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Enjoy Our Unofficial Anthems and Dance

Fratting Just A Little Too Hard or Not Hardly Fratty?

I think it is definitely the former and not the latter.
University of Georgia and Mr. Super Dawg, we salute you!
Not For Four Years but For Life

Fratting Just A Little Too Hard or Not Hardly Fratty?

Down year for the Vols but we still love Smokey the hound and Rocky Top.
But we don't necessarily approve of the following message, and we're not overly enthused about those delivering it. -NFFY

Fratty Talk

Yes it's Dartmouth but this entry could apply to any school where fraternities play a large part of social life. Keeping up the level of discourse, something to think about.- NFFY

Think back to all the time you spent learning SAT vocabulary during your sophomore and junior years of high school. You still remember the definitions of words like “timorous” and “torpor”. They found their way into use in real life, first deliberate, perhaps forced and then slipping easily and appropriately into conversation sometime around frosh year. After you've settled in, the only place that they now seem appropriate is in a paper written to wow a Writing 5 professor or in your senior thesis, or in any of the papers that come in between. This is still Dartmouth.

On the other hand, just as those words have vacated the crevasses of daily speech part of your brain, other words have entered to take their place. These words are a little easier to understand and don’t challenge you or stress you in the same ways that the SAT vocabulary did. Include here words and phrases such as “boot,” “soil,” “throw save” and “pull the trigger.”

By all means, I appreciate the use of these tasteful words in the appropriate context. When one has had too much to drink and is feeling like he or she might be sick on the walk home, yes, it is only fitting to “pull the trigger and boot.” I even appreciate overhearing these words in hushed tones at the Hop the next morning.

I just don’t appreciate it when they take on such a frequency and lack of variety that interactions become almost standard and go by without any mental effort or presence. We'll be carrying our fratty collegiate slang for life, even when our children look at it as a sign of how stale and dated we are, so we should practice mixing it in with intelligent conversation, not using it to replace intelligent conversation.

“Hey bro, what’s the line like?”

“Two or three. Here, you want a beer in the meantime?” This is just one snapshot of an interaction.

I have a theory on how we all got so dumbed down in terms of language. We came to Dartmouth, and from the moment we were introduced to the fraternity scene, we observed ultra-fratty behavior from the upperclassmen. We started incorporating fratty vocabulary into our own lexicon to be ironic and mock the guy "who was booting his face off last night.” And we thought we were funny, and above it.

And then October came. And then November. And we were still making the same jokes, not realizing that, to an outside observer, those words and mundane topics had integrated themselves completely into our vocabulary. The jocular tone has entirely left our speech when we say, “I think I’m just going to hit up [insert fraternity] and black out.” Conversations that occur in basements carry over into our everyday lives.

It makes sense for different activities and mindsets to have different vocabulary sets associated with them.

But wouldn’t it be great if they didn’t have different intelligence levels tied to them? What if, in the basement, we used the variations in topics, sentence structure and word choice that we use in our papers?

Okay, so maybe that idea’s a little over the top. But still, we should stop treating fraternity houses like Vegas; they are not an oasis in the desert of rules and etiquette. This is not to say that we should just take the house out into the world, but rather put some of the real world in the house.

Go ahead. Talk about something interesting. I realize that there are four entire pong games to spectate and comment on. And by all means, if there is a throw save sink, then please comment. However, there are also other things to talk about; maybe even economics, policy, social issues, history? You can come up with your own topic of conversation. But barring that miraculous throw save, it wouldn’t kill you at least discuss a mix of pong and political theory.

A Decade Later, Fraternity Ban Fails/ Stumpos Raiders USC

Fraternities Go Underground to Defy College Ban

The students meet surreptitiously at a restaurant off campus or for drives in the countryside. The arrangements, one participant says, would never be made on a campus telephone.

They are outlaws. If the college finds out, they face suspension.

They are fraternity brothers.

Single-sex social organizations have been banned at Middlebury College, so the brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon have gone underground. No boisterous beer bashes with their Greek letters prominently displayed. Indeed, they are barred from using their own house. All they have are furtive meetings, and a will to keep the Dekes alive.

"My fraternity brothers have been my closest friends," said Michael, who graduated from Middlebury in May. "Most of my great times at Middlebury have been with Delta Kappa Epsilon and not Middlebury. It's a tradition that shouldn't die."

