Evidently some fairly high-pressure "pledging activities" went on recently at Bentley College (in the Boston area). No alcohol issues, however. Excerpts from the April 15 '05 issue of the school paper,
The Vanguard, are:
Sorority pledging on campus ceased for two days last week, as complaints from parents, faculty, and staff about pledging activities left the Bentley College administration concerned about the health of the pledges.
Associate Dean of Student Life Gary Kelly met with the leadership of all four Bentley sororities on Tuesday evening last week, after hearing complaints from six different sources regarding three of the sororities. "We take every complaint seriously," Kelly said. The complaints all centered on the well-being of the pledges, as some were falling asleep in class and did not seem to have the capacity to perform well as students.
Although alcohol was not an issue in any of the complaints, there were informal concerns as to possible hazing incidents. According to Kelly, the complaints were more a concern of sorority members urging pledges to do other activities and join groups to a point "that would disrupt regular sleeping."
From discussions between the administration and the sororities, it was concluded that the problems were stemming from pledging activities, which were deemed to be too rigorous for the pledges. "Pledging programs are somewhat based upon national procedures," noted Scott Lyons, the Student Life advisor to the sororities. "The concern from the administration was that activities varied from that."
. . . it was resolved that all pledging activity was to stop among the four sororities until the organizations submitted written drafts of their plans to change pledging activity. "The intention wasn't to run the sororities out of business," noted Kelly. "It was to have [pledging] run properly."
. . . all four sororities submitted documents that ensured that pledging activities would be consistent with their respective chapters' missions. At that point, privileges were re-instated for all of the sororities, allowing them to continue their pledging activities, including "spirit weekend." The sororities "showed a lot of responsibility in coming to some sort of resolve," remarked Lyons.
"The safety of the pledges is paramount," noted Kelly, stressing that the administration's chief concern was that the pledging activities were not hindering the students' ability to carry out their daily life as a student. "We wanted them to show to us that they were taking the allegations seriously."
The Panhellenic president
". . . asserted that Greek Life does not condone any form of hazing, and felt that the allegations of wrongdoing on the part of the sororities did not accurately depict what occurred.
"We do understand the natural inclination of the administration to express such concern based on the given allegations," Beglin said. "This is why all four chapters were so willing to work with the administration" in order to ensure that the sororities were taking the health and academic status of their new members into account."
According to the college web site, there are four NPC sororities at Bentley: Alpha Phi, Delta Phi Epsilon, Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Sigma Sigma; and one NPHC sorority, Delta Sigma Theta:
http://ecampus.bentley.edu/studentor...0Organizations
Linear Mode
