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Here's my theory on hazing. Of course, I can only speak for my chapter.
When we invite you to be a Tri Delta, we not only expect you to be a good sister, but a good person. That's what our sorority was founded to do: "THE PURPOSE OF DELTA DELTA DELTA shall be to establish a perpetual bond of friendship among its members, to develop a stronger and more womanly character, to broaden the moral and intellectual life, and to assist its members in every possible way . . .and to encourage them to assume, with integrity and devotion to moral and democratic principles, the highest responsibilities of college women. ." If you need to treat new members like isht to prove that you're superior to them, you're not being a good person. You're going against the ideals that the group was founded to promote.
Also, we need to be able to trust that our new members will conduct themselves with dignity so that they will represent the sorority well at all times. If you have so little self-esteem that you will allow yourself to be treated like isht just to gain entrance to an "elite" group, how do we know that you won't exhibit the same lack of self-respect later and reflect negatively on Tri Deltas as a whole?
You can form "a perpetual bond of friendship" with or without being hazed, but you cannot "develop a stronger and more womanly character" or have "integrity and devotion to moral principles" if you do haze. It's true that I might have a stronger bond with my pledge sisters if I was hazed. But would I respect my older sisters for doing the hazing, Tri Delta as an organization for allowing them to do it, or myself for putting up with it? No. And would my sorority be missing out on some great women because they didn't want to be hazed? Yes. To me, those are the more important things.
That's why the Mu chapter of Delta Delta Delta does not haze.
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