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Hazing News

Sigma Alpha Epsilon out at Michigan for abuse of pledges

Here is the story link

Kicks to groin, etc.

Excerpt

The University of Michigan’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon has been expelled after hazing allegations, the Michigan Daily reports. The fraternity had previously been on suspension since early Feb.

The Daily has more:

The fraternity’s suspension came after an e-mail was sent to the University’s Office of Greek Life from a parent who disclosed various hazing activities — like forcing fraternity pledges to perform physical tests on while members shouted and threw tennis balls at them — her son was forced to endure as an SAE pledge.On March 7, the national organization made public its choice to maintain the University chapter — though it will be kept under “colony status” starting in the fall, according to the press release.

According to e-mails obtained by the Detroit Free Press, pledges were subject to a number of alleged abuses:

The e-mail said, “Brothers shot Airsoft guns, threw eggs, poked and tripped them with broomsticks, poured buckets of flour on them.”The e-mail said the next night was entertainment: “Brothers taking hockey slap-shots at the pledge class using tennis balls as hockey pucks” and “brothers violently kicking pledges in the groin to ensure that they were wearing athletic support cups.”

Further allegations detail how pledges were were forced to drink “drink regurgitated water with goldfish in it,” the Free Press reports.

The fraternity may redevelop next year, although current members may be subject to further discipline from the university.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank 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. 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 new book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer, former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird, finished a stint as managing editor of the Celina Daily Standard to accept a new position as 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.

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