nursday, december 4, 2003
news
the university daily kansan 3A
HAZING: Teaching by example replaces physical abuse in fraternities
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
to land on his feet. None of the new members before him had fallen, but Weith landed on his side and hit his head on the floor.
He was taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, then transferred to the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan. He suffered a mild concussion and was released the next day. He is still living at the fraternity.
The University found the tradition violated the KU Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. It defines hazing as any activity that negligently or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health, welfare, safety or academic conduct of an initiate or causes excessive fatigue, discomfort or extreme embarrassment.
Sigma Nu received penalties from its national chapter and the University for hazing and from IFC for supplying alcohol to pledges. It has to be an alcohol-free house through the end of the semester and is on University probation until December 2004.
Requirements of the probation include hosting two alcohol-free events, and evaluating all house traditions in light of risk management policies. Those findings must be reported at an IFC meeting, a Greek leadership event and to each fraternity on campus. Those results will also be published in the Oracle, the newspaper for the greek community.
Raising awareness
Eight of the nine KU fraternities that have been put on probation or suspension since 1995 were between 1995 and 1998. The mid-90s were a purging time for the University, said Danny Kaiser, director of the Center for Campus Life. Those who have been punished are less likely to repeat their behavior immediately and some chapters have closed since then, leaving the number of fraternities likely to haze lower today than 10 years ago, he said.
For more on other groups'
During the same time, hazing became more of a public issue across the nation. Michelle Finkel, a doctor at Massachusetts
initiation practices see page 5A
General Hospital, said the media had made people realize how serious the issue can be.
"Before, people thought it was a joke," she said. "Now people are realizing that people can die from hazing."
Andrew Ward knows firsthand how serious hazing is.
Ward, now a Lenexa senior and Kansan staff member, joined Phi Kappa Theta as a freshman in 1998 because his father had been a member at Purdue University in the 1970s.
Ward said he had heard about hazing, but thought it was no longer an issue. He only joined the fraternity after members told him the house did not haze.
For the first few weeks, Ward hung out with members and played video games. He said just as he was getting to know members, the hazing began.
Nearly every night, members came into the house's new member dormitory in the middle of the night playing AC/DC's Hell's Bells and made members do pushups for an hour. Ward said.
As the semester progressed, he said, the treatment got worse. Just before he left the fraternity, he said members blindfolded the new members, stripped them down to their underwear, dumped trash on them and threw ice cubes at them in the basement of the fraternity house.
Ward left the fraternity one Friday afternoon in mid-October. He accidentally hit his head on the loft in his room and fell to the floor in tears.
"It was one of those moments when everything was released and I decided this was not the place to be," he said.
Ward went home to Lenexa that weekend and with help from his parents quit the fraternity and filed a complaint against the group.
Ward said the hazing hurt his grades because he was so sleep deprived he couldn't get to his early morning classes. Ward said he suffered from depression after
Nine fraternities at the University of Kansas have been disciplined for hazing since 1995:
August 2003 --- Sigma Nu received probation for three semesters. A new member was hospitalized because he hit his head after being tossed in a ritual.
HISTORY OF HAZING
November 1998 — Phi Kappa Theta received probation after a new member complained of sleep deprivation and being forced into line-ups and personal servitude. October 1997 — Beta Theta Pi was placed on a two-year suspension. Details of the incident were never made public.
October 1997 — Alpha Tau Omega was suspended after allegations arose. Details were never made fully available, but allegations included forced boxing matches.
February 1997 — Pi Kappa Alpha was suspended for two years after a new member was taken to the
hospital intoxicated and
he left and dreaded contact with members of his former fraternity, so he spent most of his time in his Templin Hall room.
Ward still feels lingering effects such as discomfort on campus and periods of depression, he said.
Phi Kappa Theta went on probation in November 1998 after Ward complained and had to complete a rehabilitation program. Requirements included coordinating fraternity activities with probation supervisors, revising the new member education program and requiring each member to sign a sheet saying they understand University and IFC hazing policy.
Instructing through pain
The treatment Ward endured was used to teach new members how to behave by giving older members complete control.
"Hazing is about domination," said Danny Kaiser, director of the Center for Campus Life. "People have been through it, and now they want to do it to other people."
