Greek letters / spelling out letters

[ChioLu]

While a different t-shirt is not like "paddling the pledges". pressuring the pledges to commit a crime or mandatory alcohol shots. It's the broad sense of treating one group of the same fraternity/sorority different than the rest. It's subjective.

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by ChioLu

Not allowing your New Members to wear letters until being initiated is (now) called HAZING. It singles out what 1 group of members can do, or cannot do.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Serious Question: Do you allow New Members to wear the badge instead of a new member pin prior to initiation? Because if you don't, it seems like that would also be hazing if the criterion is singling out what one group of members can do and another group of members can't.

Originally Posted by ChioLu

While a different t-shirt is not like "paddling the pledges". pressuring the pledges to commit a crime or mandatory alcohol shots. It's the broad sense of treating one group of the same fraternity/sorority different than the rest. It's subjective.

I think MC's question here is very valid. By the way you bolded and capitalized your first statement, this is clearly a serious infraction in your mind. At least that's what I'm taking away from that.

There's a whole lot of grey area when it comes to hazing, and I (personally) would rank this as not-a-big-deal-and-don't-want-real-hazing-lumped-into-this-category-type-thing.

Again, that's just my take-away from all of this.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by ChioLu

While a different t-shirt is not like "paddling the pledges". pressuring the pledges to commit a crime or mandatory alcohol shots. It's the broad sense of treating one group of the same fraternity/sorority different than the rest. It's subjective.

And subjective is a very dangerous thing when you're talking about whether something is forbidden or not . . . or in the case of hazing, criminal or not.

By definition, hazing is not about treating different members differently. Hazing has to do with harassment; real or potential physical, mental or emotional endangerment; demeaning someone or subjecting them to ridicule or embarrassment as part of an initiation.

Like I said, some groups have decided to use simple bright lines like "anything where members are treated differently" as a means of ensuring no one actually crosses the line. (And as I intimated, if those groups don't let NMs wear the badge or participate in all ritual, then I question whether they really are drawing the line at anything that treats members differently.) If that works for those groups, fine. But be aware that other groups may not draw the line there. To say simply "it's hazing" rather than "my group considers it hazing" risks effectively claiming that the national policies of some other GLOs require hazing.