Author: Hank Nuwer

Here is a review of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives (Hank Nuwer) by Ozy Magazine

Excerpt: 

But it was not until extracurricular societies, including almost exclusively male social fraternities, started to proliferate on college campuses during the 19th century that hazing really came into its own. By the time Mort Leggett entered Cornell in 1873, hazing was a fact of life for many freshmen, usually taking the form of being paddled, getting one’s head shaved or performing some sort of physical challenge. The “preliminaries” that Leggett was told he would have to endure to “earn” membership into Kappa Alpha Society entailed being blindfolded and marched at night up a narrow trail adjacent to a ravine. When the young pledge was left unattended for a moment, he lost his bearings and tumbled into the gorge below. Neither KAS nor any of its members received any punishment, and key details of the incident, including that Leggett had been blindfolded, were omitted from accounts of the time, says Hank Nuwer, editor of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives. “The cover-ups that we see on college campuses today go back all the way to the first fraternity hazing death in 1873.”

This is a heartwrenching story. See my Hazing Deaths page and this link for more information.

Excerpt: “Jacob Heil, 18, was charged with DUI Saturday at the scene, not far from a UK football game. UK put ATO on suspension Tuesday after finding the fraternity had allegedly served alcohol to pledges at a tailgate before the game.”

Wiley president stops Greek activities. President wants all Greek letters put away “or else”: his proclamation.

Parents of a student who died over the weekend say they think his was a hazing death. Unconfirmed for now. More as I have something concrete to update. HN

Fascinating bit of trivia by columnist Mark Flanagan. Here is an excerpt.

Attleboro’s (Kentucky) Jewelry City fame was based on the manufacture of fraternal jewelry and Sigma Chi was the fraternity that pointed the way toward that status.

Go back 60 years and … well, college freshmen having a drink and a smoke, even way too much of either, would have been written off as boys being boys. If we can pretend that wasn’t the case and a suspension were imposed in 1958, it would have set off a buzz in the front offices of the L.G. Balfour Co. on County Street, where the Balfour Riverwalk is now located.

Sales of Sigma Chi fraternity pins probably wouldn’t have been affected much by a one-year suspension of one chapter with 100 members, but the bosses would have had a personal interest. Executive vice president C. Robert Yeager was a Pi Kappa Alpha man, but joined the frat at the University of Kentucky. Company president Lloyd G. Balfour, who would step down two years later, might have taken pause to look back on the arc of his career.

He was a Sigma Chi man, joining the fraternity in 1907 while a law student at the University of Indiana. After finishing work on his degree, he went to work for the Robbins Co. of Attleboro, representing the firm in dealing with fraternities. He developed a lot of ideas about how to improve the fraternal jewelry business and in 1913 established the company that proudly wore his name and issued paychecks to Attleboro area workers for decades to come.