Hazing and rush timing

[33girl]

OK, some people are going to think I'm off my nut, but I think one of the best ways to prevent or lessen hazing is through deferred rush. I'm not talking about the kind of separation that I've read about at DePauw and W&M, where the freshmen can't even have any contact with Greeks. I mean the freshmen live thru their first semester and then go through rush. I think this helps for the following reasons:

The potential rushees and the Greeks get to see each other as they really are, not on their best behavior or looking their prettiest all the time.

The freshmen are able to develop a group of friends outside their Greek organization, so if any hazing is occuring, they have "outside influences" to help set their head straight. If you are bid before school even starts and your only friends are your sorority sisters, how wide of a perspective are you going to have?

The freshmen have a while to see Greek life and think about it and not have to make a hasty decision in their first days of school.

Questions, comments, flames?

[carnation]

I'm beginning to think that second semester rush is the way to go. Last fall, so so many of my daughters' friends were just overcome by all the fast, uninformed choices they had to make, especially at UGa with its huge rush. Many rushees told me that they also felt that the Greeks didn't get to know them well enough before having to make cuts.

It's certainly something to ponder because it could cut down on broken hearts as well as dissatisfaction from rushed choices!

[sigmagrrl]

I also agree that deferred rush is a great idea. I don't know if it will prevent hazing though. I know that when I pledged (we were a local then), I was hazed. But I was not about to drop out of pledging because I WANTED TO BELONG SOOO BADLY! I did what they told me to do. I didn't tell because this would have betrayed the trust of the sisterhood. There are more reasons hazing occurs that deferred rush cannot help.
1)I think that women who were hazed continue to haze. If a chapter has a legacy of hazing, it's hard to stop it without National level interventions and sanctions.
2) I am noticing a disturbing form of "peer pressure" when it comes to hazing. Here is the scenario: ABC, DEF, and GHI sororities haze. JKL sorority's National has just come to campus and started their chapter on a new path of no-hazing pledging. JKL's new members can wear letters in public, do not have to do things like call the sisters "Sister so-and-so", etc. This is, obviously, the way things should be. But the new member classes of the other sororities are teasing and taunting the new members of JKL, saying they aren't working for their letters. THEY ARE BEING TEASED FOR NOT BEING HAZED!!!

Hazing is a problem that will require MAJOR attention, not just threats from the organization's EO. I am working on this in my sorority and it is a gargantuan task... I have to almost reprogram them. It's very hard and it will take every Greek saying NO to hazing of any kind !!

[This message has been edited by sigmagrrl (edited January 26, 2001).]

[SilverTurtle]

I like defferred rush as well. I know that at my school, freshman weren't allowed to rush until their 2cnd semester. (Transfer students had to have completed at least 1 sememster's worth of credit hours).

It does help the freshman have time to adjust and allows everyone a better opportunity to get to know one another.

I don't think it really affects whether or not chapters haze, though. The hazing that occurred at my school was pretty minimal (not saying it was okay, just didn't involve beatings and such) regardless of when the pledging occurred.

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SilverTurtle@greekchat.com

Phi Beta Fraternity
Phi chapter

[12dn94dst]

Originally posted by SilverTurtle:

I don't think it really affects whether or not chapters haze, though. The hazing that occurred at my school was pretty minimal (not saying it was okay, just didn't involve beatings and such) regardless of when the pledging occurred.

I was going to say the same thing. If not allowing first semester freshman to pledge stopped or decreased hazing, then the NPHC groups wouldn't have hazing issues, but we do just like everyone else. Like sigmagrrl (not to pick on you), there are some that want to belong SO BADLY that they will allow anything to happen, and that wanting to belong can occur at any age. I've talked to some "master hazers" (I'm talking suspeneded several times, just short of being expelled hazers) and they said 99% of why they haze is just to see how far someone will let them go.

[shadokat]

33girl:

This system is already in place at my university, and it hasn't stopped hazing in the least. I don't know if it's because people who join greek letter organizations already believe they are going to be hazed, or if they just don't care, but it makes no difference to most of them. I think that movies/tv and the like have already conditioned them to think that hazing is going to happen, and to belong, that's what they have to go through.

[LexiKD]

I feel that the only way to stop hazing is through education. Second semester recruitment isn't too great for the membership of a chapter, you want the members there as long as possible and I know a semester doesn't sound like a lot, but it can make a difference. I don't think any national organization would dissagree. Plus it gets the typical freshman out and about on campus so she feels OK about leaving home.
Hazing will continue until someone gets in trouble and that is unfortunate, but NPC has a program, SOMETHING OF VALUE, it is VERY good with dealing with hazing and drinking violations. Any Panhellenic can ask for the program, it costs a little, but in the long run it is better to educate and stop it before losing a chapter or hurting a member.
I couldn't imagine being hazed, I think I would have to leave the sorority if it happend beacuse I would feel like I was lied to and what kind of sisterhood is that?

[shadokat]

This isn't the case at many schools I advise. One group gets in trouble, so the others go a little farther away from the campus and continue to haze. It's a total shame, but what can you do? National organizations, as well as NPC, must educate their memberships on hazing, not only by making the "once a semester" speech, but by creating new member programs that are activity filled and help new members learn the sorority at the same time.

Hazing will continue until someone gets in trouble and that is unfortunate

[James]

I don't believe that deferred Rush will cut down on hazing per se (hedging my bet).

Preliminary introduction into school involves carving out social niches for new students.

Without deferred rush, the odds increase that incoming students will find their social niche in a Fraternity or Sorority if they are being actively recruited.

With deferred Rush many students will find a niche in another social group. Be it a circle of friends, dorm floor, club or organization. And therefore be harder to recruit because they may have enough of their social needs met that they are not thinking about biting off the committment to look for more.

The theory that defered Rush wil result in less hazing is true if less people are joining because they know which chapters haze AND the chapter cars enough to alter process to attract new members.

I am not sure this is true.

One, I believe that less people join because they have found social niches and believe erroneous things about Greek Life.

Two, they probably don't accurately know the processes of various organizations through misrepresenation and dirty rushing.

Three, I don't believe many organizations will modify their processes anyway, they'll just accept lower numbers.

So I believe that deferred Rush itself is just a way to lower overall numbers on a campus.

Except here I don't have any statistics to prove this theory. PErhaps someone else will.

[RUgreek]

I agree with the consensus here. Hazing isn't directly related to first semester pledging. I think if you want to "widen the perspectives" of new members, force them to stay in the dorms their first and second years. That's really where you'd meet other people and it would give them the freedom to have both sides of college life. And just something to add, mixing with different greeks sororities and fraternities altogether is another way to widen your friendship gaps. The experience of greek life would be so much better if everyone could get along more.

RUgreek