The Case Against Fraternities

Not everyone agrees. To some students and college administrators, fraternities are inherently sexist institutions associated with alcohol abuse and dangerous hazing requirements. Five of New England's most prestigious private colleges have banned fraternities outright.

At Middlebury, where fraternities led the college's social life for generations, a 1989 study concluded, the fraternity system was incompatible with student life at the liberal arts college.

College trustees voted unanimously in 1990 to ban single-sex social organizations. Students can belong to a fraternity, but cannot participate in any fraternity activity, even off campus on their own time.

Delta Kappa Epsilon alumni own a campus house that student members had used for parties; now, only alumni can use it. Students cannot go on the property.

It varies how harshly these colleges deal with fraternities. Some have a don't ask, don't tell policy. Don Wyatt, Middlebury's vice president for undergraduate affairs, said that anyone caught violating the rules faced immediate suspension.

'Totally Different Experience'

In response to the ban, some fraternities dissolved; others opted to admit women and became part of the college's new social house system.

Delta Kappa Epsilon refused. "We know men," said a national representative of Delta Kappa Epsilon. "We don't know women's issues. It would be a totally different experience."

The Dekes fought the ban in court, and lost.

This has not deterred the underground fraternities at Middlebury. Pockets of resistance seem familiar to neighboring New England colleges that have banned fraternities.

William R. Cotter, president of Colby College in Waterville, Me., which banned fraternities in 1984, said, "We expected there would be underground activity, and there was." But he added that the influence of the secret fraternities was waning.

Chris Mastrangelo, a Colby graduate, spent his undergraduate years as an underground member of Delta Kappa Epsilon there. He said there were now five fraternities and several sororities operating secretly at Colby.

"You find people in underground chapters who take their frats very seriously," Mr. Mastrangelo said. "In a school where you know you can potentially be expelled, you have to be dedicated."

At colleges where underground life is strong, fraternities have found ways to bring in new members and carry out secret initiation rituals.

Lives Ruled by Fear

Fearing expulsion, no member of Delta Kappa Epsilon who planned to return to Middlebury this year was willing to talk.

Nationally, fraternities are healthy. Jonathan Brant, executive vice president of the National Interfraternity Council said he did not regard the restrictions and bans as "a major threat to the fraternity world in general."

And fraternity supporters say the colleges underestimate their perseverance. At a football game last fall, a plane flew over Middlebury's stadium, towing a banner that read, "Deke Lives."

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Stumpos Raiders disbands

The group ceased all formal activities, such as holding parties, and then informed USC.

Published: Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Updated: Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Students suspected by USC administrators of being members of the Stumpos Raiders group said they disbanded and ceased all formal activities after the university threatened to suspend or expel anyone affiliated with the group, USC officials said. The question is whether they complied.

The group agreed in late September not to hold any formally organized parties, to drop new friends and to cut formal contact with their members, said Sean, a member speaking on behalf of the group who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"When they asked for specific limits, I declined to provide any because they simply need to cease all operations as an unrecognized group," Denzil Suite, assistant vice president of Student Affairs, wrote in an e-mail.

The notification of the disbandment was casual because "there was no formal group so there was no formal closing … it was like 'OK, we can't have parties'," Sean said.

Representatives from the group notified Panhellenic Council sororities and Interfraternity Council of their breakup, Sean said.

In an open letter published in the Daily Trojan Sept. 27, Michael L. Jackson, vice president for Student Affairs and enrollment services, wrote that student "participation in Stumpos Raiders, or any group that has been banned from the campus for cause, is grounds for suspension or expulsion from the university community."

Group concerns

The main concern with underground groups such as Stumpos Raiders is they are operating without the oversight that university-recognized organizations have, Suite said.

There have been rumors of serious misbehavior by some participants including a cocaine dealing but there is no report of the group coming under prosecution by legal authorities or university disciplinary action beyond the ban on continued activity.

Currently, members of the group "are afraid of suspension" because "they don't know the boundaries right now," Sean said.

Another concern is that the group of friends will be held accountable for individual behavior, he said.

The current Stumpos Raiders organization is not a formal group, but a large group of more than 50 friends, Sean said.

Most of the friends are USC students and alumni, but a few students from Loyola Marymount University and local junior colleges are also in the group, said Sean, an alumnus of LMU.

Also, many in the group grew up with each other or played high school sports together, Sean said.

