The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, September 12, 19305
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Fraternities, sororities opting against hazing at UNG
By CHRISTINA NIFONG
Staff Writer
Imagine running nude up a flight of stairs with an olive
between your buttock cheeks.
Welcome to your fraternity. This is an extreme ex
ample, but during pledge semesters at many college
campuses across the United States, this would not be
unusual. In the name of bonding and brotherhood,
friendship and fun, students who wish to pledge fraterni
ties or sororities are often subjected to such activities.
In the past, hazing has meant drinking while locked in
the trunk of a car, running naked through the streets, being
hurled into a lake or being beaten with a wooden beam.
And even dying. Forty-three studentsacross the country
reportedly died from hazing-related incidents between
1978 and 1988. Many additional hazing deaths may have .
been listed as accidents.
As a result, national Greek organizations have been
cracking down on hazing, making it a punishable offense.
In addition, the national organizations for all-black
fraternities and sororities met this summer and eliminated
the tradition of going "on line."
Being "on line" includes such activities as eating
together, wearing clothes that look identical to the other
pledges' clothes and spending all time not spent in class
with the fraternity or sorority. It also includes marching in
line, singing and possibly giving up something.
Many states have outlawed hazing as well. Since the
1912 hazing death of Isaac William Rand, a UNC student,
North Carolina has made it illegal to "annoy any student
by playing abusive or ridiculous tricks upon him, to
frighten, scold, beat or harass him, or subject him to
personal indignity."
But hazing still occurs on this campus, said Kari Howe,
Panhellenic Council president. She couldn't give specific
examples, however, because the only proof of hazing
comes from people who turn in a brother or sister. No one
is going to do that, she said.
Just for the Fun of It
Greeks are divided on the hazing issue. "Hazing is a
terrible thing," Howe said. "The ideal is no hazing on any
campus."
Robb Beatty, Inter-Fraternity Council president, agreed.
"There is no place for hazing. I don't see anything positive
in hazing at all," he said.
One fraternity member, who wished to remain anony
mous, voiced another opinion.
"Call me a masochist, but I enjoyed the hell out of it,"
said Sam (not his real name).
He said that two years ago he was hazed while pledging.
He and his pledge brothers had their rears signed in
indelible ink by sorority sisters, drank Wild Irish Rose
wine at room temperature, acted as waiters at parties and
stole a Christmas tree.
"We did what they asked. It wasn't that unreasonable."
He described the last hazing he endured, which occurred
while he and other pledges waited for their initiation to
start: "We strippecj down to our underwear. I had maxi
pads taped on me that were colored on. River water was
poured over me and I sat in a room with really obnoxious
music. The ritual took 45 minutes per person and there
were seven of us." It was December, and he sat for three
hours and 45 minutes dressed in only wet underwear,
awaiting his turn.
But he came out of his initiation believing that the
brothers who had orchestrated his pledge semester were
ingenious. "Everything that had been a mystery all
semester made sense. I knew that the other 54 guys in that
house had done what I had done. I wouldn't have traded
my experience for anything."
Melodie Griffith, Black Greek Council president and
member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, agreed. Although
she said she was not hazed, she said the experiences she
had while "on line" meant a lot to her and her fellow
pledges once they were over.
When "on line," she never knew what was going to
happen the next day; that was all part of the secrecy and
tradition involved in the pledging process.
Going "on line" is not hazing, Griffith said, because she
defines hazing as being subjected to something against
your will. "Everyone walks von line' because they want to,
not because they have to," she said.
The Panhellenic Council defines hazing in a different
way. They have issued a list of activities that they consider
hazing and that are forbidden at all sororities. The list
disallows giving of demerits, causing a lack of sleep,
withholding information from pledges and keeping them
in cold rooms. It also forbids activities that may seem
harmless but that have been deemed potentially degrading
or dangerous, such as treasure hunts, road trips, calling a
pledge "pledge instead of her name or making a pledge
answer the door or phone.
Seeing Through the Haze
But according to Sam, hazing has its purposes. It bonds
people together like no other experience can. "Going to the
beach is bonding," he said, "but you are not forced to cope
with a bad situation."
Learning to work together to overcome an obstacle
makes people closer than anything else, he said.
