Hazing still causing controversy on campuses
By J. Samuel Cook-Dormoh
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News
Merwin Brown, 28, of Hattiesburg, Miss., a member of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., said that he believes hazing will always exist in fraternities and sororities. While many Greeks claim that "hazing" and "pledging" are synonymous, Brown disagrees.
"I feel like if you pledge an organization then there is a membership intake process," he said. "But it's a membership intake process designed as a learning process more than it is with hazing being about physical punishment for not learning the things that are essential to the organization."
While Brown doesn't believe the intake programs have failed, he does believe that the membership has.
"I don't think that [membership intake programs] have failed, but I think some of the members of the organizations have failed to uphold them," he said. "I feel like there is always going to be some degree of hazing. That's almost something that you almost can't get around. For every good person in the organization trying to uphold it, there are going to be people who are going to try to slide certain things through the cracks."
Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College and author of the book "Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs, and Challenges of Black Fraternities and Sororities," says pledging and hazing represent poor values.
"Students place such value on pledging, even though the rules prohibit it, that they punish students who actually follow the rules," Kimbrough wrote in a 2004 article in Black Issues in Higher Education.
Forty-four states have anti-hazing laws which are punishable by stiff fines and jail sentences with the exceptions of Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Hazing was officially eliminated as a means of initiation among black Greek organizations after the death of a student pledging Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at Morehouse College in 1990.
The National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body for black fraternities and sororities, instituted membership intake programs as a means of fraternity or sorority admissions, but. numerous underground hazing incidents have caused some critics to question the efficacy of intake programs.
"I feel like if you pledge an organization then there is a membership intake process," he said. "But it's a membership intake process designed as a learning process more than it is with hazing being about physical punishment for not learning the things that are essential to the organization."
While Brown doesn't believe the intake programs have failed, he does believe that the membership has.
"I don't think that [membership intake programs] have failed, but I think some of the members of the organizations have failed to uphold them," he said. "I feel like there is always going to be some degree of hazing. That's almost something that you almost can't get around. For every good person in the organization trying to uphold it, there are going to be people who are going to try to slide certain things through the cracks."
Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College and author of the book "Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs, and Challenges of Black Fraternities and Sororities," says pledging and hazing represent poor values.
"Students place such value on pledging, even though the rules prohibit it, that they punish students who actually follow the rules," Kimbrough wrote in a 2004 article in Black Issues in Higher Education.
Forty-four states have anti-hazing laws which are punishable by stiff fines and jail sentences with the exceptions of Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Hazing was officially eliminated as a means of initiation among black Greek organizations after the death of a student pledging Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at Morehouse College in 1990.
The National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body for black fraternities and sororities, instituted membership intake programs as a means of fraternity or sorority admissions, but. numerous underground hazing incidents have caused some critics to question the efficacy of intake programs.
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