That cycle is one reason hazing has been so difficult to remove from the Greek system, Kaiser said.
hospital intoxicated and unconscious. The new member consumed multiple shots of alcohol and performed physical activities. He was injured while running on he street.
October 1996 — Delta Tau Delta was placed on a two-year probation for depriving new members of sleep.
Fall 1996 — Zeta Beta Tau was temporarily suspended because new members were required to submit to paddling, excessive consumption of alcohol and sleep deprivation.
October 1996 Alpha Epsilon Pi received a two-year probation. A new member was injured when he fell off a chair after having raw eggs smashed in his pants. Fall 1995 Delta Chi was suspended for a year after forcing pledges to perform manual labor in the summer heat after drinking alcohol. Two pledges were hospitalized.
The tradition also has military overtones, said Santoro with IFC. He said hazing was seen as a way to teach initiates the way of the fraternity by breaking them down and then building them back up as the ideal fraternity man, similar to boot camp.
Although the intention is to create brotherhood, Kaiser said, hazing actually tears fraternities apart.
"It is so detrimental to an organization," he said. "They say it's a force for bonding new members together through adversity, but the goal should be the pledge class bonding with the rest of the chapter."
Hazing essentially breaks a house into cliques that bond among themselves, Kaiser said. New members get closer out of common feelings of fear and suffering, but are alienated from the rest of the group.
Second year students still remember vividly what happened to them as pledges and treat new members as poorly as they were treated, or worse. As members become juniors and seniors, Kaiser said, they become less interested in the process and move
Teaching by example is replacing those methods, Santoro said. Everyone in the fraternity joins together to participate in activities such as study hours or community service.
away from people who haze.
But even these activities can be used to control new members, said a student who left a fraternity two years ago and declined to give his name to avoid being hassled by members of the fraternity.
He said his chapter forced new members to sit in the same place and study for hours on end. If new members got up, even to use the restroom, he said they had to ask permission from an older member and sign a sheet before leaving the room.
While older members participated in the hours, they had freedom to move about as they chose.
Gender differences
Some sororities also have group study and community service hours, but are less prone that fraternities to hazing activity, Kaiser said. No sororites have been accused of hazing at the University in at least eight years.
"Hazing doesn't happen on a planned schedule," he said. "There's a spontaneity to it and alcohol is usually involved."
Different practices, including prohibiting alcohol in sorority houses and making new members live outside the house, contribute to the difference, Kaiser said.
New fraternity members live in the house their freshman year and so are physically present more than new sorority members. Carr, with the Center for Campus Life, said different recruiting practices accounted for the different living arrangements. Fraternities usually have all their new members by July while sororites recruit the first week of school, after women have arranged housing.
The student who left his fraternity two years ago said he would not have been hazed if he had anywhere else to live. If pledges had been able to leave more easily,he said,the hazing could not have continued.
"They wouldn't have made it into the 20th century with the program they have," he said.
"They would have had too big of a drop-out rate."
Making changes
When looking at an organization found guilty of hazing, Kaiser said, the Center for Campus Life first decides if it can reform. Alumni support can be key by providing support and maturity. Organizations without that support, or another means of improving its situation, may have their charters revoked.
If the organization seems like it can improve, it will usually be placed on probation, which could last up to two years. Probation involves taking away privileges and increasing responsibilities in specific areas to bring about change. The terms of the probation are worked out by the fraternity's alumni board, the Center for Campus Life and the Dean of Student's Office.
Jane Tuttle, assistant to the dean of students, said punishments typically included provisions to educate members about hazing, such as having alumni attend house functions or making members attend lectures or watch videos about hazing.
Speakers and videos are available to all student groups through the Center for Campus Life, Carr said, but those who use them are often the people who are already the most responsible.
Ward said Phi Kappa Theta did not participate in any hazing education activities while he was there.
"They knew exactly what hazing was," he said. "They didn't need a video for that. And we didn't need it to know what was happening to us."
Programs such as these are important, Kaiser said, because hazing will creep back into the system if universities are not vigilant. He said many high school clubs and athletic organizations continued the practice and brought that behavior to the University.
"Is it something we'll ever get rid of completely?" Kaiser said. "Not likely, at least not until we're able to address the issue at a younger age."
Edited by Jonathan Reeder
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