Illustration by Arnulfo Bermudez
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday March 5, 2003
One week ago, more than 300 members of the UA greek community met to listen to Risk Management and hazing specialist Ron Binder speak at the New Member Symposium. The Arizona Collegiate Leadership Conference over the weekend attracted 700 students.
Nearly a quarter of them were from the greek community who attended to learn how to combat hazing.
In the past year, three UA fraternities have allegedly engaged in hazing incidents ÷ Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Chi and Delta Chi.
Does hazing play an integral role in a campus community? Should hazing be a concern and should Dean of Students Melissa Vito be expected to step in?
Hazing plays a vital role in greek system
Hazing is like any other controversial activity that people are all too quick to vilify. The truth is, if done so in moderation, hazing can serve a useful purpose in the university greek system.
The purpose of hazing is to break down an individual's self-confidence and then slowly rebuild it. The reason behind this is to instill in the hazed person the importance of teamwork. He is, after all, joining a group that he may need to depend on over the next few years.
The concept of hazing is not new to the world. If you ever played on an organized sports team, or if you ever went through basic training in the military, then you've experienced hazing. It may be called something else, but the concept remains the same: Create a unity and dependency among the group with which you are associating.
An excessive amount of hazing should never be socially accepted. The majority of hazing, however, is harmless. Driving at an excessive speed is not socially accepted either, but does that mean driving should be outlawed altogether?
Steve Campbell is a senior majoring in Spanish. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Let boys be boys and frat boys be idiots
Ah, the wonder of the fraternity: the only place on earth where one's reckless, desperate attempts to buy friends with money, alcohol and astonishing feats of self-loathing could be confused for machismo.
We're supposed to believe hazing is a problem? Why? It keeps the intelligent out and the stupid in fraternities that haze; think of it as a self-enforcing quarantine. Those willing to pound a Pepto-Bismol and Coors milkshake for the privilege of plastering themselves with the Greek alphabet and knocking fists with their bros have my blessing. Those who opt out can take pride in the fact that they have brains.
As for the dean of students, it's not the zookeeper's job to keep the monkeys from throwing feces at one another. So let the new recruits get shit-faced in peace. Pledges are, with few exceptions, adults ÷ at least in the legal sense ÷ and as such are responsible for making their own decisions. Any genuine problem should be handled by the police. The rest is a matter of personal choice ÷ the choice between self-respect and paddle-scored buttocks.
In a system of voluntary participation, everyone gets what they deserve.
Caitlin Hall is a biochemistry and philosophy sophomore. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Sanctions on hazing should be sufficient enough to prevent further infractions
Hazing is specifically the breed of ritual that needs monitoring; otherwise, it can get out of control in a hurry. The dean of students should deal with hazing infractions with harshly enforced sanctions, occluding future infringements from being committed.
Or, at least minimize any future breaches.
However, fraternities and sororities are self-governed organizations that should be sufficiently responsible in taking primary actions against violations. These organizations are meant to stand for the positive aspects of society, helping members grow and succeed both on campus and for the rest of their lives. Shaping successful individuals and leaders does not include degradation or potential physical or mental harm.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with some good-natured buffoonery. In fact, young pledges often expect and are willing to go through some sort of induction ritual. Institutions seeking to use induction rituals should give pledges prior knowledge of what to expect, and then the individuals can decide if they want to continue with the process or not.
Anything crossing the line of physical and emotional abuse should be reported as hazing, thus subjecting the incident to investigation and possible sanctions.
Bill Wetzel is a creative writing and political science junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Greeks knew rules when they signed up
Despite the recent examples of anti-hazing enforcement being taken off the edge of the earth, hazing remains a serious problem that the university must address. There is no excuse for any organization to engage in hazing activities of any kind, and if that organization is affiliated with the university, the dean of students has a responsibility to take an active role in stopping the hazing activities.
The university's hazing policy is not unreasonable, and no one should argue against prohibiting acts that "contribute to a substantial risk of potential physical injury, mental harm or degradation, or causes physical injury, mental harm or personal degradation."
The organizations that tie themselves to the university and sign codes of conduct that bar them from hazing activities know what they are getting into when they sign those agreements. If fraternities want to be party clubs and have hazing for new rushers, they shouldn't try to put on a face of community service and agree to rules they have no intention of following.
Since all of the fraternities have not been punished for hazing, obviously some of them do follow the rules. Those who don't deserve to face the consequences.
Kendrick Wilson is a political science sophomore. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Dean should stop brawls, not food fights
Undergrads who have interests in common are free to fraternize as they choose. And, as pitiful as it is, if the thing that turns them on most is giving up their own minds and independence to a group of culture clones whose initiation rituals humiliate them in front of their "friends," then no one should stop them.
But violence is another matter. In a free society, which is the only appropriate model for a public school, no one can ask a free man or woman to receive punches, spankings or worse ÷ not even someone who claims to be a brother or sister.
The Dean of Students Office must know its place: to protect the intellectual freedom of UA students by stopping any bullies who initiate force against them under any circumstances. The dean has the authority to suspend, expel or incarcerate any individual who crosses that line.
But should the dean determine which organizations or sets of ideas are "politically correct," or which initiation rituals are in students' "best interests" and which aren't? Absolutely not.
Let conformity-lusting, brain-dead automatons slather ravioli with syrup and peanut butter all over their post-pubescent bodies while chanting, "These people really like me," for all I care.
But make sure the dean is there when their "buddies" start to hurt them.
Erik Flesch is a geosciences junior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
Initiation rituals outside of greek life can be much harsher, serve practical purposes
Buttery ravioli ÷ is that all? UA fraternity members should count their blessings ÷ things could be a whole lot worse. In some traditional Australian cultures, for instance, teenage boys become men only after several of their teeth are ceremonially knocked out. In others, the initiation to manhood culminates in circumcision with a jagged stone knife.
Similar examples are found around the world ÷ in a host of cultures, initiates to manhood endure ritual beatings, days of fasting and so on. So what's the difference? What makes these initiations acceptable to the cultures that practice them, while most of us recoil automatically from even the slightest evidence of fraternity hazing?
Perhaps it has something to do with attitude ÷ with few exceptions, these rites are accompanied by solemnity and dignity. Even more importantly, the societies of adult males into which young Zunis or Masai or Zulus are initiated hold key responsibilities in their communities ÷ they conduct important ceremonies, educate the young or defend the people from attack.
The contrast is obvious ÷ while Americans in the greek system claim to teach "leadership" and "community service," an overwhelming body of anecdotal and legal evidence suggests that fraternities are still little more than expensive social clubs dedicated to booze and the possibility of "hooking up." Perhaps frats need to either grow up or leave the initiating to real men.
Phil Leckman is an anthropology graduate student. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
