[Kevin]

It does have dangers. A brand can get infected. Infections can lead to worse things. If an infection that leads to something bad is caused by a brand of a certain organization's letters, guess whose doors the tort lawyers are going to be knocking on?

It's simply poor risk management if the activity is sponsored in any way by the organization. Especially if it is part their pledge program, official or not.

I was able to sit in on one of my undergrad brothers giving a speach to the active chapter about risk management. He made some damned good points. Among them was that we as a chapter need to have a mentality of safety and "squaring away" (that's military lingo for watching your bro's back [he was in military school]) your brothers. These kids' first thoughts were probably not safety (just a crazy guess).