Category: Hazing News

Hazing can be hazing — only NON-CRIMINAL –if it technically does not fit the law. That’s at a judicial level where an organization might receive school sanctions only (perhaps suspension from social activities for a brief time).

But at the University of Albany, President Kermit Hall ruled hazing did not occur categorically for the following reason reprinted from the Times Union:

Albany president Kermit Hall said the team’s actions did not fit the school’s definition of hazing because there was no malice and no one was endangered physically or emotionally or stepped forward to press criminal charges.

Here is why he is partially wrong in my opinion: 1) The minute alcohol entered the equation, especially to an advanced level of impairment for first-year players, hazing was precisely what happened. The vast majority (more than 80 percent) of all hazing deaths involved alcohol, and I assure you–no malice was intended in nearly all (maybe even all) of these cases. 2) First-year players can enter “willingly” into an initiation and still have hazing occur. The unstated premise that the first-year players realize is that they won’t be accepted SOCIALLY on the team unless they go through the initiation with apparent good humor and some submissiveness.

It may be that the Albany initiation falls under the NON-CRIMINAL hazing category (although giving alcohol to minors males me question that also–though proving it without first-year player cooperation is another matter).

We know have had Iowa and U-Albany presidents make a decision that runs counter to what Greek advisers have been enforcing for years. When it comes to hazing, there are two tiers of justice at some schools–one for athletic teams and one for fraternities and sororities.

That is not only unfair, it’s educationally unsound.

Link is here

Objection to content noted by Chuck Eberly and Dan Bureau:

Dear Hank,
This announcement for the upcoming Hazing Audioconference is written in such a way that the content suggests hazing practices originated within fraternities and sororities and have now “spread” to other campus groups / venues. Thus, the advertisement subtly “blames” fraternities and sororities for the proliferation of hazing activites now found on college campuses (and elsewhere). As you know, I have read all of your books on hazing. Where it is documented that members of fraternities and sororities invented hazing, and that all hazing practices somehow can be attributed as generated from fraternity / sorority initiations? At the same time that fraternity / sorority leaders like Dan Bureau, Past President of the Association of Fraternity Advisors, and other of his colleagues work diligently to reduce and eventually eliminate hazing in fraternities / sororities, it would appear that the organizations are still being blamed as the source of all such practices.
I am reminded of the pronouncements of Vice Presidents of Student Affairs on college campuses in the 1980s, when the issue of “risk management” first emerged as a hot topic. Now as then, it appears that people find it convenient to blame a wider societal problem on a single, highly visible group of college students. The issue of high risk drinking was then and still is a campus wide problem, and campuses without fraternity / sorority systems have challenges to surmount due to their students’ high risk drinking. The issue of hazing was then and still is a campus wide (if not societal) problem, and campuses without fraternity / sorority systems still have issues with the occurance of hazing that have not been addressed.

Respectfully,
Chuck Eberly
Eastern Illinois University

Hi to all.

Thanks to Chuck for the mention. It has been a wonderful effort that
MANY folks have worked together to accomplish within AFA and numerous
other partners.

This blurb from PaperClip Communications may reflect just a lack of
knowledge by who wrote the description. I would imagine Hank and others
had little input on the content of the announcement.

I do agree that many in higher education perceive this to be a
fraternity and sorority community only issue. Those campuses without
fraternity and sorority communities have issues with hazing as well.

Hopefully the teleconference will be a well balanced view of the
collective issues of hazing in multiple forums. The list of persons
participating sounds great but none are fraternal movement experts, so I
would imagine the focus will be very much on groups outside of the
fraternity and sorority community.

Dan

Dan Bureau
Assistant Dean of Students
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
610 E. John St. 300 TSSB
Champaign, IL 61822