The group also includes former Stumpos Raiders members from the formal group, which disbanded in January 2005, (after being, ahem, accused of various infractions.)

Jackson's open letter also said the underground group was running under the names of "RS Entertainment" and "Kappa Alpha Iota" or "KAI"

Sean said shirts were handed out at a past Stumpos Raiders party with the letters "KAI" on them, but he did not know why those specific letters were chosen for the shirts.

"RS Entertainment" is an event-coordinating company that is a branch of Real Sounds Entertainment, a consumer electronics company.

The recent informal group of Stumpos Raiders did not conduct fraternity operations such as collecting dues or paying for insurance, Sean said.

But they held parties whenever friends were willing to pitch in money, he said. About two or three parties were held since August and one of those possibly occurred during rush week, Sean said.

Members were unaware that they were doing anything wrong, Sean said.

Recruiting practices

Earlier in the fall, there were incidents of visible recruiting and also a fight involving members from the group and another IFC fraternity, IFC President John Ellis said.

No problems with the group have occurred since they disbanded, Ellis said.

"The initial problem I had in the fall with the unauthorized group was that they were causing trouble within IFC chapters," he said.

The group is not under the jurisdiction of the IFC because it is not affiliated.

Members from the group were on The Row recruiting on a fraternity house lawn while the fraternity was at an off-campus rush event, Ellis said.

"They were showing guys that they were another option, when they are not another option," Ellis said.

Members who were on The Row were only watching sororities perform porch songs and dance, not recruiting, Sean said.

The group never actively recruited students, he said.

Brandon Jones, president of his fraternity and last spring's rush chair, said some rushees told him last spring they attended Beta parties during rush week.

Members of the current group are still unfairly designated to be Stumpos Raiders or former Betas and therefore are seen in a negative light, Sean said.

The current group does not pose a threat, Jones said.

"I think most of our main problem is the potential for them to make our fraternities look bad" because students do not differentiate between disbanded and university-recognized fraternities, Jones said.

Greek notification

A representative from the group came to a Monday night dinner held Sept. 26 and notified many sororities, such as Kappa Alpha Theta, that Stumpos Raiders had disbanded.

A representative who came to the sorority house said there will be no more formally organized parties by the group and members of the former group should no longer be called Stumpos Raiders, said Lindsay Bowman, president of Kappa Alpha Theta.

The representative also said to not send deliveries to members of Stumpos Raiders, and members of Stumpos Raiders will not send deliveries to sororities, Bowman said.

Deliveries, which are gifts given during Monday night dinners, are informal and not limited to houses on The Row, PHC President Sheroum Kim said.

Ellis said he was notified of the disbanding by Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards, IFC adviser Suite and people he knew within the group.

IFC fraternity chapter presidents were also notified of the disbanding, Ellis said.

Background

A formal group, which operated between 2003 and January 2005, ran under the name "Stumpos Raiders of USC," had officers and collected dues from parents of Stumpos Raiders members, Sean said.

The group was started by the members of the disbanded and offshoot Beta Theta Pi fraternity who continued to have social events and philanthropies such as blood drives and beach cleanups, said Ryan Tuverson, a 2005 alumnus and a former Beta Theta Pi member.

The group did no active recruiting, but people came to members of Stumpos Raiders by word of mouth, Tuverson said.

In 1996, Beta Theta Pi was put under a three-year suspension following an incident where a fraternity member was hit in the head with a keg, said Ken Taylor, then-director of the Office of Residential and Greek Life. The chapter had been put under severe sanctions for two previous conduct violations a few years earlier, including limiting membership, Taylor said.

Beta Theta Pi was officially disbanded in 2003 by the national chapter because of university policy violations and national chapter rules, Suite said.

Active members registered with the national fraternity were given "early alumni status" in 2003, said Judson Horras, Beta Theta Pi's director of chapter services from the national organization.

But university officials confronted members of the disbanded fraternity about underground activities a year later, Suite said.

National chapter officials also confronted the group for illegal use of fraternity imagery and rituals, Suite said.

After the confrontations, the members wrote a contract in January 2005 stating they would cease all formal activities, Suite said. The contract did not specify the possible consequences if the contract was broken, Suite said.

The rechartered Beta Theta Pi on campus is not involved with the former rogue groups and independent groups that sprang from the fraternity in the last two decades.

