Month: March 2009

Link to the Daily Texas:

Except follows: boldface by moderator

Hazing code changes would repeal automatic immunity

Mohini Madgavkar

Daily Texan Staff
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Published: Friday, March 27, 2009

Updated: Friday, March 27, 2009

Ryan Weinheimer’s pledgeship to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in the fall of 2005 was cut short when one of his pledge brothers alerted representatives from the Interfraternity Council to the fraternity’s use of hazing.

“I think we had Vaseline in our hair,” said Weinheimer, a philosophy senior. “We hadn’t slept for probably 24 to 35 hours, and so when they walked in, obviously the fraternity sent us all home to wait and see what IFC was going to do.”

Weinheimer said that typically, hazing was more mental than physical.

“It’s more of a mind-fuck thing,” he said. “It was like staying up at the house for really long periods of time building. People of course are, like, yelling at you, making you do random shit for them.”

But Weinheimer admitted that pledges were pushed to do calisthenics and prevented from bathing.

In an effort to deter student organizations from hazing, state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, proposed changes to the hazing code that would clarify criteria for hazing and eliminate automatic legal immunity for students who report hazing in which they have participated.

“Under the current law, there are provisions that anyone who comes and reports to the dean of students, they get automatic immunity from all civil and criminal prosecutions,” said Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, who testified in favor of the bill at the committee hearing. “And that has raised questions about someone who might have been the bad actor who raced over to the dean of students’ office before law enforcement
arrived.”

Weinheimer said he was skeptical of the bill’s effects.

“If it’ll have any effect, it’ll make sure that people don’t come and tell the IFC or the University what’s going on,” Weinheimer said.

Dean of Students Soncia Regins-Lilly said she has noticed an increase in hazing reports since she began working at UT three years ago.

“During the fall semester, we may have received more than six or so complaints filed,” Lilly said. “In previous years, we could go a semester with zero to one.”

But the increase in reports has not deterred the practice.

In 2007, 10 organizations were cited for hazing, and 2009’s hazing memorandum cited an additional 12 organizations for violating increasingly stringent policies.

Since 2005, two UT students have died after binge drinking during pledging activities.

Lilly said traditional Greek organizations no longer hold a monopoly on hazing.

“One of the myths of hazing is that it is a practice or a social phenomenon only for Greek organizations, and it’s not the case,” Lilly said. “There are non-Greek organizations that also participate.”

Of the new organizations cited in 2009’s hazing memorandum, five are spirit organizations, two are multicultural Greek organizations and one, Phi Delta Chi, is a professional fraternity for aspiring pharmacists.

Lilly said that in general, hazing continues to restrict itself to traditional techniques, including humiliation, calisthenics and forced drinking, but that organizations have developed new techniques, including forced drinking of large amounts of water and cattle prodding.

Leo Barnes, UT’s vice president for legal affairs, said preventing students from getting away with hazing is an important step toward deterring the practice.

Weinheimer said he didn’t think the bill’s prescriptions would help curb the practice.

“The only loophole that would be closing would be the one that makes it possible to tell [the dean of students or the IFC] about hazing,” Weinheimer said. “I don’t think it’s a loophole they want to close if they want to reduce hazing.”

Excerpt:

UTSA boots Phi Gamma Delta fraternity for hazing
The Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO — A fraternity that hazed pledges with flaming toilet paper and sand-covered hot dogs has been suspended from the University of Texas at San Antonio campus.

Administrators booted the Phi Gamma Delta chapter off campus this month until 2013 after learning of the alcohol-fueled hazings by the Fijis.

Here is a link to all grants and contests sponsored by Zeta Tau Alpha and/or HazingPrevention.org

Happy Spring! Budding trees, blooming flowers and melting snow mean summer is just around the corner, and fall can’t be far behind. That means it’s not too early to begin plannning for National Hazing Prevention Week. Read on for information about new resources, trainings and webinars to help with your hazing prevention education efforts, in addition to a huge new award for campuses! –Tracy Maxwell

My Experience Pledging a Black Sorority
Alpha Phi’s at ASU
By Stacey Pratt, Univ. of Michigan

Before college, I never concerned myself with joining a Greek organization. I grew up with three older sisters, in addition to gaining a strong support network of friends through my extracurricular pursuits as a high school student – I thought I had all I needed. However from my first week at my new university community, I received pamphlets of information emphasizing the more than 20% of the 40,000 University students who joined Greek organizations in order to better serve the community. During the overexposure period to campus student groups, I began to reframe my standing in the sea of 40,000 I’d just entered: I graduated from a Detroit Public High School – one of the worst academically prepared school districts in Michigan. Arriving at a predominately white university nearly an hour away from home further drove a wedge between my high school friends and family who remained in Detroit unaware of the social struggles I now faced. I became one member of an incoming class of 5,000 students with no friends, no knowledge of the campus, no academic support, and no family nearby. That is when the Greek community began to look appealing to me.

Read the full article
NEW Award for Innovation in Hazing Prevention
Zeta Tau AlphaHazingPrevention.Org is thrilled to partner with Zeta Tau Alpha and the ZTA Foundation to  recognize campuses with innovative, comprehensive, year-round, research-based, hazing prevention programming. One campus annually will receive a $10,000 cash prize to further their efforts, and the canon of effective prevention practice as it relates to hazing will be broadened in the process.

Deadline to apply Nov. 15, 2009     First prize awarded March 2010

Attending this summer’s Interdisciplinary Institute for Hazing Intervention will help your campus plan the type of programming that will make you eligible for this recognition.
September 21-25, 2009
NHPW Blue LogoNational Hazing Prevention Week, observed the last week in September or whenever is most convenient for you, is a great time to raise awareness about hazing policies, state laws, and prevention efforts. It should not be the only time during the year that you talk about hazing, however. Comprehensive, year-round programming is needed to truly make a dent in this problem.

HazingPrevention.Org is developing new resources to help. In the coming months, watch for the following:

* 2009 NHPW Resource Guide – available to sponsoring organizations and campuses (May)
* NHPW Planning Guide – one copy provided to sponsors, and available for purchase (June)
* Crucial Conversations Guide – how to talk to students about hazing, available for purchase (May)
* Hazing Free Zone door signs and door knob hangers (May)
* Poster series based on Bystander Responsibility (August)

We will host a webinar to help you plan for NHPW in June or July, and a series of webinars – one each day of NHPW – on some of the following topics: Crucial Conversations, Hidden Harm, Response-Ability, Understanding Hazing and Changing Campus Culture.

The work that we do wouldn’t be possible without your hard work and support. Thank you for all that you do to prevent hazing!
Sincerely,
Signature
Tracy Maxwell
HazingPrevention.Org

Link to the Statesman article:

March 26, 2009

Bill would crack down on hazing

Hazing would be barred at schools and universities, and student participants and organizations subject to fines, under a bill proposed by Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and heard Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee.

Senate Bill 444 was introduced, Courtney said, because state law exempts college athletic teams from the anti-hazing law even though state university rules ban hazing. A revised version would change the law, extend the ban to public schools, and update definitions.

Hazing covers physical brutality, activity adversely affecting physical health or safety, compelled consumption and inducement of illegal activity.

“I realize the importance of both discipline and team building,” said Courtney, a sports fan and former coach. “Hazing is not an appropriate way to encourage either.”

A student organization would be subject to a maximum fine of $720; a participant, $360. The committee took no action.

— Peter Wong