At every university orientation, they talk about Greek life and the many opportunities that come with it. The girls mention their philanthropies and all the people they've helped, the guys talk about the brotherhood and try not to mention the parties they throw.
And at every orientation, students are reminded that hazing is prohibited on campus and is a serious offense. The FSU Hazing Education Initiative has this statement on their website:
FSU Belief Statement: We believe no student should be harmed, demeaned, and/or put at any safety risk while joining, during membership, or after membership of any student organization, club, group, or university entity. Hazing is defined as any group or individual action or activity that endangers the mental or physical health or safety or which may demean, disgrace, or degrade any person, regardless of location, intent, or consent of participant(s).
An assistant dean went as far as to give examples of hazing which many people don't even think of until after the fact. He stated that acting as someone's servant, maid, or personal assistant is hazing. Having to forcibly drink alcohol past the point of being coherent is hazing, and that also includes making someone drink even if they're underage and agreeing to drink.
So what does this mean for Greek life? It means that all of the wild stories you've heard are all hazing acts. Yes, that's right. Every single uncomfortable, cringy and dangerous story you've heard through the grapevine are all prohibited at the university.
Greek life, with all of its connections and philanthropies and date functions, has actually suffered quite a blow over the past few years. FSU Greek life was suspended for some time because of the death of a fraternity pledge at Pi Kappa Phi, Andrew Coffey, as well as the trafficking of cocaine by another fraternity member, Garett John Marcy of Phi Delta Theta.
But it isn't just FSU. Schools all across the nation are having issues with Greek life and have had these ongoing issues for many years now. Numerous schools have lost students to the hazing rituals for initiation into different fraternities and sororities. There has been at least one hazing death per year since 1959, according to Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at Franklin College in Indiana.
Alcohol poisoning seems to be a common cause of death for those lives lost due to hazing rituals. Samuel Mason, a pledge for Tau Kappa Epsilon at Radford University; David Bogenberger, a pledge for Phi Kappa Alpha at Northern Illinois University; George Desdunes, a pledge for Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Cornell University; Philip Dhanens, a pledge for Theta Chi at California State University, Fresno; Dalton Debrick, a pledge for Alpha Sigma Phi at Texas Tech University- these are only some of the students that died from too much alcohol consumption.
It isn't just forcing pledges to drink alcohol either. Rustam Nizamutdinov, a non-Greek student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, was struck and killed by a car driven by a Kappa Sigma pledge, Michael Gallagher Jr. Allegedly, Gallagher was subjected to forced sleep deprivation, which caused him to fall asleep at the wheel and kill another student.
Armando Villa, a pledge for Pi Kappa Phi at California State University, Northridge, died from hyperthermia and dehydration after a hazing ritual where pledges were taken on an 18-mile hike in the Angeles National Forest, without sufficient water, and were forced to give up their phones, keys, and shoes.
Chun "Michael" Deng, a pledge for Pi Delta Psi at Baruch College, died from multiple traumatic brain injuries after being repeatedly tackled by other fraternity members during a hazing ritual called The Gauntlet.
Sororities are not to be excluded from the hazing madness either. Two pledges for Alpha Kappa Alpha at California State University, Los Angeles, Kristin High and Kenitha Saafir, were killed during a hazing ritual, requiring them to do hours of exercise, then walk backward into the ocean, at which point a giant wave swept the girls away and drowned them both.
Young Harris College, a private college in Georgia, has too many hazing issues to report, some too even stomach-churning to talk about.
At what point do the presidents of each college and university stop and think, "Maybe this is a problem"? Is it after another student's life is lost because of some unnecessary "ritual?"
It's not to say Greek life should be irradiated entirely; the philanthropies do good and friendships are formed and all that other crap that you're told when you first start rushing. What needs to be done, however, is something to completely stop the unnecessary deaths. If suspensions need to keep happening for extended periods of time, or if fraternities and sororities should be further punished for the assaults, physical and emotional abuse, and deaths of their members, then so be it.
Greek life gets praised far too often, but we ignore all the ugliness that's hiding in plain sight. If you claim to be a school that does not tolerate hazing, then put your damn foot down and stop all of it.