Sing for Alma Mater

Above- songs used are in no particular order. We will include a lot of our favorites particularly from Nebraska, Illinois, Purdue in a Big 10 version, Rocky Top and some more of our SEC favorites and some of the Ivy League songs that often were the original versions of songs/music now used by lots of schools.

1. "Hail to the Victors" Michigan, the Champions of the West (penned when Michigan was the American West, and still champions).
2. "Hey Fightin' Tigers" not LSU's official Fight Song but we like it.
3. "Tribute to Troy" is used not "Fight On USC".
4. "Yea Alabama" It's Bama, how can you not include it.
5. "Buckeye Battle Cry" is used instead of "Across the Field".
6. "Fight for California" , Berkeley gets to be the champions of California again in this song at least.
7. Cut off version of "Tiger Rag" (see below).
8. "Notre Dame Victory March" is cut off because of a general distaste for ND and it's "no fraternity" policy and because that's the way it was on youtube.
9. "Glory Dixieland" Woof woof Uga, you imposter.
10. "Texas Fight" is cut off, sorry Bevo. Hook 'em!

Below- The Tiger Rag deserves special mention. The song, originally done as a New Orleans Dixie Land jazz number is used by a number of schools but most notably and vigorously at Clemson. At 0:20 when "where's that tiger...hold that tiger" kicks in there is not a fight song that can claim better, - it is truly the "Song that Rocks the Southland" as advertised. Clemson calls their team's entrance into their home stadium the most exciting 25 seconds in college football, which is awesome considering how the following two hours often play out for them.




Below, Southern California adds their martial, triumphant trio of songs- Fanfare, Tribute to Troy and Fight On! Each song seems to be to have been crafted at a nearby Hollywood movie studio as "archetype for all college songs."


Cornell's Give My Regards to Davy, unarguably the most fratty of any fight song ever. What isn't fratty at Cornell is this "anthem", below. Ivy League student-athletes my ass...

Fratricide or Discipline?

While it is clear that since their founding African American fraternities have had tremendous success in producing leaders and building communities, that legacy may be in jeopardy because of excesses in the pledging process.
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Fratricide: African American fraternities beating themselves to death? - includes related short piece on the National Pan-Hellenic Council (Pictures are links)

"They took him into a room and five members of the fraternity attacked him. They punched and kicked him. I asked if he ever got the urge to swing back and he said, `We can't.' He said."

This recollection comes from Felicia Taylor, the former girlfriend of Michael Davis who died in February of 1994 after being beaten to death while pledging Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at Southeast Missouri State University. (Left Alpha Phi Alpha 1959. All pictures are links.)

The day after this conversation, Davis collapsed after submitting to another beating at the hands of his fraternity brothers. Had they called an ambulance, he probably would have survived. Instead, they stopped to get some food at a Taco Bell directly across the street from a hospital, then drove the unconscious boy home and put him to bed. At 1:30 in the afternoon his roommate, another pledge, saw green foam coming from Michael's mouth. After finally calling 911, the fraternity brothers lied to the rescue workers by telling them that Michael had been injured playing football. After the police and ambulance left they tried to remove all fraternity-related evidence of the hazing from the apartment.

However, when the coroner removed Michael's clothing during the autopsy, he found a small red spiral notebook hidden in Michael's underwear -- a notebook Michael had on him the moment he died which contained the unintentionally ironic notation, "Hazing is the physical conditioning of the mind."

According to the office of the prosecuting attorney, Davis had "broken ribs, a lacerated kidney, a lacerated liver, and bruises all over his chest, neck, back and arms. He died from internal bleeding in his brain."

Four other pledges were badly bruised and sore from the continual beatings they had received over the week before Davis died. As a result, sixteen defendants were charged with hazing. Seven fraternity brothers also either pled guilty to or were convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Most of the seven served short jail sentences.

Although the criminal cases were concluded in 1994, the Davis family's civil suit was not resolved until recently when Kappa Alpha Psi agreed to pay $1.4 million dollars to settle the suit against the national organization and its officers. Members and faculty advisors of the local chapter where Davis pledged had previously settled for $850,000. All had known about the brutality.

Davis's death has made it very clear to fraternity officials, faculty advisors, and researchers across the country, that the beating of pledges continues to be a serious problem in Black fraternities. Other lawsuits involving charges of hazing demonstrate the ongoing threat that pledging poses to predominantly Black fraternities. For example:

* In March 1997, an Indiana jury found the national organization of Omega Psi Phi, the fraternity's chapter at Indiana University and several individuals who were members of the fraternity liable for $774,500 in damages in the February 1994 beating of former Indiana University student Kevin Nash, who was hospitalized for injuries he received while he was being pledged. Nash, who suffered from injuries to his kidneys, face, neck and chest, was paddled and hit with open fists and slaps to the body according to Nash's attorney.

