the problems within the Corps and elsewhere. And believe me that the "If this had been a fraternity..." argument has been brought up by more than one outraged student & alum. The thing is, it's NOT a fraternity & I hesitate to endorse any kind of comparison between the two. The fact is, that when a GLO has their charter pulled, it's by THEIR OWN national org. In fact, the fraternities that have been disbanded on this campus have either folded because they lost numbers, or lost university recognition & their nationals then pulled their charter. There have been SEVERAL orgs. who faced SEVERE allegations & lost their university recognition only to go sub-rosa & come back a few years later. It all depends on THEIR national. Or, is that what you all are trying to say? That A&M officials need to disband the Corps? That argument has been kicked around for a number of years as well. However, the Corps has been THE institution of this University.... every student enrolled at A&M from 1867-1967 was REQUIRED to be a member in the Corps (with the exception of military veterans). The Corps will always be here. It's not always pretty, and damn those kids' stupid antics get on my nerves, but they're here & they're not going anywhere.
The good thing is that we're all aware of the severity of hazing in ANY & EVERY org. & these incidents becoming part of VERY public knowledge is the best way to combat them. I mean, how can anyone be proud to say their a part of the Aggie Band that Hazes, or the XXX Fraternity that Hazes, or the X Football team that hazes? You get the point.....
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