Thanks to Dale: for clips and commentary below:
Scott Friend, a UGA club hockey team player, and his freshman team mates, have their hair shaved and cut in an embarassing way, and are taken around the campus to show it off. A Savannah newspaper reports the story Jan. 18, 2008.
On Jan. 22, Willie L. Banks, Jr., UGA Director of Campus Life, says they will “review all of the information and then decide what the appropriate course of action will be.” Â The team continues to practice and play, and their season ends.
An internet site, www.badjocks.com, publishes the story.
The campus newspaper publishes a story, including a picture of freshman football players with shaved/ridiculous haircuts.
On April 5, the Athens Banner-Herald reports the the hockey team “will be on probation” through 2009.
“An agreement between the hockey team and the UGA judiciary released late Friday didn’t mention freshman head-shaving, which also is a tradition on UGA’s football team. Instead, the agreement focused on another tradition Friend and UGA hockey coach John Hoos described to the newspaper – that team freshmen have required chores, such as taking care of the team’s stinky practice jerseys.”
“(Michael) Williams, a graduate student in education and team captain, said club members were able to show UGA judiciary officials that the freshmen hockey players shaved their heads voluntarily in a show of team unity that emulated the same practice by the UGA football team.
“But UGA judiciary officials said that the chores assigned to the freshmen amounted to hazing, even though team chores are shared among all team members, Williams said.”
“Although the judiciary officials didn’t find that the head-shaving violated UGA anti-hazing policy, Williams said he doubts there will be any shaved freshman heads next year – just to be safe.”
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/040508/uganews_2008040500282.shtml
On the other hand, when the Chi Phi fraternity pledges got in trouble in 2006, the chapter was immediately suspended (story below).
http://new.savannahnow.com/node/433497
Jan. 18, 2008
Scott Friend, a freshman forward on the University of Georgia ice hockey club, returned to his Savannah home this week without his usual shaggy, wavy brown locks.
“It’s growing back,” said Friend, whose Ice Dogs teammates had shaved off the front half of his hair about a month and a half ago.
They sat him in a chair and took turns “buzzing” his head, then confiscated his hat, snapped photos and paraded him around campus for other students (meaning girls) to see their handiwork. Team veterans also shaved other rookies in various designs, including a reverse Mohawk, Friend reported.
“It’s not hazing,” said Friend, 18, in Savannah for the annual Memorial Health Hockey Classic tournament Friday and today. “There are no hard feelings. You can’t get mad about it. It’s part of the team bonding.”
Georgia coach John Hoos called “kind of a rite of passage” the chores assigned to rookies, such as picking up pucks after practice, cleaning the locker room and filling water bottles.
“It’s just tradition in hockey,” said Hoos, a former team captain now coaching the Ice Dogs for nine seasons.
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My name is Willie Banks and I am the Director of Campus Life and Tate Student Center here at the University of Georgia.
Dr. Bennett asked me to respond to the email (about hockey hazing) you sent to him and Dr. Burke on Monday, January 21, 2008. After reviewing your email and the attached article, the Center for Student Organizations will be sending a complaint letter to the Office of Judicial Programs. The Office of Judicial Programs will then review all of the information and then decide what the appropriate course of action will be. Whenever we receive complaints of your nature we follow standard operating procedure, which entails sending a formal letter to the Office of Judicial Programs to investigate. We take all complaints and issues of this nature seriously and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Please feel free to contact me if you need any further information.
Thank you,
WB
******************************
Willie L. Banks, Jr.
Director of Campus Life & Tate  Student Center
The University of Georgia
325 Tate Student Center
Athens, GA 30602
706-542-7774
706-542-8550 (fax)
www.uga.edu/campuslife
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Club is iced after hazing accusations
By Lee Shearer  |   lee.shearer@onlineathens.com  |   Story updated at 11:51 PM on Saturday, April 5, 2008
The University of Georgia’s ice hockey team will be on probation though 2009 for hazing, according to a document UGA officials released late Friday.
UGA’s Office of Judicial Programs began investigating the club in January after Vice President for Student Affairs Rodney Bennett got a complaint about a hockey player’s wacky haircut.
The player, freshman Scott Friend of Savannah, told a Savannah Morning News reporter that teammates had shaved the front half of his head.
An agreement between the hockey team and the UGA judiciary released late Friday didn’t mention freshman head-shaving, which also is a tradition on UGA’s football team.
Instead, the agreement focused on another tradition Friend and UGA hockey coach John Hoos described to the newspaper – that team freshmen have required chores, such as taking care of the team’s stinky practice jerseys.
The resolution agreement, signed by judicial programs coordinator Bryan Rush and Michael Williams, president of the hockey club, requires the team to create a handbook detailing how such chores as cleanup, washing jerseys and equipment storage will be divided among all team members.
Williams, a graduate student in education and team captain, said club members were able to show UGA judiciary officials that the freshmen hockey players shaved their heads voluntarily in a show of team unity that emulated the same practice by the UGA football team.
But UGA judiciary officials said that the chores assigned to the freshmen amounted to hazing, even though team chores are shared among all team members, Williams said.
Unlike UGA’s football team and other NCAA teams, club teams don’t get athletic scholarships, fly on jets to road games, or get coached by highly paid professionals.
The hockey team, like other club sports, gets about $1,000 a year from UGA. The players raise the rest of their money themselves.
Under the agreement, the hockey team must also create its own educational program on hazing, then share it with the dozens of other UGA club sports teams.
Both the hazing program and the team handbook must be approved by the UGA Office of Judicial Programs.
Although the judiciary officials didn’t find that the head-shaving violated UGA anti-hazing policy, Williams said he doubts there will be any shaved freshman heads next year – just to be safe.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 040508
—–
Sept. 10, 2006
Chi Phi (UGA) suspended over nude Photographs
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met…10metfrat.html
University of Georgia officials suspended the Chi Phi fraternity indefinitely Friday after pledges to the group flashed pictures of nude black women to passersby on campus.
The fraternity was barred from holding its traditional new member induction ceremony this weekend or any other social event until an investigation is complete.
According to campus police, seven university students and a visitor to campus photographed people’s reactions as they showed them photos from a pornographic magazine that features black women.
The men told police that they didn’t warn people about the content of the photos before they showed them, according to the campus police report.
Chi Phi President Matthew Hughes says that the chapter is “embarrassed” about the incident, which he said was not sanctioned by the fraternity. He declined to say why the students showed the pictures.
The fraternity is cooperating with the university on the investigation, he said.
Hughes said, “We are trying our best to go down the right path.”
The university’s anti-harrassment policy defines sexual harassment to include “the inappropriate display of sexually explicit pictures, text, printed materials or objects that do not serve an academic purpose.”
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