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NCSU story
Code of conduct written broadly, applied narrowly
Posted: 01.10.2005
Ben McNeely
The Code of Student Conduct (No. Car. State U.) specifically defines hazing as "any act that injures, degrades, harasses or disgraces any person." It also defines the penalty for hazing: expulsion from the University.
While the three frats in question were all found guilty of hazing, no individual member was charged with a crime or infraction of the code, according to Cousins.
"If we had heard of any individual, you bet they would have been charged with infractions," Cousins said.
Cousins said the statute concerning hazing is written broadly on purpose, but it is usually applied very narrowly when a joint investigation is begun between Greek Life and Student Conduct.
"We look at the behavior from a reasonable person's point of view and ask, 'What would they think? What would their parents think?'" Cousins said.
The investigators began by asking general questions to students, like "What happened to you?" Usually, no one will speak up right away. Cousins said it usually takes several meetings to get someone who is telling the "stone cold truth."
Among things considered are the psychological stress and impact a hazing act might incur, alcohol or drug use by underage members, and risk of danger from the act involved.
The brothers fell victims to "groupthink," Cousins said.
"If someone had stepped up and said, 'Hey, let's rethink this,' maybe none of this would have happened," he said. "It takes a very mature individual to have on-the-fly censuring."
"Sig Ep brothers even followed their pledge along to 'prevent them from being harassed.' They knew it would generate a negative response, but no one stopped it," Cousins said.
Students rarely self-report hazing because they want to be a part of the organization, Cousins said. They expect hazing to be a part of the culture and something they have to go through to earn their place.
But hazing is not appropriate, says Cousins, and the University has taken steps to combat it. Along with Shelley Brown Dobek, Cousins developed an education program for Greek organizations to teach them about hazing, alcohol and drug use, pledge activities and what it means to be a model chapter. They held sessions with Greek leaders at the beginning of the fall semester.
"Not a month later, these incidents happened," Cousins said.
Dobek said that the majority of the fraternities are "conditionally compliant."
"We evaluate Greek organizations based on 10 areas of shared principles, and most of the fraternities are meeting those principles," Dobek said.
"We have really good frats that are doing really good things," she said. "We have a couple of frats that are doing the worst of things."
Greek Life advertises itself as leadership organizations, but if you look at a frat's G.P.A. or hear about these hazing incidents, you cannot say they are leaders on campus, Dobek said.
"It makes it hard for the model chapters to advertise against that," she said.
Cousins said that N.C. State's Greek community is a microcosm of Greek life on the national scene. Nationally, membership in Greek organizations is decreasing, down 25 percent since the peak in the 1990s, according to the New York Times Magazine. At NCSU alone, there are about 1,700 undergraduates currently affiliated with Greek organizations, as of the fall 2004 semester. While this number is average with numbers since 2001, Dobek said fraternity membership and standards are dropping, while sororities are growing.
On the whole, Greek Life at NCSU is sliding.
"We comprised 10 percent of the population in 2001, now we're about 8.7 percent," Dobek said.
"Any national chapter will tell you that their organization is a good place where good moral values and ties of brotherhood are instilled. If you are a parent, would you want your child in an organization like that? Of course," Cousins said. "Sadly, that is not the case locally."
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