* A former University of Georgia football player has sued the national organization of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, the fraternity's chapter and three individuals who were Phi Beta Sigma fraternity members at the University of Georgia for damages resulting from an alleged September 1996 hazing incident. Rod Perrymond, then a reserve running back on the football team, was treated at a hospital in Athens, Georgia, for bruises to his buttocks and torn blood vessels after he was allegedly paddled. The three fraternity members charged were arrested and pled guilty to hazing and battery charges, according to news reports.

Going Underground

Officially, the Black fraternities cracked down on hazing in 1990 in response to a death of a student who died while pledging Alpha Phi Alpha at Morehouse College. The boards of the Greek organizations belonging to the National Pan-Hellenic Council instituted the "New Member Intake Process." As a result, pledging by undergraduate members of fraternities and sororities was supposed to end altogether. The new process was intended to give national and regional fraternity and sorority officials control over the selection of new members.

While some officials believe that adoption of the process has minimized hazing, others believe that the risks for students joining predominantly Black fraternities have increased because pledging has gone underground.

According to Dr. Jason DeSousa, assistant vice-president for student affairs at Alabama State University and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, "The death of Michael Davis shows that the New Member intake Process has been a failure. We just didn't get enough students to buy into the new process at the chapter level. As a result, hazing has been driven underground where it becomes even more dangerous.

"Pledging and hazing are an ingrained part of the undergraduate subculture," DeSousa continues. "In the minds of many members, it makes the difference between being a `Real Kappa' and a `Paper Kappa.' We have situations where members who went through the new process have been beaten by other members and have had their Kappa shirts torn off their backs in public."

Dr. John A. Williams, director of the Academic Intervention Center at Tennessee State University, said he predicted in his 1992 doctoral dissertation on student perceptions of the New Member Intake Process that hazing would continue to plaque African-American fraternities.

"I said then [that continued hazing] was predictable because students never bought into the intake process. The organizations chose to ignore an underlying theme that students wanted a process with rites of passage," says Williams, who is also the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Pan-Hellenic Issues.

However, a number of campus administrators and fraternity officials say some progress has been achieved with the New Member Intake Process.

"I think the new intake process is a good idea," says Thomas Palmer, vice-president for student affairs at Fort Valley State University in Georgia and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

However, deans of students as well as fraternity officials have reported that they have had to discipline predominantly Black fraternity members and chapters for membership intake violations. Nevertheless, some say that the new intake processes have generated far more positive results than bad.

"I know that it's cut out a lot of bad activity," says Dorothy Huston, the vice-president for student affairs at Alabama A&M University who has had to suspend one fraternity and put another on probation for new member intake violations since last fall.

But some experts on fraternity life say that because pledging has gone underground, the violent traditions associated with predominantly Black fraternity rites have largely remained unchanged. Missouri attorney Douglas Richmond spent six years as a student affairs officer on two different campuses. Today, he makes his living defending insurance companies in lawsuits against fraternities.

"In my experience on campus and as a defense attorney it definitely seems like the Black fraternities are much more likely to physically assault their pledges, and to make them perform dangerous tasks" says Richmond. "In white frats you see a lot more forced consumption of alcohol or disgusting mixtures of foods, and more verbal abuse."

Richmond also noted that perhaps because the white frats seem to be more involved in alcohol abuse, they generate a far larger number of charges of date rape and other sexual complaints.

A Violent Tradition

"The number one problem with Black fraternities is violence," says Richmond. "The Black fraternity pledging always seems to involve violence that most white fraternities have long ago abandoned -- from branding to beating each other with open hands or fists and blunt objects."

In the case of physical beatings, which only involve potential members, college administrators are only likely to hear about the most extreme cases where a pledge dies or is permanently disabled. If a pledge survives and is "made," the beating usually becomes a badge of honor and is unlikely to be reported.

Richmond said that white frats used to beat their pledges a lot more often through the 1970s and 1980s. After a few lawsuits, however, the nationals put a lot of pressure on the chapters to end beatings.

