I also agree that deferred rush is a great idea. I don't know if it will prevent hazing though. I know that when I pledged (we were a local then), I was hazed. But I was not about to drop out of pledging because I WANTED TO BELONG SOOO BADLY! I did what they told me to do. I didn't tell because this would have betrayed the trust of the sisterhood. There are more reasons hazing occurs that deferred rush cannot help.
1)I think that women who were hazed continue to haze. If a chapter has a legacy of hazing, it's hard to stop it without National level interventions and sanctions.
2) I am noticing a disturbing form of "peer pressure" when it comes to hazing. Here is the scenario: ABC, DEF, and GHI sororities haze. JKL sorority's National has just come to campus and started their chapter on a new path of no-hazing pledging. JKL's new members can wear letters in public, do not have to do things like call the sisters "Sister so-and-so", etc. This is, obviously, the way things should be. But the new member classes of the other sororities are teasing and taunting the new members of JKL, saying they aren't working for their letters. THEY ARE BEING TEASED FOR NOT BEING HAZED!!!
Hazing is a problem that will require MAJOR attention, not just threats from the organization's EO. I am working on this in my sorority and it is a gargantuan task... I have to almost reprogram them. It's very hard and it will take every Greek saying NO to hazing of any kind !!
[This message has been edited by sigmagrrl (edited January 26, 2001).]
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