Editorial: Hazing worthy of colleges’ concern

According to a Sept. 18 article in The New York Times, the University of Binghamton — which is…According to a Sept. 18 article in The New York Times, the University of Binghamton — which is associated with the State University of New York system — was recently embroiled in a hazing scandal. The administration is reacting to a number of hazing complaints received last spring from students, concerned parents and alumni who describe hazing incidents as being widespread in several of the college’s official and unofficial Greek organizations.

Some students wrote anonymous emails to the university to describe hazing rituals that involved being forced to eat bizarre combinations of food designed to make them throw up, being forced to walk or crawl on rocks and being forced to complete strenuous physical exercises. Last spring, the university suspended all fraternities’ and sororities’ ability to take new members. According to a letter written by the dean of students at Binghamton, the university has now allowed most of the organizations to resume normal functioning, with more administrative supervision, support and restrictions. For example, first-semester freshmen are currently not allowed to join Greek organizations.

We support this university’s decision to take a strong stance against hazing. Too often, unfortunately, hazing is implicit in college organizations — especially Greek organizations, but also on athletic teams and marching bands.

Hazing should not be tolerated by anyone in university communities. It doesn’t increase group solidarity or character development in a healthy way, and people should not be forced to push themselves to or past their physical or emotional limits to participate in any extracurricular activity.

An increase in personal accountability could cut down on hazing in college Greek organizations. Students in these organizations must be responsible for their actions and the way they treat others. We understand that Greek organizations’ new-member periods are times to form close relationships and have common experiences. However, it is unacceptable for an older member of an organization to create a climate of negativity or fear.

Also, the presence of alcohol in Greek organizations should be carefully considered as a contributing factor to hazing.  While hazing can occur without the presence of alcohol, many incidents of hazing involve either the forced consumption of alcohol or ritualized drinking. According to a Cornell anti-hazing website, the use of alcohol in events can put new members at physical risk, when they are forced or socially pressured to drink, or make them more vulnerable to risks because their judgment is impaired. Additionally, according to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s hazing awareness site, when members are intoxicated, they often subject new members to more brutality than originally intended. It’s common knowledge that Greek organizations are rife with underage drinking; taking a stronger stance on this issue could help to prevent hazing.

College administrations should stop turning a blind eye to the presence of hazing. While we believe that the University of Binghamton’s administration has done well in its efforts to more strictly monitor Greek organizations and increase hazing education amongst students, the unfortunate fact is that most college administrations only step up their efforts to curb hazing after one or several students have been involved in risky situations. We believe that college administrations should be consistently proactive in their efforts to stop hazing: They cannot wait until they receive many anonymous tips from concerned parents and students like Binghamton unfortunately did.

Additionally, many people have written to anti-hazing organizations to defend the practice of hazing.  In their arguments, they often say that hazing is a choice that pledges willingly participate in. Some also argue that some hazing can be beneficial, as long as it does not put people at real physical risk. We believe that this belief — which seems to be unfortunately widespread — is woefully misinformed and undermines the peer pressure and coercion that undeniably accompanies hazing. In fact, in states that have laws against hazing, a victim’s consent is not considered valid. People are unable to give true consent to being hazed because they are often not given full information about activities; in addition, the force of peer pressure or threats is too strong for consent to be valid. Also, “some hazing” can easily turn into an experience that is physically or psychologically damaging for those who go through it.

While Binghamton has taken several strong steps to remediate the hazing problem on its campus, we believe that everyone in a university community should be educated and proactive about the prevention of hazing. Universities should more strongly publicize the signs of the issue and establish hotlines where students can anonymously report incidents of hazing.