As rush week begins, sororities and fraternities are busy getting their organizations ready for a new wave of pledges, but the preconceived notion of hazing still lingers.
According to the Keene State College Student Handbook, hazing is “any public or private inducement that causes a prospective or current member of any student organization, team, or club mental or physical humiliation, harm, embarrassment, or ridicule, or has a profound negative impact on a student’s academic, social, or work-related function.”
Brian Cantore/ Photo Editor Greek Life leaders say pledging promotes bonding rather than puts students in uncomfortable situations.
Director of Student Involvement, Jennifer Ferrell, said this means that hazing can happen anywhere within any organization, and it is not a Greek-specific problem. Some forms of hazing, according to the KSC Student Handbook, include paddling, hitting, nudity, forced consumption of drugs or alcohol, and many others.
According to some alumni from Dartmouth College, hazing has been included in the pledging of some sororities or fraternities.
Ravital Segal, a Dartmouth alum and sister of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, said she was hazed, according to an editorial published by the Huffington Post in spring 2012. She talked about how she had entered the hospital with a 0.399 blood alcohol content because she was made, by her sorority, to drink massive amounts of alcohol. According to her doctor, 0.4 blood alcohol content leads to coma and/or death.
Segal had come forward with her story because of a fellow alum from Dartmouth College, Andrew Lohse, who was also hazed by his fraternity. He put his story out in an op-ed in his school newspaper, The Dartmouth. His story has been featured in Rolling Stones magazine and in the Huffington Post. Lohse said that his fraternity would make him eat omelettes made with vomit; chug cups of vinegar; swim in a kiddie pool full of vomit, and other hazing techniques.
Many may question why Lohse would agree to be part of such activities. Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram provided an answer in the 1960s. He did a number of experiments using a shock system studying the psyche and its connection to obedience in males. According to Simply Psychology website, the result of the studies was, “Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure.”
According to Ferrell, no hazing accounts have happened at KSC in the past five years.
Senior Kenneth Faria, President of Sigma Pi said, “We have a zero tolerance policy for hazing—Sigma Pi does not haze whatsoever.”
Faria joined Sigma Pi in the fall of 2012. He said he had always wanted to join a fraternity, but did not like the fraternities at KSC until he met some people from Sigma Pi.
According to Faria, the bi-laws of the fraternity’s handbook bans hazing.
Faria expressed that he thinks Greek Life is too separate from the college and it’s part of the reason people still have preconceived notions about hazing.
“You’re always afraid of the unknown,” senior Laura Richards, president of Phi Sigma Sigma, said about hazing, “We don’t put our girls in situations that would make them uncomfortable.” According to Richards, the new member process focuses on bonding and creating relationships with the sisters. Richards said the sorority does not participate in any hazing techniques.
Junior Steven Mignano joined the fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), the spring semester of his freshman year. Mignano is the Historian of the fraternity. According to Mignano, he is a communicator between the fraternity and the alumni board for the chapter.
Mignano said that hazing does not happen in TKE. “Honestly, hazing is a thing of the past,” Mignano said, “You can’t get away with it anymore.” Mignano added that with social media being prominent, it is easy to take out a camera or a phone and take a picture or video.
According to Ferrell, there is a process if someone were to come forward and make allegations about hazing. Campus Safety and the Vice President of Student Affairs would be involved. If it became a legal issue, Ferrell said, it would be time to include the Keene Police Department. If hazing were to occur on campus, Ferrell said, the organization’s recognition from the college could be deleted, and the national organization would be notified and the charter could be pulled. “I love it here because there’s no negative breakdown among the pledges. It’s all positive build up, which is great,” TKE Mignano said.
Rebecca Marsh can be contacted at rmarsh@keene-equinox.com