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Hazing News

A hazing play for parents and grandparents of future college athletes and pledges

Hosted by Mike Ayalon.  Watch DEATH OF A ROOKIE with Q & A to follow.  Link: 

From Mike Ayalon:

Hank Nuwer has written two different versions of a play about a young man who dies in an alcohol-fueled initiation. In one version the youth is a fraternity pledge. In this play, “Death of a Rookie,” it is a freshman ballplayer who perishes. Many of the lines in the play come from Hank’s interviews with families who lost a son in a hazing incident. This play was first acted by Hank Nuwer after he was selected as an Anne Frank fellowship winner at Buffalo State College. It has been performed as a reading by Hank for athletes at the University of Cincinnati, Franklin College and at a California high school.

Watch the play below on video or you can listen to it on the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, along with some Q&A by Mike Ayalon after the conclusion. NOTE: The play can be shown for free to any school group.  It also can be acted out by any high school or college team or organization–Hank Nuwer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stYw1OeSjoQ

 

Treasured comment from Franklin College colleague David, himself an author:

 Our friend and colleague Hank Nuwer has generously offered our community a gift as he retires.  His one-man play/reading “Death of a Rookie” is based on a journey Hank has taken over and over again to make families, college students, and colleges/universities aware of the sorrows of hazing.  The play is based on Hank interviewing and listening to families who have lost someone in this senseless way.  We the listeners hear their voices in this work.
    Hank went into some very dark places to offer this life-saving message to others.  HIs play is essential viewing for anyone getting ready for college–and the families of those students.  As a grandfather, I will be sending it to my son for him to save and show to his children at the appropriate time.
    I encourage viewers to listen not just to the play but to the Q and A at the end.  All together, it’s 38 minutes that can save lives.
  Thanks, Hank, for this gift and for being a great colleague.  Continue to do your good work in retirement,

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His new book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer, former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird, finished a stint as managing editor of the Celina Daily Standard to accept a new position as managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com.

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