Author: Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. 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. In April of 2024 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division.

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 current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former 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

Hazing News

Update on Cornell death

This is the June 27 story on the Cornell acquittals. I had not seen this while on vacation and am passing it along in case anyone here missed it. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/nyregion/ex-cornell-students-acquitted-of-hazing-in-death-of-fraternity-member.html

excerpt:

The three defendants — Max Haskin, Ben Mann and Edward Williams — were accused of making George Desdunes drink excessive amounts of alcohol during an induction ritual for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, of which they were all members. They were charged with hazing in the first degree and unlawfully dealing with a child (referring to serving alcohol to a person under 21), both misdemeanors. But on Tuesday, Judge Judith A. Rossiter of Tompkins County Court acquitted them of all charges.

Raymond M. Schlather, one of the defense lawyers, said Wednesday that the court had “determined without any hesitation or equivocation that these guys are innocent.” He added, “Having said that, I emphasize that there are no winners, because someone is dead and the family is in pain, and frankly, the lives of three young men are irrevocably harmed.”

Mr. Desdunes’s mother, Marie Lourdes Andre, was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

“She’s absolutely devastated,” her lawyer, Douglas Fierberg, said. “She’s in shock and terribly saddened that her son could be killed by these individuals and there be no criminal responsibility.”

Hazing News

Muncie Star-Press: Ball State sorority vandalism allegations get day in court Sept. 18

Post author By Hank Nuwer
Post date September 10, 2012
No Comments on Muncie Star-Press: Ball State sorority vandalism allegations get day in court Sept. 18

Police theorize that feces-spreading and damage to to cars was revenge by Ball State sorority women getting back at woman who reported hazing http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120910/BUSTED/309100014/sorority-hazing-vandalism?nclick_check=1

Good story by Doug Walker: As a result, four current or former BSU students face criminal prosecution.

EXCERPT: Charged last week with two counts each of criminal mischief, a Class D felony carrying a standard 18-month prison term, were:

• Briana N. Fulton, 21, 3701 N. Marleon Drive

• Bianca T. Humphrey, 22, 4524 W. Bethel Ave.

• Lauren L. Mason, 22, University Park, Ill.

• Leteria L. Bigbee, 21, Indianapolis, who is reported to be a friend of her co-defendants, but not a member of their sorority.

A police report reflects the second felony charge stems from damage done by mistake to the vehicle of another BSU student, who had no ties to the sorority controversy.

When the vandals realized they had struck the wrong vehicle, investigators said, they returned to the same apartment complex and damaged the car of their intended victim.

The events leading to the filing of the criminal charges purportedly stem from a complaint a student filed with BSU police last January, alleging that tasks she had been asked to perform to join Zeta Phi Beta sorority represented hazing, and that she was otherwise being harassed by sorority members and their friends.

Ball State officials placed the sorority on probation, and ordered its members to stay away from the former pledge.

In May, sorority members allegedly learned where their accuser lived, and set in motion a plan to vandalize her car.

On the night of May 10-11, Fulton, Humphrey, Bigbee and Mason are accused of going to Forest Oaks Apartments, 4100 W. Woods Edge Lane, and vandalizing what they believed to be the car of the ex-pledge.

That vehicle actually belonged to a 24-year-old male student, who reported he found his car smeared with dog feces and nail-polish remover, and damage to its body and windows that appeared to have been inflicted with a rock or key. Among other things, a smiley face and the word “bitch” had been scratched onto the vehicle, investigators said.

The cost of repairing that car was estimated at more than $4,500.

The defendants are accused of returning to the apartment complex the same night, realizing they had vandalized the wrong vehicle, and then inflicting similar damage on the ex-pledge’s car.

When the charges were filed last week, prosecutors did not request that arrest warrants be issued. Instead, the four defendants will receive summonses to appear at initial hearings in Delaware Circuit Court 3 on Sept. 18.

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