Category: Hazing News

California Hazing Law Vote Expected Tuesday

SOC Urges Californians To Call Their
Assemblymembers In Support Of Matt’s Law

Matt Carrington (pictured right) a 21 year old California State University-Chico student died in the basement of the Chi Tau fraternity house on February 2, 2005 during hideous acts of hazing. He was forced to drink from a five-gallon jug of water filled more than five-times and do calisthenics in the frigid sewage infested basement with cold fans blowing on him until this torture caused his brain to swell and heart failure from water intoxication.
Following his death Matt’s family learned that under California law hazing, even if it resulted in death, was only a misdemeanor and was a part of the Education Code rather than the Penal Code. Non-students, alumni of the unrecognized house, also attempted to argue that this law did not apply to them.

With the support of California state Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), “Matt’s Law” (Senate Bill No. 1454) has been introduced to remedy these problems. Matt’s Law would move hazing law into the Penal Code and would increase penalties to a felony in the event of serious injuries or death. It would also give prosecutors clear authority to bring charges against anyone or any organization involved in the hazing, not just currently enrolled students.

Matt’s Law passed the state Senate, in a 34-2 vote on May 30th, but urgently needs your help to pass the state Assembly and actually become law. If you are a California resident please call or fax your member of the Assembly today and ask them to support and vote for SB 1454. The contact information for your legislative representatives can be accessed by going to http://www.legislature.ca.gov/ and entering your ZIP Code in the “Find My District” search box located on the right hand side of the page.

The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee is scheduled to vote on the bill at their Tuesday morning meeting so time is of the essence. Please call or fax today in support of this life saving legislation!

Prof. Campo study here

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

Iowa: Nude singing is not hazing.

Quote from Orlando Sentinel writer Jerry Greene: “So what does that mean? They do this all the time?”

The Badjocks.com site announced today that it has filed a freedom of information request to determine how Iowa administration and athletics made the determination that an apparent hazing initiation was — non-hazing.