Hazing is a cruel way of letting someone into a fraternity. Most fraternities and sororities have been built on outdated values and encourage thinking that shouldn't have a place in our society. Hazing has been defined as any action or situation which recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical safety of a student. Hazing can result in injuries or death, and it also promotes underage drinking. One estimate states that a minimum of sixty-five students have died between the years of 1978 and 1996 from being involved in ridiculous rituals. More recently on February 4, 2017, the death of 19-year-old student Timothy Piazza during a pledge event at Penn State's Beta Theta Pi fraternity happened. Maxwell Gruver, 18, at Louisiana …show more content…
Not only is this possibly physically hurting someone but also could be potentially hurting them mentally as well. Teaching someone young these wrong morals will corrupt them from knowing right from wrong, younger students look up to their older peers for answers and guidance. “For young people, the desire to belong can be so strong that mental or physical abuse seems a tolerable price for admission. For those on the inside, group loyalty and a power differential between old and aspiring members can trump the impulse to resist or report bad behavior, Susan H. Murphy and David J. Skorton (1)”. Uniqueness is an attribute incoming freshman want to have, and there is nothing that great about joining a group that everyone can join and there is nothing to feel proud of if there was no easy way for an accomplishment. Without a hazing process, your membership would be the same thing as getting a participation trophy. If hazing is how we teach respect and love, should individuals haze people they love too? How many things can they do for us until it will convince us that they love us? Maybe having them drink something dangerous until they get sick will make us like them more. Whether it is marriage or brotherhood, lifelong relationship don’t have qualities of hurting others or wanting to. Why do we think hazing is right in one case and wrong in the …show more content…
It occurs across a wide spectrum of organizations including military units, performing arts groups, religious groups, and other types of clubs and organizations. Hazing occurs in high schools as well as on college campuses, BabsonCollegeEdu. (1)”. More awareness should be brought upon hazing in order to make a change. Other than law enforcement fraternities and sororities should be monitored more closely by authorities. Some colleges already have random checks and searches which should be enforced throughout all colleges. Hazing should be viewed more than a minor issue or mistake for the sake of young lives being taken away from bad leadership. Older peers should be protecting not hurting. While holding new members accountable is important, there are effective ways to do so without hazing. Effective parents, teachers, and bosses all know ways to hold others responsible without humiliating, degrading or physically hurting them. Hazing is just as bad as bullying which has a zero tolerance at almost every school or facility. Kids who are hazed can experience negative physical, school, and mental health issues. People who do the hazing can also engage in violent and other risky behaviors into adulthood. Bullying can lead to suicide and hazing in a way also leads to suicide
Walking around a university’s campus any day of the week, one sees an array of Greek letters worn proudly by young men and women in the Greek system. Fraternities and sororities play a big part in a university. The Greek system can also be an easy target to direct criticism. There are those who oppose the Greek system and those who embrace it. Evan Wright opposes the Greek system in his article “Sister Act” that was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. He uses examples from students at Ohio State University in Columbus to show his disapproval of the way sororities are now days. He portrays sorority girls as catty conformists who are obsessed with partying with fraternity guys. Evan Wright’s insubstantial claim is full of half-truths in reference to alcohol consumption, conformity, and the purpose of sororities; therefore, his critical position that sororities are corrupt is not credible.
Since 1843 there has over 200 cited college hazing deaths. Fraternities are responsible for the overwhelming majority of those deaths. That is not to say that sororities
Hazing is defined as “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.” (Rosner & Crow, p. ). While most states have enacted anti-hazing legislation criminalizing the act of hazing, the application of these statutes is still quite rare. Id. at 277. Most lawsuits filed for reported hazing incidents are still reviewed under federal law claims ...
If fraternities and sororities are as positive as their members present them to be, why are fraternities and sororities mandating horrible things to innocent students? The truth is that many students know that fraternities and sororities are the wrong choice for the college and university atmosphere; however, they decline to reveal the truth in order to cover up this escape route from academics to civil disobedience. Among the many non-respectable rituals and ceremonies performed by these organizations, hazing is the number one reason why a number of students have turned their backs the other way.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Popular types of hazing include forced alcohol consumption, humiliation, running gauntlets, and forced sexual activity. While hazing through groupthink happens within many avenues, the focal point will be college campuses across America. The perplexing reality is that college fraternities haze new members in various forms of condoned behavior where if found in another setting would be considered criminal.
Greek Life, or the presence of fraternities and sororities, exists in many colleges and universities. According to Michael Grandillo in an Encyclopedia article, “there are more than 5,500 chapters on 800 campuses throughout the United States and Canada.” Although Greek Life is so common, participation in such organizations can be a controversial topic, particularly when critics suggest that hazing can be detrimental to students' health and college careers. For those who do not know much about Greek Life, or the process that one goes through to become affiliated with this system, there is first a week called “rush week,” where fraternities and sororities host parties in attempt to cajole students into joining their organizations. If members of a fraternity or sorority like a particular student, they will vote to give that student a “bid,” which gives that student the opportunity to pledge their organization. If the student accepts the bid, his pledge process will begin, which generally lasts between six to ten weeks. Assuming the student sticks it through, he will be admitted into organization and will be rewarded with the benefits of membership for the remainder of his life. Despite the fact that some Greek organizations engage in intense hazing practices that may result in reduced grades for pledges, it is beneficial for students to participate in Greek Life because organizations force students to create strong bonds among one another while learning important lessons, they prepare students for their future careers, and they provide students with great networking opportunities.