"Unfortunately, that effort seems to have missed the predominantly Black fraternities," Richmond says.

From Elite to Inclusive

There are a variety of structural and psychological reasons why young men continue to make physical beatings a part of "crossing the burning” desert.

Tough hazing stems from military hazing from the first half of the twentieth century. Young men of all colors brought these practices back to campuses with them. Black soldiers were often more severely disciplined and this may be reflected in the intensity which hazing takes place in Pan Hellenic fraternities.

Distinguished young African American men willingly accepted the practices, perhaps as a way to solidify their differentiation from the larger body of African Americans, students or otherwise. Getting into college itself was so difficult that it set these men as a breed apart. For many years these fraternities drew from the most talented black college men- those with greatest prestige, whether that be better-off families, the academically gifted, the socially popular or stand out athletes. Indeed each black fraternity became associated with particular prestige factors.

Dr. Antonio McDaniel, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, believes however that Black fraternity hazing reflects a very profound problem in the way Black men have internalized society's treatment of themselves.

"As a people, we have a long history of being beaten and branded and enslaved. So it is simply a sign of extreme nihilism and alienation when we willingly submit to beating, branding and the paddle," McDaniel explains. "When you join gangs, they beat you. If you're supposed to be W.E.B. Dubois' Talented Tenth, show leadership in ways that do not remind us that we were slaves."

Older members from the black social elite proudly display their paddles and say that having had one broken over your backside is a point of pride. Even high profile members of these fraternities such as Andrew Young, David Dinkins, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan, Emmet Smith and Bill Cosby have made joking reference to the physical ordeals of their pledging process. This tradition can make the national's opposition to pledging and hazing come across more like a wink and a nod. As one Alpha official exclaimed, "I was on line for a whole year, now with this new intake process it's like we're just microwaving them."

The fraternities are faced with a conundrum. The faster someone comes into the fraternity, the less the chance of hazing charges. On the other hand, once a potential member is "made," he has little incentive to go through all the necessary "mental training" required to memorize the fraternity's history and esoteric lore which are heavily emphasized in predominantly Black fraternities.

A significant amount of Black educators are members of these organizations. Most president of HBCU’s as are a good deal of administrators. Even outside of HBCU’s a much higher proportion of Black administrators and faculty are members of Black fraternities. And this extraordinarily high level of fraternity representation is also found among Black male professionals. Because these groups represented one the few outlets for recognition of achievement, social bonding and cooperation the role of the Black fraternity is different. Membership is held less casually after college for Black fraternity men than white fraternity years after graduation. This may limit external and internal criticisms.

At the same time their has been growth of the African American student population there has been a decline in its quality, particularly at HBCU's. Given options the best African American students are more often attending majority White schools. Some African American students are opting for so called mainstream student organizations and not joining African American fraternities. These changes represent great challenges as the African American fraternity must respond to changes in membership.

However tough it was to become a member of a predominantly Black fraternity in the past, it's fair to say that the initiation rites have gotten more physically abusive recently. Many older members don't describe being kicked and punched as a major past of the initiation process. Although Black fraternities often paddled their pledges, many older Greeks report that they were only paddled once or twice, primarily on the night right before "going over" (becoming a full-fledged fraternity brother)

The bottom line is: The same rituals from fifty or sixty ears ago that were daunting when carried out by supervised young men carefully picked from America's Black elite may become deadly when secretly carried out by Black teenagers brought up in a society that equates Black masculinity with violence. As times change current pledges are more familiar with Crips and Bloods than Jack and Jill.

National Efforts to Curb Hazing

As Dr. W. Ted Smith, Kappa Alpha Psi's executive director, notes, "We formally abolished pledging in 1990. In its place we developed a New Member Intake Program that requires pre-screening for someone to become a member."

But he adds, "The bottom line is that there are some very serious questions concerning the management and supervision of some of these chapters."

According to Smith, the secrecy that accompanies the underground hazing has had other negative consequences beside injuries. One is that it further distances the younger members from the national organization. Smith reports that many younger members feel that their loyalty is to their chapter and not the fraternity as a whole. In addition, he suspects that some local chapters are raising money that is not being shared with the national office. In some cases, young pledges new to campus have been hazed and "taken over" without ever knowing that pledging is against the rules. Fraternity chapters that have suspended or revoked charters have even been known to continue to operate, still employing the same methods.

