Greetings from Poland. USA Today considers the short memory students have after a hazing death
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
School Boards: It’s not enough to tell taxpayers you handled a sexual hazing incident at the high school level. You need to let the law investigate. You need to be transparent. Leave out the names of perps, ok, but not details of the crime. That’s not ok. Moderator Hank Nuwer
Moderator: Brown allegedly waited two weeks before thorough investigation as players met and came up with a laundered version of facts : NBC report
Excerpt
Brown University is investigating alleged hazing on its men’s varsity swimming and diving team, officials at the Ivy League school said Wednesday, joining the growing list of colleges and universities that have taken action after recent reports of inappropriate behavior.
The prestigious university, located in Providence, Rhode Island, said in a statement Wednesday that it was “deeply troubled by the allegations.” Hazing violates the school’s code of conduct and Rhode Island state law, the statement said.
The investigation was launched after the student newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald, reported that it reviewed text messages, emails, photos and audio recordings from team members, who described Oct. 7 as a wild night of “initiation” or “hazing.”
The newspaper found that multiple new members of the team vandalized school property and vomited after a night of heavy drinking, among other activities.
An anonymous first-year member provided the newspaper with a photo showing teammates smashing Smirnoff Ice vodka bottles against a statue of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. In a recording of a Nov. 14 team meeting provided to the newspaper, a team captain mentioned “the tradition of smashing the ‘Ices’ against the statues.”
Another photo provided by the first-year member, who asked to remain anonymous over fear of retaliation, shows a team member with a drawing of a penis and the word “Oedipus” on his bare back, as an onlooker points and laughs. (Oedipus is a mythical Greek king who fulfilled a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother.)
Team members also told the school paper that they were made to drink mixtures of Tabasco sauce and vodka.
In its statement, Brown said the university received a media inquiry about the alleged hazing on Nov. 14. At that time, the school said, “no student had expressed concerns directly” to the university. But its Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards began looking into it and opened an investigation on Nov. 29.
“While it remains the case that no student has expressed concerns directly to Brown to date,” the school “continues to actively investigate.”
In a recording of a Nov. 14 team meeting provided by the anonymous first-year member, one captain said, “There’s things that are out there that could be damaging, it’s just about how we spin it right now.” Thirteen days later, the same captain instructed the team to say, “We have not had any meetings to talk about this story about that night since we found out about the investigation.”
Harvard puts the squeeze on to squeeze out fraternities
Here’s why:
This is sad. Oneonta blog reports hazing. Says it hopes for reforms before a death happens (warning: nudity in otherwise antihazing post) http://oneontanow.blogspot.com/2011/01/suny-hazing-at-its-finest.html …
