Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

Here is the story link

This is a long, thoughtful piece by Dr. McCreary. I’ll post an excerpt here but recommend you click on the link above to get his entire position. –Moderator Hank Nuwer

Here is the link to the Journal Online

Excerpt:

A varsity soccer player who was among the group that allegedly hazed freshmen teammates at Maine West last year told the court this morning (Wednesday) that the same type of incident happened to him four years ago.

“I got initiated,” the player, now 19, said during the trial of former Maine West coach Michael Divincenzo. “I got taken down and wedgied and they poked me between my buttcheeks.”

Link to the story Pocono Record.

Excerpt:

Attorney Hugh Mo notified the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office Wednesday that he is representing Danny Chen, a member of the Pi Delta Psi’s former Baruch College chapter.

The chapter is being investigated in the Dec. 9 death of Chun Deng, 19, a finance student at Baruch in Manhattan.

Chen, 21, a Baruch business major, is one of three fraternity members who, after the suspected hazing ritual during which Deng was injured, drove Deng to the hospital where he later died.

Since Deng’s death, the national office of Pi Delta Psi, an Asian-American cultural fraternity, has distanced itself from this particular chapter, which has been ousted from the Baruch College campus for conducting what Baruch called an “unsanctioned” ritual without the college’s knowledge.

Though Mo is representing Chen, no one had been charged in Deng’s death as of Wednesday.

“The case is large in scope,” Monroe County First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso said. “The sheer number (of other frat members) involved and the varying degrees of involvement need to be sorted out.”

Calling Deng’s death a tragedy for all involved, Mo said it remains to be seen if the death was caused by hazing or by something else, such as any pre-existing medical conditions Deng might have had.

“We’ll have to wait for the autopsy (toxicology) results to see what determination is made as to the cause and manner of death,” Mo said.

About 30 frat members rented a Candlewood Drive home in Sierra View, Tunkhannock Township, for the weekend of Dec. 7 and 8, according to Pocono Mountain Regional Police.

Between 5 and 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 8, Deng and three other pledges were partaking in a ritual called the “Glass Ceiling” in the backyard, police said.

Hugo Chan, a Beta Theta Pi member from the University of Toronto, died during apparent horseplay as he unsuccessfully tried to scale a wall.

Scott Notary, a Beta Theta Pi from Purdue, died in a fire at his apartment. The fraternity had been ordered out of its house some time ago for miscellaneous violations.

Very grateful to reporter Vic for his interest. Go here for the photo and story–Moderator Hank Nuwer

Franklin College hazing expert pens Western novel
By Vic Ryckaert, vic.ryckaert@indystar.com 12:13 a.m. EST December 15, 2013

Franklin College professor Hank Nuwer has built a national reputation and become an outspoken crusader against hazing in all its forms.

The associate professor for Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism has written articles and four books about hazing in his long academic career.

Long after sundown when he’s not working on serious, scholarly missives, Nuwer’s been writing a literary Western novel inspired by time he spent “trailing” sheep with migrant Basque herders in 1979. “Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey,” published by Shalako Press, will be available in print and ebook in January.

Nuwer, 67, Waldron, credits the “bloody red pen” of his ex-wife and copy editor Jenine Howard for making his novel “leaner, tighter and cleaner.”

Nuwer talks about Westerns, the Basque region of Spain and his inspiration for the novel.

Question: Why did you write a Western novel?

Nuwer: Once, long ago, I took leave of my senses and decided that getting a Ph.D. at Nevada-Reno was a great idea. My two main doctoral areas were the New Journalism and Western American Literature. One of the guest speakers in a Western Lit class was the great American novelist Wallace Stegner who wrote “The Big Rock Candy Mountain,” and I interviewed him and went out to dinner with him and Bobby Clark, the son of Walter Van Tilburg Clark of “The Oxbow Incident” fame. I vowed then and there at that very table that I would write a literary Western. A mere 43 years later, I have written one. And no, I never got that Ph.D. Instead, a hazing death happened at Nevada-Reno right before I quit the program, and my life’s course as a writer took a turn I never had wished for and certainly never expected.

Question: How did your sabbatical in the Basque Country of Spain inspire you?

Nuwer: The Guernica Peace Museum (Museo de la Paz de Gernika) may be one of the last thoughts on my mind when I leave this world. It affected me so. In one exhibit the floor is glass and underneath is the actual rubble of Hitler’s bombing — things such as a child’s shoes, a rosary, everyday things charred and burnt. There were very old people from Guernica who had survived the bombing, and they were crying so hard. The museum used red stage lighting to make it seem like the room was afire. It was an astonishing experience. Last January, while in Madrid on Franklin College business, I saw Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece “Guernica,” and the sabbatical experience in Guernica made that painting all the more inspiring and meaningful for me.

Question: Are any of the characters based on people you met?

Nuwer: Yes, and no. The old sheep herder and camptender Tubal in “Sons of the Dawn” was based on Jacinto Madrieta, a Basque I “trailed” sheep with from the high country of Nevada to the low country of Nevada on two magazine assignments when I was young — and on Lucien Millox, a Basque herder who brought in 2,000 sheep with a broken neck after a twister lifted up his sheepwagon and rattled it like corn in a popper.

Question: You have built a reputation as a national expert on hazing and more generally, bullying. Are there any bullies in this novel?

Nuwer: Oh, yes, there is a savage rancher named Faro Sinclair who has lone shepherds burned in a circle of fire. That really happened, by the way, and I read about it in an old newspaper clipping as a graduate student at Nevada. Another character who works for Faro tried to cut off the queue of a Chinese miner, which is a horrific insult for someone of a certain culture at that time. My hero Anton Ibarra steps in as a bystander and dumps the would-be hazer into a water trough.

Question: Name some of your favorite authors.

Nuwer: Well, Kurt Vonnegut is the most meaningful, and I am writing his biography for Indiana University Press, stressing his life as a Hoosier, author and war veteran. A small grant from Franklin College sent me to Dresden, Germany, and I retraced Vonnegut’s own steps as a prisoner of war before and after the bombing of Dresden by the allies.

But in terms of Western authors, I have a great deal of respect for the work of Louis L’Amour who wrote “Hondo” and Jack Schaefer who wrote “Shane.”

Question: After authoring so many scholarly articles and books, was writing fiction a litle more fun?

Nuwer: Nearly every word of the novel was written between 2 and 6 a.m. It was my dog Casey, me and the coffee pot. The academic garb is gone, replaced by baggy sweats, a gimmee cap and a T-shirt badly in need of washing. I’d read a passage aloud and my dog Casey would look at me with these stern eyes. “You’re right, Casey,” I joked once. “Too many adverbs.” To just have the freedom to do your best work at a crazy hour day after day was exhilarating.

Call Star reporter Vic Ryckaert at (317) 444-2701. Follow him on Twitter: @VicRyc.