Partly in response to having to pay $1.4 million as part of the settlement with Michael Davis's family, Kappa Alpha Psi has established a Chapter Development and Leadership Program (CDLP) to try and prevent similar horrors from happening in the future. The purpose of the program is to enhance the leadership and educational development of both the chapter and individual members by sending paid professionals called Chapter Development and Leadership Specialists (CDLSs) to visit campuses where Kappa has established chapters.

In describing the program, the fraternity has explicitly noted that the CDLP is "the arm of the fraternity which helps to ensure that undergraduate chapters and individual members understand and respect the rules, policies and regulations of Kappa Alpha Psi."

One of the fraternity's most important rules is that it no longer engages in or tolerates hazing. However, the Davis case proved to many that the national office of Kappa Alpha Psi, as well as many other Greek organizations, has lost control over some of its chapters.

There are a number of complicated reasons why Black fraternities might be having trouble supervising their chapters. One factor has been the success of both the civil rights movement and affirmative action. Simply put, in response to the rapidly growing number of Black students looking to feel at home on white campuses, the Black fraternities have often chartered chapters in places where there were too few adult Black men available to properly supervise them and there is a discomfort among many with having white faculty advisors.

A typical example of this problem involves the permanent expulsion of the Alpha Phi Alpha chapter from Frostburg State University in western Maryland. Johnnie MacTwine of Baltimore was the Alpha Phi Alpha contact with the Frostburg chapter. He says that it was simply impossible for him to keep tabs on the situation.

"There were only about three Black staff members for me to deal with and it was a hundred miles away," explains MacTwine. "Whenever I would go out there, I would give all the potential new members my business card, tell them that hazing was not allowed, and let them know they should call me at any time. But I knew things were going on behind my back."

Although the hazing incidents were not lethal, the Alpha Phi Alpha chapter still got into trouble with the college's administration. The first two times MacTwine was able to prevail upon the Frostburg administration to give the chapter another chance.

"I wanted to keep it going because I felt that the young men could benefit from the fraternity. But after the last situation," laments MacTwine, "Alpha's management told me it was just better to let the chapter go and I had to agree with them."

Harold J. Haskins, director of student development at the University of Pennsylvania, complains that the national fraternities don't seem to express much concern over the rampant underground pledging he sees with African American males at the University of Pennsylvania. "I don't see much support coming out of the nationals," says Haskins.

In addition, the brutality makes it harder for these Greeks to find Black faculty advisors. Debby Connor, acting director of the Student Success Center at Auburn University in Alabama, notes, "We presently have African Americans advising our Black fraternities, but for a long time their reputation for physical hazing made it very difficult for us to recruit non-affiliated Black faculty willing to supervise the these Greek letter organizations."

HBCUs and Housing

It is easy to understand how abuses can take place in badly supervised chapters on predominantly white campuses. However, serious incidents have also occurred at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Again, one factor has been the success of desegregation and the civil rights movement.

During the time of segregation, the towns surrounding historically Black college were often hostile and threatening, which encouraged many Black faculty to live on or close to campus. As a result, they had a lot more direct contact with students.

"Things have really changed at colleges since the days when few students had cars and most faculty and staff lived on or very near the campuses and could keep a closer eye on what was going on" Smith observes.

"But what makes matters much worse," he adds, "is the fact that 90 percent of these violent incidents happen in isolated apartments off campus where there is no possibility of supervision and things get completely out of control. After an incident like this, the media will report that it happened in a fraternity house. But Kappa has no undergraduate housing. A few Kappas may rent an apartment together but that does not make it Kappa house."

Although it may not be immediately obvious, the fact that most of the predominantly traditionally Black fraternities have few official undergraduate fraternity houses is a very significant issue. When fraternity houses exist for these fraternities they are much more likely to be informal arrangements. Conversely most white fraternities have housing on or near campus, which gives them greater administrative and legal ties to both the university and the national fraternity. Fraternity houses make membership and conduct easier to track. The closer events happen to campus, the harder it is to keep it secret -- and the more likely the administration is to hear something about it.

The threat of lawsuits and the need for liability insurance gives schools and national fraternities a greater measure of control over chapters who officially maintain houses. Fraternity houses must have insurance coverage and the insurance companies know that beatings create lawsuits. In addition, most individual chapters can only afford to buy their insurance through their national organizations. Thus, the national officers of traditionally white fraternities have a very direct incentive to pressure their chapters to desist from violent hazing.

