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ZBT members act like pigs at their pig roast http://cornellsun.com/2018/02/02/cornell-fraternity-ran-pig-roast-contest-awarded-points-for-sex-university-report-says/

 

Cornell’s Zeta Beta Tau fraternity has been placed on probationary recognition after the University found that it was conducting a “pig roast” in which “new members could accumulate ‘points’ by engaging in sexual intercourse with women.”

The new members were instructed not to inform the women of the contest and, in case of a tie, the member who had sex with a woman who weighed the most won, according to an investigation conducted by the University’s Fraternity and Sorority Review Board that concluded last month.

The University said the contest occurred in 2017, but did not specify who was involved or for how long the contest ran.

ZBT will be on probationary recognition for two years and must fulfill other requirements, including a full chapter brotherhood and external review by its national organization and participation in programs like Sexual Assault Awareness Week and Cornell’s bystander intervention program.

ZBT’s actions, according to Paul Russell ’19, interfraternity council president, are “not normal” and IFC has been “working to make sure these sorts of incidents don’t become normalized.

“The IFC was appalled and disgusted by the activity described in the reports,” Russell said. “The decision about the specific sanctions placed on ZBT was made jointly by administrators and IFC leadership in a review board hearing earlier this year after a hearing and a review of the allegations.”

The review board found the chapter guilty of violating the University’s Fraternity and Sorority Recognition Policy by implementing hazing and section 11 of Cornell’s Fraternity and Sorority Expectations of Membership, which prohibits “sexually abusive behavior on the part of its members.”

“We think the IFC and the Office of Sorority and Fraternity life are uniquely poised to respond to this type of activity because we can and have mandated that the chapter now participate in programming to educate their members about sexual misconduct and help them to foster a healthy culture,” Russell said.

The chapter is also required to work closely with the OSFL this semester to hire an adviser, do a facility walkthrough, create a transition program and have monthly meetings about progress updates.

Cornell University did not immediately respond for comment.

By 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 and Best Humorist, second place.

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 Warsaw, Poland and 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 and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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