Mizzou sorority hazes for blood drive

There’s a lot of bad blood going around at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Gamma Phi… There’s a lot of bad blood going around at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Gamma Phi Beta, a sorority there, apparently sent an e-mail to its members concerning an upcoming, competitive blood drive, urging its members to lie about their health in order to win.

“I dont [sic] care if you got a tattoo last week LIE. I don’t care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent peircings? LIE. Even if youre going to use the Do Not Use My Blood sticker, GIVE ANYWAY,” wrote Christie Key, the chapter’s blood donation coordinator, according to an Associated Press report.

Perhaps even more disturbingly, Key also wrote that, “Punishment for not giving blood is going to be quite severe.” So unless the Gamma Phi Beta members bellied up to the blood bar, they would be penalized — perhaps harshly enough to draw blood.

At Pitt, we know a little something about hazily defined hazing policies. Jack Daniel, we’re looking in your general direction. But this is a clear-cut example of hazing.

Mizzou’s anti-hazing law clearly states that, “Hazing is … any action or situation created, whether on or off university premises, which might reasonably be expected to result in mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment or ridicule.”

Key created a situation that was expected to result in discomfort for people who didn’t comply. Her e-mail should be example No. 1 of what not to do in the “How to not haze” handbook. And her threats went beyond the usual hazing fare. Instead of public humiliation or the voluntary construction of beer pong tables, Key’s comments border on abusive coercion.

Obviously, Mizzou is going to investigate. More than that, though, Gamma Phi Beta needs to clean house. Key should be booted from the sorority, and whoever leaked the e-mail to the local press — if she is a member of the sorority — should be rewarded.

Moreover, Gamma Phi Beta should make reparations to the American Red Cross, which ran the drive. The Red Cross discourages people who have recent piercings or tattoos, or have been sick, from donating. Now all the blood collected there should be under suspicion.

What Key did was against the goal of the drive. Instead of helping sick people, she created a situation that will take time, and sensitivity from the sorority.

For now, Gamma Phi Beta should take out ads of apology in the Mizzou independent student newspaper, The Maneater, which recently ran a vanity story on how the Greek blood drive exceeded its goal. Nothing says, “We’re sorry” like increased ad revenue.