Hazing And Its Effect On Society

Students involved in clubs, fraternities, sororities, and organizations experience hazing. In fact, 55% those college students involved in clubs, teams and organizations experience hazing. Hazing is any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risk emotional, or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate. Hazing can occur in high school, intercollegiate, or even professionally. As an individual, you have to know what is hazing. What is going over the edge? Am I doing anything illegal? Or is this causing emotional or physical distress or stress to myself or to others? Hazing, even though its tradition,

Hazing as we know it today is most commonly to initiate members into a fraternity, sorority, or club of some sort. Hazing’s roots go into Ancient Greece when Plato first observed the occurrence and wrote about it in one of his works. The first sign of the term “hazing” appeared in the 16th century, when veteran soldiers would harass new sailors whenever the weather would create a haze. The integration of hazing in American society occurred in the 19th century after the Civil War. Before the war, university fraternities were a place to exchange ideas which most students did not find too engaging. After the war, the meaning of university fraternities had evolved to strengthen bonds with one another. The war put not optimal events and situations, which made soldiers strengthen bonds between one another. Fraternities would often replicate the traumatic events that occurred during the war to strengthen bonds between the recruits and the organization. The fraternities would base hazing rituals on stories their fathers or grandfathers who had participated in the war. Three hazing related deaths occurred in the

In her article, “The Dark Power of Fraternities,” Flanagan argues that,“The also have a long, dark history of violence against their own members and visitors to their houses, which makes them in many respects at odds with the core mission of college itself.” In other words, there may be a lot of positives to fraternities; however, there are also some very serious issues that need to be dealt with and acknowledged. Because fraternities tend to get off with little punishment, it shows that the behavior is okay. Therefore, the number of injuries/deaths, assault, and rape continue to grow. For instance, a 19 year old sophomore, Amanda Andaverde, spent her first and only month at the University of Idaho. A member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority, she spent a weekday with her sisters at Sigma Chi. Getting bored of continuous “drinking games” and forced flirting with an “assigned date,” Amanda left to go to another fraternity, Sigma Alpha. This is where she would fall three stories off a “sleeping porch,” and suffer traumatic brain injury. Sleeping porches are referred to as “rack rooms”. These rooms are usually found on the top floor with huge windows that stay open around the clock (Flanagan 6). Andaverde’s family filed a lawsuit against the University of Idaho, SAE, and Tri Delta. In the end, the court dismissed the case due to a “summary judgement because there was no dispute that Andaverde fell out of an open window,” and they found no proof of threatening circumstances in her presence (Flanagan 6). In other words, the court dismissed the case before it even reached a full trial, concluding that Andaverde was aware of the open window and that the university or fraternity did not have the responsibility to protect her from her own behavior. Basically, the court claimed she initiated her own accident. How can a university or fraternity blame a victim of permanent brain damage for their accident? Especially when the

Numerous students that are looking into joining a Greek organization may find that hazing seems to be enormous issue. In

Hazing is essentially the way a greek organization educates its new members on their values and ideas, and is often conducted in secrecy in order to be able to continue the tradition. However, every greek member does not engage in hazing, only “thrity-six percent indicated that they had engaged in a behavior that would actually constitute as hazing” (Campo, Poulos and Sipple 143). Some of the behaviors that can be affiliated with hazing activities include: negative team building and initiating activites (e.g. carrying unnecessary items, required to remain silent, and verbal abuse), positive team building and initiating activities (e.g. community service, maintaining gpa, playing sports, and organizing fundraisers) and

The movie, Burning Sands, is an exploration of the seriousness of hazing on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In connection to class discussion, Burning Sands is an analysis of the complexity of social influence within fraternities on a HBCU’s campus. Burning Sands follows the journey of five pledges (possible future members of the fraternity) in their final week of pledging for the fraternity, Lambda Phi (fraternity created for the movie). The “Big Brothers” (members already a part of the fraternity) complicate the final week of pledging with severe and cruel mistreatment. The pledges must decide if inclusion into Lambda Phi is worth the risk of losing dignity and pride. In the movie, Lambda Phi exert social influence on

Hazing in universities across the nation has become an increasingly dangerous ritual that is seemingly becoming more difficult to put an end to due to its development into an "underground" activity. Though a regular activity in the seventies, hazing, a possible dangerous act of initiation to a group, has now become an activity that is banned in thirty-nine states (Wagner 16). However, this ritual has not been stopped or become less severe. In fact it is becoming more dangerous. Since it has been banned, with many colleges imposing their own penalties against those participating in it, many fraternities and sororities have pursued this activity in an underground fashion. Since these groups have gone underground, some victims of these

