|
Historically and today, ATO is one of the most prominent fraternities at the University of Florida. With their political strength it's surprising that they can get suspended for something that sounds so trivial. However, the State is very sensitive about hazing right now; and if there is one thing to which universities respond with Draconian over-reaction it is bad publicity.
In Tallahassee, undergraduate members - graduating seniors - of a black fraternity at Florida A&M were sentenced to prison for beating a pledge with canes.
Here at Florida State we've lost four very large, very prominent fraternities in just a few years: SAE in 2001, Pi Kappa Phi in 2005, and both ATO and Sig Ep during the 2006-2007 school year. I think it's significant that none of these were for drinking or general hell-raising; all of these losses were for hazing.
Trends change, but the universities right now seem to focused on hazing first, then fighting, and drinking issues last. This could just be limited to Florida, and I could be wrong about the whole thing. I'm trying to be open minded because my normal instinct is to look for mid-level student affairs bureaucrats who simply like to boss people around, especially uppity fraternity boys who will make more in their first job out of college than they ever will.
I was hazed and I hazed others. It was fun. But hazing has caused more trouble for fraternities than almost anything else. We were able to get rid of it when we came back to campus and in seven years the lack of it has not seemed to hurt our chapter in terms of brotherhood or performance.
|
Threaded Mode
