Nationwide Crackdown on Hazing

Colleges targeting hazing

Frat guys aren't the only group of college students getting caught hazing, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

Chi Beta Epsilon sorority at Trinity University was recently suspended by their national organization after, as the newspaper reported, pledges were forced to wear blacked-out goggles while traveling to retreats and ugly "pledge boots" passed down from older members. Some girls then posted pictures on Facebook that caught the attention of faculty.

"There is no such thing as a little bit of good hazing," said Peter Smithhisler, vice president of the North-American Interfraternity Conference.

The newspaper also reported that police charged three students at Texas State University earlier this month with public intoxication or driving while intoxicated after their pickup was swept into the Blanco River following a toga party at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house. No one was hurt, but the chapter was suspended pending an investigation by the university and alumni board.

The article also mentioned several other hazing incident that made headlines in the past few years. Some of those are as follows.

University of Texas San Antonio and St. Mary's University suspended several fraternities over the last couple years for making pledges do calisthenics, and screaming at them.

At Miami University of Ohio, Phi Gamma Delta was suspended for dropping pledges off in a local wooded park this winter. Miami of Ohio has also in the last two years, suspended a sorority for making pledges do wall sits for an extended time, and suspended a fraternity for making pledges wake up in the middle of the night to clean and other chores, and forced them to eat disgusting food.

North Carolina State University suspended a fraternity for having the pledges run naked through fraternity and sorority houses.

Tulane University in New Orleans, a fraternity had a pledge wear a diaper during a party.

The Spurs, a local sorority at Trinity University, used to have pledges walk through the men's dorm and chant: "We must, we must, we must increase our bust."

The Triniteers, a local fraternity at Trinity University, dressed a Jewish pledge in a Nazi uniform several years ago.

While Greek organizations are being persecuted regularly for alleged hazing violations, some people are beginning to stick up for fraternities traditions.

Gage Paine, vice president for student affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio said "I sat and listened to a student say to me that his membership in his fraternity would not mean as much as his father's did because he would not have to go through as tough a hazing program, and it was all my fault."

Alex Massad, a junior at Trinity University shared his opinion of hazing, which echoed the sentiment of much of the Greek community;

"Hazing always has the connotation of something bad, there is hazing and there are traditional rituals. When you put people through something together, it builds a brotherhood or a bond."