Texas A&M Univ. investigating photos showing possible hazing of BAND MEMBERS

[SATX*APhi]

Texas A&M University investigating photos showing possible hazing
Photos of naked, bound students thought to be band members were found on yearbook computer

By Associated Press
June 20, 2002

COLLEGE STATION - Texas A&M University police are investigating a dozen photos found at the yearbook office which show students, believed to be members of the Aggie Band, naked, gagged and bound with duct tape.

Bob Wiatt, director of the University Police Department, , said his office opened an investigation Monday after the pictures were discovered on a computer at the yearbook's campus office last week.

"There are about a dozen pictures and it would certainly appear to be hazing," Wiatt told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Wiatt said it is believed the pictures were taken in April, but the police department hasn't received any complaints from students believed to be involved. He said the pictures are of a number of different individuals the department is trying to identify and contact. Many students have left campus for the summer, he said.

The police department will turn its findings over to the Brazos County Attorney's Office, which will determine if charges should be filed, Wiatt said.

The Bryan-College Station Eagle reported Tuesday that Tamara Adams, the yearbook's editor, found the photos, which had been scanned electronically and saved onto a computer in the office. She notified the head of the university's journalism department who turned the photos over to a university administrator, according to the university's student run newspaper, The Battalion.

The university will await the findings of the police investigation before proceeding with its own inquiry and considering any disciplinary action.

"It's disappointing," J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student affairs, told the Eagle. "The photos were relatively explicit, so it was clear it should involve a University Police investigation."

University rules and state law prohibit hazing. Southerland said hazing will not be tolerated at the university, which had 44,618 students last year.



http://www.caller.com/ccct/state_tex...219617,00.html

[AggieDZ]

With the Aggie Band, you've got to remember that they're a special unit of our Corps of Cadets, B-Battery. While the Band members are kind of the "nerds" of the Corps, the Band generally gets great respect. They're a precision-marching MILITARY band, not the traditional funny, feathered-hat wearing, goofy theme song playing university band. If you've ever seen the Aggie Band march, then you know what I mean. They're AMAZING! The Corps is commonly referred to by non-regs as "the biggest fraternity on campus", or "the 2000 member frat". Yes, the Corps has plenty of hazing issues that officials (inside & out) have been trying to get a handle on for a good number of years now. What most people don't understand is that the reason this has gone on for so long has everything to do with the way that the Corps works (we call it Old Army, but it's really a perfect example of the "good ol' boy" system)and the way the University has traditionally functioned. As a formerly all-male military institution (only accepted women after 1973 and sororities recieved University recognition in 1990) , this university has a LONG history of Corps activity that under today's standards are counted as hazing. Most hazing activities have been incidents of requiring "fish" (Corps freshmen) to do excessive amounts of exercise such as "class sets"(year you graduate) of pushups, really long marches etc. This band incident is WAY out of line and unfortunately follows a few other band-related hazing incidents that I can assure you will NOT be tolerated. The University & Corps have been trying valiantly to work on all of this and has made great strides. A&M is an ULTRA-conservative place--a wierd little bubble of confused conservativism where "from the outside looking in, you can't understand it, from the inside looking out you can't explain it". This isn't always the greatest motto. (personally, I can't stand the way things work here)
Students here are VERY aware of the problems within the Corps and elsewhere. And believe me that the "If this had been a fraternity..." argument has been brought up by more than one outraged student & alum. The thing is, it's NOT a fraternity & I hesitate to endorse any kind of comparison between the two. The fact is, that when a GLO has their charter pulled, it's by THEIR OWN national org. In fact, the fraternities that have been disbanded on this campus have either folded because they lost numbers, or lost university recognition & their nationals then pulled their charter. There have been SEVERAL orgs. who faced SEVERE allegations & lost their university recognition only to go sub-rosa & come back a few years later. It all depends on THEIR national. Or, is that what you all are trying to say? That A&M officials need to disband the Corps? That argument has been kicked around for a number of years as well. However, the Corps has been THE institution of this University.... every student enrolled at A&M from 1867-1967 was REQUIRED to be a member in the Corps (with the exception of military veterans). The Corps will always be here. It's not always pretty, and damn those kids' stupid antics get on my nerves, but they're here & they're not going anywhere.
The good thing is that we're all aware of the severity of hazing in ANY & EVERY org. & these incidents becoming part of VERY public knowledge is the best way to combat them. I mean, how can anyone be proud to say their a part of the Aggie Band that Hazes, or the XXX Fraternity that Hazes, or the X Football team that hazes? You get the point.....

[AlphaGam1019]

Our buddy hoosier posted this in risk mgmt.

[carnation]

What makes me crazy--as a native Texan--is that for years, the Corps has gotten away with hazing far worse than any GLO could come up with. And people laughed it off because it was the Corps!

When I was in college, a friend in the Corps crawled around under the table and set all the freshmen's cloth napkins on fire. Some of them got burned but everyone was laughing about what a good trick it had been!

[AggieDZ]

Ya know, the thing is that just about everything that does happen, hazing wise, in the Corps gets out to the public for the simple reason that it IS such a huge, out in the open institution. Fraternity activities, however, are much easier to keep under wraps since they are completely self governed, have their own houses & property, are much smaller, not subject to direct review by University-employed officials, etc.