Categories
Hazing News

Maryland ponders new alcohol guidelines

Here is the link and an excerpt

The IFC has also updated its constitution to align with the NIC standards, Yelsits said.

Individual fraternities have addressed the new guidelines. Junior Ryan Yellin, an accounting and finance major and a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, said his chapter’s president sent out an email last weekend about the changes. While Yellin was surprised, he supports them.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “Anything above 15 percent isn’t necessary.”

The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity used to serve hard liquor at parties, but will be adjusting to the new guidelines. They will be opting for drinks that meet the limit, such as beer and wine, said member Brandon Kleinmann, a senior finance and math major.

Hank Nuwer, a professor at Franklin College who has written five books about hazing, said that just under 70 percent of hazing deaths involve alcohol. From 1959 to 2019, there was at least one hazing-related death in a school, club or organization in the United States every year, according to Nuwer’s research.

Though Nuwer thinks the new IFC measures are a good thing, he’s skeptical about their ability to stop off-campus incidents and cover-ups, he said.

“My hope is that if alcohol is taken out of the equation with hazing, that the number of deaths would go down,” Nuwer said.

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, 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.

Leave a Reply