East of Eden

[collme83]

so obviously i'm not an SAE being in a sorority and all, but i just finished the book "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck and he mentions some SAE's paddling two pledges. Ha! Weird hu?

[SAEalumnus]

From the 2003-2005 National Laws of Sigma Alpha Epsilon

TITLE VIII. Chapter Collegiate.
Section 47. Membership
Subsection B. Education of Pledges
Paragraph 2. Curriculum

The preferred course of pledge education shall be a program approved by the Supreme Council. The pledge education program shall be in writing, distributed to all initiated members and pledges of the chapter collegiate, and properly implemented during the course of education. The program shall adhere to the Fraternity's Policy Statements on pledge education and hazing; specifically, hazing is prohibited and shall be dealt with severely as a serious offense under Section 74 in Title XIV, Discipline of Members.

The Fraternity's Statement of Position on Hazing includes paddling in its definition of hazing.

I haven't personally read East of Eden by John Steinbeck to be able to comment on what is or is not written in that book with respect to SAE and/or paddling, but I can state that SAE does take any report of hazing (whether paddling or anything else) very seriously. Chapters have been subjected to disciplinary measures up to and including revocation of their charter once such a report reaches even the local province, much less the Fraternity Service Center (headquarters).

[MysticCat]

Sorry for crashing, but FWIW on East of Eden, SAE and hazing:

Remember that East of Eden was published in 1952 and covers the lives of three generations of a California family from 1862 to 1918. I doubt that anyone would take a reference to paddling in it as a representation of SAE today. It's really a historical reference.

(I would have put this in the original East of Eden thread, but it had been locked.)


Edited: Merged threads for simplicity's sake. (SAEalumnus)

[SAEalumnus]

I believe various points of view on this topic have been fairly represented in this thread. I have also merged a couple of threads to accomodate an additional opinion.

Originally posted by MysticCat81
I would have put this in the original East of Eden thread, but it had been locked.

Please note that this thread was locked for a reason. Any future posts repeating the topics in this thread (East of Eden et al.) will simply be deleted. Thanks for your cooperation.