Hazing has been around forever. However, up until the last few decades, it was never taken too seriously. Now there are serious cases where death has even occurred. Hazing is something that we need to define, so that we can properly punish the people who commit some of these crimes. Some of the cases throughout recent years prove that hazing can be a serious criminal action, and also punishable by law. The effects that hazing can cause on a person, and a community are numerous. This information is backed up through facts that will support these claims. Luckily, there is ways that hazing can be decreased and possibly prevented entirely. Hazing needs to be taken more seriously
There have been many revolutions throughout history, such as The French Revolution where the unsatisfied wealthy commoners fought for equality and rights against the government. The ideas that the rebellious groups fought for came from an intellectual and philosophical movement during the 1700s called the Enlightenment. During the Enlightenment, the way a perfect government should function changed from an absolute monarch, to separated and equal governing powers, and that people must tolerate religious skepticism such as deism and/or secularity because all people deserve the right to say and believe whatever they want. Even though there are other factors, the three biggest and most common factors that cause revolutions are inequality, economic ruin, and a disapproved
Hazing in universities across the nation has become a common tradition that develops mostly in Greek organizations. Hazing is seen in many different social groups such as schools, military units, sport teams, fraternities, and sororities. Prohibited by law for unnecessary reasons; hazing is a way to grow with friends in a closer way than independent students will ever have the chance to. Every year there are thousands of teenagers that pledge for a fraternity knowing of the possible chance of being hazed. People that join fraternities join for a sense of belonging and to meet people with similar interests. Trying to fit into a new college campus can be hard for a person to do. Almost every group pressures the new pledges to participate in hazing activities to create a sense of brotherhood. Hazing is a process that creates a sense of unity, also it teaches the one being hazed about himself and his brothers; being hazed into a group will help someone become a well-rounded person and will help them overcome struggles later in life.
According to Richardson and Shields (2015), a 2004 study showed that 72 percent of rape victims were intoxicated at the time of their assault. Another study found that an astounding 76 percent of males who committed a sexual assault on a college campus used alcohol to weaken a women’s objection in order to have sex with them. Alcohol can also intensify aggressive and antisocial behavior in males. On college and university campuses, it has been found that fraternity men and sorority women are more likely to use alcohol before having sex than non-fraternity and non-sorority members. Students that attend parties at fraternity or sorority houses often times are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Rees, Roger C. “Bullying and Hazing/initiation in Schools: How Sports and Physical Education Can Be Part of the Solution.” Journal of Physical Education New Zealand (2010): 24-27. Print.
I recently enlightened myself to an interesting incident in a small college in northern New York state which brought attention to a subject our country has cursed, loved and fretted about for years – that of hazing. Hazing is defined as:
Many pledges join sororities and fraternities in search of friendships that will last throughout life. However, quite a few young people get caught in life-threatening situations because they are not aware of the commitments to which they are swearing themselves. The idea behind joining a house is to form a relationship in which the members are one big family at heart, yet many sorority and fraternity members – while advocating status, popularity, and togetherness -- have betrayed the ideals of Greek life. Sororities and fraternities should stress bonding relationships among brothers and sisters, and not allow this idea to be neglected and abused by hazing. Plain and simple, hazing is an intentional action taken by active members to inflict physical and mental discomfort, harassment, and embarrassment upon future members of a house.
More than half of college students are involved in some form of campus hazing, 73% of students participating in social fraternities and sororities have experienced at least one hazing behavior, and since 1970, there has been at least one hazing-related college death each year. Hazing is defined as humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiation rituals, especially as imposed on college students seeking membership to a fraternity or sorority. Hazing is a serious crime with serious consequences for both the perpetrator and the victim. 46% of students in high school and college believe that the most important component of hazing is to keep the code of silence which is what leads to injuries and death. There are many fraternities throughout the United States such as Tau Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, etc. that are still active to this day even with their lists of allegations and crimes caused from
Stories of hazing incidents are all too common in the news media today. It would not be out of the ordinary, upon opening the newspaper, to read the testimony of some fraternity pledges "'We were taken to a deserted park and blindfolded...We sat on our knees for an hour. Then they began slapping us on the back of our necks, real hard, and then they started pouring hot wax down our back'" (Milloy CL). Also, an article stating that "...A sophomore at Alfred University in New York was locked in a car trunk with two others and told to drink a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, wine and a six-pack of beer, one wintry night in 1978. He died of alcohol poisoning and exposure" (O'Connor 32). Fraternities are getting away with hazing practices, every single day. If a stranger did this to a civilian, they would automatically be arrested and imprisoned.