A new feature on Hanknuwer.com — an attempt to put up a hazing calendar with key events by week and possibly by day.
ovember 17 Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge and University of Texas lacrosse athlete Tyler Cross died in a 2006 fall while intoxicated. It took many months before an investigation linked his death to hazing.
November 18. Harrison Kowiak died at Lenoire-Rhyne in a foolish and dangerous game of “jump-on-the-pledge” football this day in 2008. He suffered a head injury and died. Mr. and Mrs Brian Kowiak settled recently with the school and Theta Chi National.
November 19 India’s court system tracks 70 cases of hazing (ragging in India) during the 2007-2008 school year, spurring demands from the public for hazing and ragging legislation.
November 20 In 1988, Sigma Tau Gamma enacted antihazing policies.
November 21. Michael Starks, a pledge, died from alcohol poisoning in a hazing incident involving the Utah State chapter of Sigma Nu and a campus sorority. His family has been active in changing Utah’s hazing law, among other hazing causes.
November 22 The Boulder Beer Company in 2005 touts its Hazed and Confused brand despite the death in Boulder of fraternity pledge Gordie Bailey in 2004 at the University of Colorado. The beer is still on the market.
November 23 Five Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brothers at Fort Valley State College were charged with battery in a five-hour hazing-related beating with paddles and canes in 1989. Spin Magazine later criticized FVSC (Georgia) for doing way too little in the wake of the attacks. Hazing allegations consistently have plagued FVSC by other fraternal groups over the years since 1989.
November 24 Four Russian border guards received sentences of up to 23 years for the death of one conscript and severe injuries to others in 1998.
November 25 A hazing incident involving a battle between freshmen and sophomores at Vanderbilt was the main source of news for the Vanderbilt Hustler in 1907.
November 26 In 1999 the Chronicle of Higher Education published my op-ed piece on cultlike hazing in fraternities.