"It's easy to work a pledge class into a fraternity, but
harder to work seven strangers into each other."
Hazing teaches lessons that are valuable in life, too,
Sam said. When pledging, members learn to be leaders and
followers, he said. They learn to do what they are told and
to organize within their pledge class in order to meet goals
in the most efficient way. They also must learn to retain
their integrity just like in the real world.
A pledge who has been hazed has earned his way into
the fraternity, Sam said. "If I do this for one semester," he
explained, "I'll have an indentured servant for the rest of
college. You do your work at first and earn your way in."
But even Sam admitted that hazing can get out of hand.
"People should be worried (about hazing in fraternities). .
When people worry, it keeps things in perspective. It
should be kept out in the open.
"If I had to make the rules, I would make them just like
my hazing experience no one was hurt and it was not
too strenuous. If hazing could be done right, I would not
only not condemn it, I would condone it."
Griffith had similar comments about her semester of
pledging. She said going "on line" was about building
unity, learning to work with other people and learning
about yourself. She said that the 1 1 women she pledged
with are now some of her closest friends.
"Pledging makes you a support system. There were
nights when I was tired of walking, I knew there was
someone walking in front of me and someone behind me. I
knew I couldn't stop walking."
Krista Lutz, member of a UNC sorority, said there is a
distinction between harmful hazing and fun hazing.
"I've heard that pledges have to wear bras on the
outside of their shirt, maxi pads for name tags and have
their weight written on their forehead by a frat," she said.
Lutz considers that to be dangerous, degrading hazing,
but some activities that are considered hazing are just silly,
she added. Hazing, she said, does have a purpose in
bonding sisters.
"Some of it (hazing) just makes them appreciate things.
Everyone at some time in their life has been a pledge."
Yet she said these arguments do not justify hazing.
"Hazing should be outlawed," she said. "It's one of those
rules that's all or nothing. Hazing is different for different
people it's hard to distinguish what is degrading for
each person."
Replacing the Rituals
In keeping with national regulations and state laws,
local chaptersare trying toeliminate hazing as well.
According to Ken Pilla, rush chairman for Lambda Chi
Alpha fraternity, "We're militant about that (not hazing).
It's against our national policy and we uphold that."
Pilla said he could understand the argument behind
hazing, but that people take it too far. There are better
ways to bond, he said. His fraternity advocates the bonding
of all brothers instead of bonding within a pledge class.
The Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity nationals have
implemented a program in which all new members are
called associate members instead of pledges. They are not
required to do anything that therpters pn'.t.dp, but Pilla
said hes considers his brothers tq O)is$;joyal.(if PM.,
more so) as they would have beenjf they- had been hazedj
Alyson Grine, pledge educator for Delta Delta Delta; J
said her sorority also strongly discourages hazing. That is
not the way our pledge program is run at all. Any instance
of hazing is a misunderstanding."
Mike Ferguson, president of Sigma Nu fraternity, said
his nationals began an alternative to traditional pledge
practices, a program called the Leadership and Ethics
Achievement Development (LEAD). This program is still
developing, but currently consists of weekly meetings in
which the pledges explore their areas of leadership, hear
from speakers and learn Sigma Nu history.
The importance of pledging is gaining knowledge about
the history of the house and getting to know the brothers,
he said, and these two things are incorporated into the
LEAD program. Sigma Nu nationals are calling for the
LEAD program eventually to take over any existing
pledge programs.
Reginald Wilkerson, Southern regional assistant vice
president for Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, said black
fraternities do not release information about the pledge
process unless someone is rushing.
He did say, however, that after this summer's meeting,
pledges will no longer go "on line." ,
'The process of going 'on line' is null and void," he
said.
Wilkerson said hazing has occurred within the black
Greek system before, but that he is 99 percent sure that
this fall's changes will stop hazing within the system.
Brenda Campbell, programming chairwoman for the
Panhellenic Council, said many pledge activities can be
preserved if they are approached differently. "You can do
some activities in a positive way and that's not hazing. Do
it in a negative way, and that is hazing."
She said the bonding experience that comes from hazing
can be replaced with positive activities and may be an
even better experience. "The purpose behind any kind of
pledge program ... is to bond girls together, to make them
feel special. But if a girl objects to what s going on ...
that's what you don't want."