Nolan Burch, a young man local to the area, died last year of alcohol poisoning. He was pledging the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at West Virginia University, and was forced to consume a bottle of alcohol as part of his pledge process. There are over nine million Greek members nationally and more than half college students are involved in some form of campus hazing (Daley). Hazing is an important part of a pledge process that is based on tradition. Every member of the fraternity or sorority has gone through the exact same pledge process and it is a necessary rite of passage that creates bonds within a group. It is also meant to discipline the new members and maintain a hierarchy. Since hazing is only on the news when someone gets hurt or dies,

Hazing has been around for a while and it seems as if it won’t go away anytime soon. Hazing is defined as “any assumption of authority by a student whereby another student suffers or is exposed to any cruelty, intimidation, humiliation, embarrassment, hardship or oppression or is required to perform exercises to excess, to become sleep deprived, to commit dangerous activities, to curry favor from those in power, to submit to physical assaults, to consume offensive foods or alcohol, the threat of bodily harm or death, or the deprivation or abridgement of any right”(Schneider,2009,p194). Hazing is usually a ritual that sororities & fraternities and sports teams have in place to initiate newcomers. The “Hazing Prohibition Act of 2003” was put in place to prevent harsh hazing antics that was created as a way to see who would be the weakest link and be cut from the team. While some healthy competitions are welcomed, going beyond the line where someone feels uncomfortable is a step too far.

The alleged facts that gave rise to the plaintiff’s case was that during the University of Virginia’s (UVA) Men Swim team introduction or ‘welcome week’, the plaintiff along with other freshmen UVA swimmers were subjected to hazing that included acts such as, physical and mental abuse, force of obsessive alcoholic beverage intake, false imprisonment, and threats of sodomy against the freshmen swimmers. According to the plaintiff, if the underclassmen did not comply with any of the requests or duties that the upperclassmen told the underclassmen swimmers to complete, they were forced into dangerous and life threatening acts. However, when the head coach was informed about the heinous acts being performed by the upperclassmen, the coach simply informed the plaintiff that he could practice separately from the team. Unfortunately, the coach informed the plaintiff practicing during a different time from the rest of the team would not guarantee protection from any future attacks. These acts against the plaintiff from the upperclassmen of swimmers on

Hazing in universities across the nation has become an increasingly dangerous ritual that is seemingly becoming more difficult to put an end to due to its development into an “underground” activity. Though a regular activity in the seventies, hazing, a possible dangerous act of initiation to a group, has now become an activity that is banned in thirty-nine states (Wagner 16). However, this ritual has not been stopped or become less severe. In fact it is becoming more dangerous. Since it has been banned, with many colleges imposing their own penalties against those participating in it, many fraternities and sororities have pursued this activity in an underground fashion. Since these groups have gone underground, some victims of these

Carla would be classified as a stage four, social system morality, in the conventional morality level of Kohlberg’s theoretical model. She is in this stage because her role is to provide pledge members with the best experience, while obeying the policies set forth from the university. Despite the pushback from the chapter’s community, she upholds her decision because it is the right thing to do. Robin would be in the stage five, human rights and social welfare, of post-conventional level because the bond gained from hazing will benefit the sisters as a whole.

I am sending you a follow up email to strongly encourage you to participate in our Anti-Hazing panel which will be taking place on Tuesday 8pm in the Theater of the Round. It will be a great night to take a pledge and help expand the conversation on hazing within our community. I am requesting that you and your NME(New member educator) come out to help us show that Seton Hall is truly against hazing in the Greek community.

Hazing has grown to become a major social problem. Recent incidents have been documented in marching bands, religious cults, and other types of clubs. Reports of hazing

Hazing can take place anywhere whether it be high school, college, sports, or fraternities. Other terms used for hazing are “hell week”, “help week”, and “initiation”. When one is trying to determine whether or not the situation is considered hazing there are many signs he/she could look for. Some examples include the following questions: is alcohol involved?, are there any risk of emotional or physical abuse?, and is there a risk of injury? (University of North Carolina Wilmington). If the answer to any of these is yes, then it would be considered some form of hazing. A study taking place at Alfred University shows that 1.5 million high school students have experienced some form of hazing. Forty-eight percent of students who belong to groups have reported to experiencing hazing behavior. These incidents can range anywhere between alcohol abuse to forcing one to commit a crime. Victims of hazing may hide the truth, whether they be embarrassed or they risk the chance of getting in a lot of trouble. While you may not notice it at first there are always signs to look for when searching for hazing activity. Some signs include excessive fatigue, wearing odd clothing, isolating themselves, skipping or missing class, and feeling depressed. Many parents are not aware of their child experiencing hazing activity. Although, now many of victims have decided to speak out about there encounters.