One semester a pledge got very messy, sloppy, passing out drunk at a fraternity party. I was not only embarrassing, but potentially dangerous. This was her choice, not something we forced, coerced, condoned, or encouraged. When I saw how drunk she was, I wanted her to return to the dorm. She was too drunk to go alone so we all left to take her home. The next day our Resident Director, who was a fraternity alumnus, approached me and asked why my sorority was thrown out of that party. I assured him that we weren't thrown out and had left. He wanted to know what had happened because the higher ups in residential life had heard and wanted some answers. They wanted to launch some kind of investigation into the episode because a pledge got loaded and embarrassed herself and all of us. Luckily, there was no investigation and it blew over, but I know that they believed hazing was going on. We made a decision to have a dry pledge period instead. That pretty much eliminated the problem. If she had behaved that way a week earlier, she would have been just another drunk girl, but since she had been inducted as a pledge, it could have been construed as hazing.
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