Thomas Williams, one of three rush chairmen for the
Chi Psi fraternity, agreed with Campbell. "Our initiation
process is less of an ordeal and more of a process of
welcoming new pledges into brotherhood. There is no
need to humiliate them, and they don't have to prove
themselves."
Hazing is a negative way of accomplishing a desirable
end, he said.
Teachers, Not Spies
Beyond the changes taking place within specific houses,
the Panhellenic Council and the Inter-Fraternity Council
are sponsoring programs to bring about changes that will
affect all Greeks at UNC.
Howe said she doesn't want the Panhellenic Council to
have to send in spies, so the council is replacing policing
with educating.
Through a forum on hazing awareness, the Panhellenic
Council hopes to clarify the types of activities that are
considered hazing. The forum will also suggest punish
ments for hazing.
Campbell said the goal of the program was for the
Greek system to educate itself without administrators
breathing down its neck.
The only way to correct the problem is to start from the
bottom, Campbell said, with the pledges.
"The sisters were probably hazed somewhere along the
line and they thought it was fun. They have no problem
with doing it again. We want to let them know what they
(the pledges) can say yes to and what they can say no to.
There are some aspects of hazing that are really bad going
on on this campus."
Pledge trainers representing each sorority met to discuss
activities that would be fun and unifying without being
humiliating or unsafe. The Panhellenic Council suggests
throwing a surprise breakfast, going on a hayride or
camping.
Campbell said writing letters to or meeting with
alumnae unites the girls with the history of their sorority.
She said when pledges organize a mixer for the members,
they bond through working together as a team.
Beatty said he has met with the council and explicitly
declared three things: that the Inter-fraternity Council in
no way condones hazing, that hazing does not benefit
anyone and that hazing is a violation of student and civil
courts.
"IFC is setting the record straight right away. Every
week we'll try to do a little more," Beatty said.
He said plans for the fall include the Inter-Fraternity
Council's working with the Panhellenic Council on its
hazing forum and visits to each fraternity house by the
assistant attorney general for the Undergraduate Student
Court to explain hazing.
Just as Howe and Campbell did, Beatty emphasized the
importance of the Greek system's reforming its own
pledge programs.
"Frats have to change now before someone comes in
and changes for them."
iaihj arlttol Informal Survey
From now on, the Focus page will run monthly, addressing
controversial issues and featuring student opinions gleaned
from informal DTH surveys. We would appreciate it if you
would take the time to fill out this survey, adding whatever
comments you wish. Please drop them off in the designated
box outside the Daily Tar Heel office. If we can contact you for
additional information, please leave your name and number.
Year
Major
should be prohibited?
a) yes
b) no
5)Why or why not?
1 ) Have you heard any part of 2 Live Crew's album As Nasty As
They Wanna Bel
a) yes
b) no
2) If so, do you find the lyrics offensive?
a) yes
b) no
3) If so, do you think it should be prohibited from being sold?
a) yes
b) no
4) Even if you haven't heard the album, do you think its sale
6) Do you think you can make a fair judgment without hearing the
lyrics?
a) yes
b) no
7) Why or why not?
8) What role do you think local, state or national government
should play in the censorship of musical lyrics?
9) Do you feel the same about censorship of literature and visual
arts? -
a) yes
b) no
10) Why or why not?
11) How do you think book banning affects or has affected your
education?
12) Do you think the government is within its rights to withhold
funding from art projects they deem obscene, explicit, etc.?
a) yes
b) no
13) Why or why not?
14) Do you think rating andor labeling albums constitutes cen
sorship? a) yes
b) no
15) Why or why not?
1 6) Do you think that labeling an album will have any effect on its
sales?
a) yes
b) no
17) Why or why not?
1 8) To what extent do you think artists and musicians should
be held accountable for controversial material?
19) Do you think censorship is a widespread problem?
a) yes
b) no
20) Do you think censorship is a larger problem in the South
than in other parts of the country?
a) yes
b) no
21) Why or why not?
22) Do you think censorship is acceptable in any degree? In
other words, is censorship ever necessary?
a) yes
b) no
23) Why or why not?
') Even if you haven't heard the album, do you think its sale ..m. .M