Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

BEHIND THE MUSIC;
Hazing or Brotherhood?

BYLINE: LYLE V. HARRIS

SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 92 Vol. LXVI No. 5

LENGTH: 1883 words

HIGHLIGHT: When it comes to star performance, HBCU bands can bring the funk like no other. The flip side? They can also bring the pain.

“There are two things I learned at Grambling,” says Michael Cofield. “How to dance while playing and how to get my ass kicked.”

As a freshman tuba player for the university’s “Marching Tigers,” Cofield says, he was slapped, punched, pummeled with drum sticks and forced to march atop a mound of stinging fire ants during unsanctioned hazing sessions led by upperclassmen.

“I was put in the hospital several times because of the band,” he recalls. “My kidneys were bruised and I was urinating blood, but I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t want people to think I was a punk.”

Cofield didn’t report the abuse, not even to his mother. Eventually, however, school officials launched an investigation and disciplined the students who beat him.

After leaving Grambling State University in 2005 (for unrelated financial reasons), Cofield transferred to Norfolk State University (NSU), where he’s now a drum major with the “Spartan Legion,” the school’s marching band.

As an upperclassman and bandleader, Cofield, 25, has vowed to stand up and speak out against hazing in marching bands, a practice that, he claims, is commonplace at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Most of the 105 HBCUs nationwide boast marching bands whose reputations and halftime exploits often outshine their schools’ athletic teams. The growing popularity and high-pressure intensity of this art form was memorably portrayed in Drumline, the 2002 movie starring Nick Cannon.

Long before the movie hit theaters, the inside joke among HBCU students and alumni was that football games–unlike those at predominantly White schools–are merely a sideshow. For many, the main attraction is the marching band’s halftime performance.

However, hazing–defined as any initiation ritual that entails abuse, harassment or intimidation–is no laughing matter for the HBCU administrators, band directors, students and parents who have been dealing with its consequences.

The practice is expressly illegal in nearly every state. On top of that, schools such as Grambling and other HBCUs have all students sign contracts that require them to report abuses, even if they are victims. The schools have also adopted strict policies to protect their students from being hazed and implemented anti-hazing penalties that include suspension and expulsion for violators.

Despite those sanctions, hazing remains a persistent problem on college campuses, including in the close-knit community of HBCU marching bands. Although the best of these bands have earned worldwide fame for fusing precision drill routines with stadium-shaking music and exuberant dance numbers that range from classic to crunk, a number of them are confronting hazing traditions that have proven difficult to eradicate.

In recent years, high-profile incidents involving HBCU marching bands have resulted in students being sued, jailed and, in some extreme cases, hospitalized for serious, life-threatening injuries.

Awareness about the problem reached fever pitch last November when the award-winning HBO show Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel aired a segment on hazing within marching bands.

The show focused on the case of Marcus Heath, 20, a former freshman at Southern University in Louisiana. Along with two other band-mates, Heath was hit repeatedly with wooden two-by-fours during an initiation into Mellow Phi Fellow, an unofficial fraternity of French horn players.

Heath, hospitalized for organ failure and other injuries, was released along with another student hurt in the same incident; a third victim did not require treatment.

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According to The New York Times , 16 students and alumni filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) after members of the Yale Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter shouted sexist chants that encouraged rape in a residential courtyard. The spectacle was recorded and went viral on YouTube.

As the Yale Daily News reported, the complainants argued that the university violated Title IX regulations–a federal law that prohibits gender discrimination at institutions that receive federal funding–by inadequately responding to public sexual harassment, therefore, allowing for a hostile sexual environment on campus. On March 13, the complainants reported that the OCR would investigate the university’s policies on sexual harassment. The Wall Street Journal estimated that if the university was found to be in violation, it could potentially lose half a billion dollars in federal funding.

On Tuesday, May 17, Dean Miller sent an email to the university community announcing that the Executive Committee, the school’s disciplinary board, would take disciplinary action against the DKE chapter, reported the Yale Daily News.

“After a full hearing, the Committee found that the DKE chapter, as an organization, one comprised of Yale students, had threatened and intimidated others, in violation of the Undergraduate Regulations of Yale College as they pertain to ‘harassment, coercion or intimidation’ and ‘imperiling the integrity and values of the University community’,” wrote Dean Miller.

As a result the Yale DKE chapter is now prohibited from conducting fraternity activities, including recruiting, for a period of five years. Additionally, the chapter can no longer communicate with Yale students via the Yale bulletin boards or Yale email and will have limited use of the university’s name.

Executive director of Delta Kappa Epsilon International Fraternity, Doug Lanpher, told The New York Times that the Committee’s restrictions were excessive and pointed out that the chapter was put on probation after the incident occurred.

“We suspended their pledging activities for six weeks so we could review their activities with them. Clearly, the chanting was inappropriate and in poor taste, but does it warrant a five-year suspension?” he said.

The Yale Daily News, however, noted that the suspension was lifted less than one month after it had been imposed.

Complainants praised the university for taking a stance against sexual harassment and for Dean Miller’s transparency regarding the Committee’s decision.

“If the suspension does create a serious disturbance to the fraternity’s activities, then a message will be sent that sexual harassment will not be tolerated on this campus,” said complainant Alexandra Brodsky.

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ITHACA, N.Y. — Prosecutors say it was a mock kidnapping, part of a fraternity tradition, that led to the death of 19-year old George Desdunes.

On Thursday, four defendants stood before a judge, all former pledges of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at Cornell University. EJ Williams, Max Haskin and Ben Mann, all 19, are charged with first degree hazing and unlawfully dealing with a child. Williams is also charged with criminal nuisance. A fourth defendant who is under the age of 19 was also charged, but his name has not been released.

Prosecutors say the four took a complicit Desdunes and another frat brother to a campus apartment around 1 a.m. February 25th after Desdunes called a designated driver for a ride home from a bar. Investigators say the pledges bound Desdunes’ hands and feet with zip ties and duct tape and quizzed him on the history of the fraternity. When Desdunes answered incorrectly, prosecutors say the pledges gave him water, flavored syrups, sugar or vodka and made him do exercises, such as sit-ups.

Desdunes passed out on the way home around 5 a.m. and the pledges left him on a couch in the library of the frat house. That is where a custodian found him later that morning.

Desdunes was taken to Cayuga Medical Center and pronounced dead. His blood alcohol content was .35 percent.

“The grand jury has reviewed this case very carefully, has lodged misdemeanor offenses against these young men, but certainly has made very clear that they are not responsible for the death of Mr. Desdunes,” say Ray Schlather, Haskin’s attorney.

A representative from Cornell University said none of the students are currently enrolled. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon house has been suspended and vacated.

The three named defendants pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

“He certainly intends to fight this and clear his name and it is expected that when the dust finally settles, that’s exactly what will happen,” Schlather said of his client.

All of these charges are misdemeanors and carry a maximum punishment of one year incarceration. It’s not yet known whether the case will go to trial.

Attorneys for Mann and Williams declined to comment. Representatives of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity did not appear in court, and prosecutors say a corporate summons will be issued.

For background, get a library copy
of my book Broken Pledges and
interview with historian Dr. Robert Waite.

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