Here is the link and an excerpt
“Jim and Evelyn Piazza are pleased to see Tim Bream gone from Penn State”, attorney Tom Kline said in a statement.
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. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com
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LSU Task force and Dr. Kimbrough
Yes, treat hazers like the criminals they are–moderator
Above is the link and an excerpt. Hope you can read it all–Moderator.
……Likewise, the two new AKL members taken to the Pullman Regional Hospital caused WSU concern, MacKay says. Investigative notes reveal that on Aug. 20, the last night of Rush Week — when fraternities recruit students — one upperclassman at AKL heard about a new member who was sick. The upperclassman walked into the bathroom, according to the upperclassman’s account of the incident, and found the new member “flopping” around, “vomiting and throwing his upper body around while staying seated.”
The upperclassman took him to the hospital, and the new member was released by early the next morning. (In the records provided to the Inlander, in response to a public records request, names of students were redacted.)
In early October, days before WSU launched their investigation of hazing, a new fraternity member fell out of his bed after drinking and got a concussion, MacKay says. He was taken to the hospital.
Incidents alleged to be hazing took place in what the frat called the “party room.” There, records say, new members were forced to finish bottles of beer. When they did “Edward Forty-Hands,” one new member reported that his hand was taped to another member’s hand with a bottle in between. Each person had another bottle taped to his free hand. They were told to finish all three bottles between the two of them.
At least once, the upperclassmen dumped out bean bags and made the new members clean all of it up while taped to another person. In another incident, a new member had his finger burned by an upperclassman’s lighter used to illuminate the dark party room, according to records.
Yet upperclassmen interviewed said that these types of things happened when they were pledges, too. And, at first, they told the school it was character building. One member said it was “not meant with malicious intent,” and instead was supposed to be about teaching accountability. He said the “definition of hazing has become muddy.”
But Jeremy Slivinski, CEO of the fraternity at its headquarters, told the members at WSU that the incidents were “abusive and a demonstration as to why fraternities are viewed poorly in this day and age. Brothers don’t hurt each other to prove or receive a demonstration of loyalty.”
The individual students involved are facing charges through the university’s student-conduct process that could result in discipline, MacKay says.
“We take this stuff really seriously,” MacKay says. “Protecting the health and safety of our students is critical.”
NO CHOICE?
To prevent future hazing incidents, Nuwer says there needs to be a change in culture. Fraternities are founded on principles of camaraderie and loyalty to one another. When they get in trouble, they tend to cover for one another.
“There’s a lot of self-delusion after the incident,” Nuwer says.
Fraternity members don’t know when they’re hazed, he says, because often they can’t identify hazing behaviors. And when they try to reform the system, they often get pressure from alumni.
Here is the link and an excerpt
I Rushed a Sorority as an Undercover Journalist
Why? Because I wanted to figure out the system from the inside, so I rushed a sorority.
Let me explain myself before you go all “oh my god” in an angry Valley Girl accent on me. I’ve never been fully satisfied with the coverage of the sorority system. Articles about the sororities are always either from people who hate it or who love it. Some people want to burn it to the ground, and others will lay their life down on a beer pong table for their sisters. Everyone who writes about sororities has an opinion — a strong one — and no one knows who to trust for the truth.
So this became my journalistic project — to rush a sorority as an undercover journalist, and finally get an unbiased perspective for myself.
When Asian sorority rush rolled around this spring, I knew I found the perfect opportunity. It incorporates a culture that connects directly to me, and unlike traditional Greek life, it’s covered less often, but no less “sorority-esque.” The plan was to rush with no preconceptions, no agenda. Just a blank slate searching for the truth about sororities.
When the first day of rush came, I threw on my heeled black boots and my best sorority girl smile. I was walked into a room of 20 girls for the speed dating event, where I was hit by bright smiles and loud voices, chattering about how “Wow, we have the same class!” or “Oh my God, I’m a hotelie too!”
Girl by girl I moved across the tables, chatting in my perkiest voice on the multitude of reasons I wanted to be a sister, but in my mind I was taking down notes like an interview. They asked me every question that ever existed. Why am I an English major, where am I from (“Oh my God I totally knew you were from California, all Californians wear scarves!”), what’s my opinion on the word “moist.”
Adding me on Facebook after became a ritual. So did telling me they loved my lipstick, loved my nails, loved my shirt. Every sister was perky, “supported each other” and from what I could gather, wanted to support me too. They held my hand and widened their eyes when I was telling a story and laughed loudly when I made a joke. They told me I would fit right in, told me I could be just like them. By the end someone even asked me to get dinner with them. I met them for two minutes.
And then there were moments when I truly enjoyed chatting with someone, when it wasn’t forced. There were quality people in the room who didn’t fit the stereotype, and every girl had incredible interests and intellect. For a second, I even believed them when they said they cared about me, when they said “I’d fit right in.” But then the next girl came behind me and they gave her the exact same response.
Forty friend requests later, I realized two things: This is a group of people who are all human, with their own interests and unique personalities, but they are all shaped to mold into the same image. And this is a group of people who believe so deeply in a system that many will never see past it, and many will never realize what is wrong with it.