Quote:
Originally posted by breathesgelatin
Well, the cattle prod thing was about 5-6 years ago now. The fraternity that did that was kicked off for a year and is now back. Their reputation did not suffer one bit and they draw lots of guys every year. They pull a lot of weight on our campus for various reasons. I'm not saying that they still cattle prod their pledges, but I wouldn't be especially surprised, considering that I hang out at the low-key houses and I know what goes on there...
There are some houses that don't haze as harshly. I know several houses that mostly do early morning runs and physical calisthenics and the like. And have their pledges dress up, carry around ridiculous items, etc. While I would never want my sorority to do those kinds of activities, in terms of W&L fraternity culture I feel like they're pretty harmless. Those are mainly the places I hang out. But the "best" houses (I use that term very loosely because I don't consider those houses as the best) are pretty intense in terms of pledgeship.
I'm not going to comment on any specific houses in terms of hazing, but I would say it's a very accepted fact of life.
In contrast, our sorority system is almost hazing-free, I'd say. We prize that here. 
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Breathesgelatin -- and Sugar and Spice -- thank you for clarifying things for me! I really should have done more homework; then I would've realized that --
1. The Washington and Lee university policy statement against hazing is a sham
2. The W&L IFC policy statement against hazing is a sham, too. (By extension, can one conclude that the individual fraternities' anti-hazing policies are also more or less a set of lies -- or at least selectively applied?)
3. A highly selective, prestigious university like W&L knows what its students / applicants and their parents want.
4. Around three-quarters of the male students apparently want to be hazed -- and the more severe the hazing, the better, socially speaking.
5. Tradition rules.
So, hey, if that's what a bunch of overwhelmingly white upper-middle-class and upper-class guys and their families want and are willing to pay fairly big bucks for, who am I to object?
One small question -- how do they handle physical or emotional damage if/when it occurs? Student and alumni social pressure to hush it up? Alumni payoffs to keep parents and students quiet? Alumni and university officials working together to make sure the school's disciplinary processes are well-greased, or -- G*d forbid it should happen -- making sure the Virginia legal system is kept out of things?
Surely the chapters don't rely on insurance companies and their Nationals to handle the potential financial damage?