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

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Hazing News

Thoughtful New York Times essay on alcohol and fraternities by John Hechinger

Here is the essay link and a brief excerpt

Fraternity initiation season has just begun and already an 18-year-old freshman is dead. An investigation into the death of the student, who had been drinking at Louisiana State University’s Phi Delta Theta house, will most likely point to a familiar culprit: the toxic brew of alcohol and hazing.

The Louisiana case is only the latest example in a horrifying but persistent trend. At Penn State, 14 Beta Theta Pi members will soon face a criminal trial because a pledge, or new member, died of traumatic brain injuries in February. They are accused of ordering him to drink until he could barely stand.

Alcohol is the wellspring of most fraternity vice, and evidence shows that reducing drinking at chapters makes them safer — and not just for fraternity brothers. According to the National Institute of Justice, women who frequent frat parties are more likely to become victims of “incapacitated sexual assault.” Many fraternity brothers and alumni maintain that fraternities shouldn’t be blamed for excessive drinking — that it is just a part of college life — but the numbers tell a different story.

Study after study has shown that fraternity men are the heaviest drinkers on campus. According to Harvard public-health research, considered the most definitive, 86 percent of men living in chapter houses binge on alcohol, twice the level of those who live elsewhere. A University of Maine survey found that three-quarters of fraternity members report they’ve been hazed, including being forced to drink into unconsciousness.

Phi Delta Theta has mostly stayed out of the headlines until now, but as the death at L.S.U. shows, efforts to cut down drinking require constant vigilance. The success of public health campaigns provides an apt comparison: They haven’t eliminated smoking or drunken driving, but they have saved millions of lives.

Banning pledging, the dangerous monthslong initiation period, also helps. For about a decade, Sigma Alpha Epsilon had more hazing and alcohol-related deaths than any other fraternity; it banned pledging altogether in 2014, and since then insurance claims have dropped from an average of 13 a year to two, and no one has died from hazing or drinking. Enforcement has been key: More than 30 chapters have been closed for alcohol violations.

Measures that cut down on hazing and drinking don’t just protect students from danger, they can also shield their finances. When lawsuits proliferated and insurance premiums soared in the 1980s and 1990s, fraternities risked losing coverage for their considerable wealth, which includes more than $3 billion in real estate. They, with their insurers, created plans that excluded claims related to underage drinking, hazing and sexual assault.

It makes sense that fraternities didn’t want to provide insurance that, in effect, subsidized bad behavior.  Read more at the earlier link.

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Hazing News

Chapter of Beta Theta Pi in Court

Link

Excerpt from WTAJ

The Alpha Upsilon Chapter appeared in court Wednesday.

A lawyer for the Alpha Upsilon chapter of Beta Theta Pi appeared in court Wednesday. That parent organization is charged with 50 counts of hazing and a total of 96 counts of alcohol related charges in connection with the death of Timothy Piazza.

A motion has also been filed to remove the attorney for the Alpha Upsilon chapter.

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Hazing News

New scholarship: License to bully: rites of passage in higher education

  • Ana Cristina da Silva
  • Minoo Farhangmehr
  • Marjan Sara Jalali
Original Article

First Online: 23 September 2017

Abstract

This study examines the existence of bullying behaviours in the relatively under-studied setting of higher education institutions (HEI), and in the context of the initiation rites which in many countries come associated with entry into these institutions, in particular. Findings from our in-depth interviews with former, current and prospective university students indicate that bullying in universities exists, is closely intertwined with initiation rituals and their associated activities, and furthermore assumes various forms. This reality leads to a dissonance in respondents’ understanding and descriptions of the initiation rites – a conflict between the intended purpose of integration on the one hand, and the often oppressive practice of these rituals on the other. The initiation rites were furthermore perceived as legitimising and perpetuating otherwise unacceptable and overbearing behaviours. The findings indicate an important role for social marketing in helping mitigate bullying behaviours in initiation rituals, as well as creating upstream pressure for change by policy makers.

Keywords

Bullying Social marketing Higher education Initiation rites Hazing 

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017
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Hazing News

Dillard president on hazing prevention needs

Hey teacher, DON’T leave those kids alone.  The need for early antihazing interventions.

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Hazing News

Therunneronline: The Kappa Alpha Psi nightmare of Brent McClanahan II, CSU Bakersfield

Powerful update on condition of paralyzed former Kappa Alpha Psi pledge http://therunneronline.com/hazing-victim-mcclanahan-moves-on/

Excerpt:

In April 2011, McClanahan, 25 at the time, returned to his parents’ home where he collapsed and was hospitalized after an initiation evening with the fraternity. He sustained herniated and ruptured discs which left him paralyzed from the waist down. He has undergone rehabilitation for his legs and has regained use of them over time. He said he still experiences drop leg, bladder control issues, and may not be able to father any more children.

McClanahan said that his beatings not only left him with severe physical injuries and costly medical bills, but psychological trauma as well. He said he has suffered from depression, night terrors, and PTSD due to his experience.

When McClanahan was in the hospital his fraternity big brother, and fellow pledges, visited to ask him if he was still interested in continuing the initiation process. His response was, “Look at me. I’m in the hospital.’ and that’s when it just clicked like, ‘what the hell am I doing here?”

According to McClanahan, the medical expenses and psychological damages became so burdensome that he reached out to the California Victim Compensation Board to help him. However, the board rejected his application stating he did not qualify as a victim because he “kept going back to be hazed,” he said.

“So I said to them, ‘Let me ask you a question. Do you say the same thing to a woman who is in a domestic violence abuse but keeps going back to her husband that keeps beating her?’…They didn’t answer my question,” said McClanahan.

After McClanahan was denied financial assistance by the state he decided to file a lawsuit against the fraternity to help cover his medical expenses.

McClanahan began discussion about filing a lawsuit against Kappa Alpha Psi in 2012.

According to him, the next year was spent discussing how to file the suit. In 2013, McClanahan filed a civil lawsuit against Kappa Alpha Psi Inc. in Los Angeles County Superior Court. During the lawsuit, allegations arose against McClanahan’s father being aware of his son’s beatings and injuries before the night his son was hospitalized. McClanahan rebukes these allegations saying that his father “was heartbroken when he found out” about the hazing that had ensued.

In August of 2014, McClanahan said the yearlong litigation resulted in a settlement. He received $2 million from the fraternities’ insurance. He has used it to settle his medical expenses, including his back surgery that had cost $250,000.

McClanahan has also decided to use his experience to benefit others. He continued his education and graduated from CSUB with a degree in history. He said he is unsure of what he plans to do, but he would like to work in a field where he can continue to share what he has learned from his experience. He considers teaching or even continuing his education, getting a master’s degree, and becoming a college professor.

“I really feel like that’s another big issue too, is we don’t have enough adults telling these students what to look out for,” said McClanahan.

At the end of 2013, McClanahan was introduced to film director Byron Hurt who has directed documentaries such as: “If Five-O Shoots,” “I Am a Man: Black Masculinity in America,” and just finished “Hazing: How Badly do you Want in?” which will feature McClanahan and his story. The film is expected to be released at the end of 2017 and will feature scenes at CSUB with McClanahan.

“It’s like I’m trying to figure out the social psychology of how one becomes a part of a group and like why, as a society, we have the people who want to be a part of a group,” said McClanahan.

McClanahan said he was grateful for the work he did with Hurt on the film. He feels that being a part of that film helped him to process his anger and depression at the time. He is grateful for the manner in which CSUB President Horace Mitchell responded to the case. He said that the physical abuse they endured never occured on campus and he has never felt that CSUB was at fault for his ordeal.