![]() Success is hard to gauge, but campus officials report some progress, whether signaled by increased reporting, greater traction of alternative activities, or students’ challenging the psychology of hazing. ![]() ![]() But bringing problems out into the open and promoting confidential reporting have helped lift the veil of secrecy that perpetuates abusive behavior. With each tragedy - this year the death of 19-year-old Timothy Piazza at Pennsylvania State University - comes new pressure to do more to prevent similar crises.Ĭhange has been slow, in part because of the entrenched interests of tradition-bound alumni. Hazing is by no means restricted to fraternities, but the combination of free-flowing alcohol, an unequal power dynamic between members and pledges, and decades of tradition can create breeding grounds for abuse. At least one student dies from hazing every year, according to Hank Nuwer, a professor of journalism at Franklin College who has studied the issue. So how can colleges keep students safe? For all the efforts to rein in fraternities, problems associated with recruitment and initiation seem intractable nationally. Meanwhile, the chapter can continue to recruit new members and hold social events because it is still recognized by the national fraternity and has its own house. Members threatened retaliation for telling anyone what happened, pledges said, but word got out, the university investigated, and it revoked the chapter’s status as a recognized campus group for at least a year. Out of those discussions, Alpha Sigma Phi proposed puzzle night.īut the event, in March, took a dangerous turn when members pressured pledges to get drunk, blindfolded them, and marched them down a hallway, where one was reportedlyshoved into a pillar and seriously injured. As part of a national consortium, the university worked with StopHazing for three years on prevention, adopting strategies like encouraging team building and challenging the power dynamics that can lead to abusive behavior. Puzzle night for new members was presented by Alpha Sigma Phi at the University of Arizona as a bonding experience, a wholesome alternative to the brutal ordeals that define this rite of passage for so many fraternity pledges.Īrizona is widely seen as a leader in combating hazing. As the university has taken more control over fraternities’ practices, activities like this are meant to replace more-dangerous pledging traditions. Reprinted from The Chronicle of Higher Education. ALPHA DELTA PHI IN THE NEWS Colleges Confront the Perils of Frats
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