Some say the lack of African American fraternity houses at HBCUs and predominantly white institutions stems largely from economics. Also African American fraternity members have not tried to establish fraternity houses at their alma maters because they see it as a low priority, according to a number of administrators and fraternity officials. College graduates belonging to the Black fraternities are more inclined to donate their money and support to scholarships or community service projects and participation in alumni events. They also use their resources to promote fraternity-wide projects such as national credit unions, policy councils, etc.

Alpha Phi Alpha's Palmer says he knows of groups of fraternity members who rented houses while attending school and then called those dwellings "fraternity houses." But they have never been official fraternity houses, the way some white fraternity houses have been.

The Question of Rape

As is often the case with the two most common problems that go on in fraternity houses -- alcohol abuse and date rape -- victim is usually someone outside the fraternity, such as a young woman subjected to rape or a pedestrian or driver involved in a collision with an intoxicated member. In those instances, the institution is more likely to learn about the incident because the victim will probably sue both the fraternity and the college or university.

However, the reputation for violence that plagues predominantly Black fraternities does not include any widespread charges of rape. In fact, there seems to be much evidence that date rape is less of a problem with the Black Greeks than with the white fraternities. One theory purports that the positive influence of strong relationships predominantly Black sororities makes Black women pledges less likely to see themselves as merely the dates or targets of fraternity brothers.

Another theory for the lower incidence of rape associated with traditionally Black fraternities is that on many, if not most, campuses, there are so many more Black women than Black men that Black men do not need to compete with each other sexually or need to resort to devious means -- such as getting women drunk or rape -- in order to find willing sex partners.

Dr. Patricia Yancy Martin, a sociology professor at Florida State who has studied the problem of fraternity rape, believes, "The difference is mainly the question of what is the primary arena of male-to-male competition. Among white men in fraternities the main interpersonal competition seems to be sexual -- who can score with the most girls no matter what it takes. Among Black men, the main arena of interpersonal competition seems to be withstanding the pain and violence they inflict on each other through their pledging process and re-enforcing their fraternities’ reputations afterwards."

Paying the Consequences

Black fraternities are not the only ones where hazing has had deadly consequences. White fraternities have also maimed and killed pledges. In one case, a pledge choked to death while eating a piece of liver smeared with oil. Pledges have suffered heart attacks while doing hundreds of push-ups or lost fingers to frostbite after being dropped miles from campus in their underwear. In a recent case at the University of Texas, a student drowned after ingesting large amounts of beer and trying to swim fully clothed.

However, as Richmond notes, "An accident like that is much easier to defend before a jury. Because the person was over eighteen, you can argue that they were an adult who willingly participated and thus bears some responsibility for their own choices, and that even though the idea was stupid, no one set out to hurt anybody. However, when someone died and his parents are in the courtroom weeping, it's a lot harder to go before a jury and explain why a pledge died while being punched and kicked around by six men. It looks a lot more like a crime and shows a deliberate intention to hurt someone."

And the legal and financial ramifications resulting from these rites of initiation represent a particularly acute threat to the future of the Black fraternities, which are some of Black America's most important and historic institutions.

According to DeSousa, "Unless we right-size and down-size, there is going to be more trouble. I specifically want to go on the record and say that unless we get control, or end undergraduate pledging, it's only a matter of time until someone else gets killed."

And, if a $2.25 million settlement in the Davis case doesn't deter hazing, perhaps, critics warn, the next victim's lawyers will seek $10 or $15 or $20 million -- which would probably bankrupt many Black fraternities.

Even when no one is injured, the predominantly Black fraternity's reputation for continued and extreme hazing creates its own problems. One is that it scares away some students who should be the most welcome.

"These incidents give fraternities a bad name. Unlike the past we're losing the best and the brightest and the campus leaders," notes Smith. "Students have more options, and many of the most successful ones don't want to subject themselves to the hazing."

Harsh pledging can also mean that fraternities will get fewer of the more academically gifted and studious students, partly because pledging can be devastating to grades.

Says Haskins: "The twelve-week pledging process is absolutely debilitating to the academic progress of young Black men on [the University of Pennsylvania] campus. It's so bad that I've actually advised students to take the semester off if they're trying to pledge. They don't have time to study, they don't get enough sleep, and many of their [grade point averages] never recover from the time they spend pledging -- particularly if it's freshman year. Black fraternities have study hours but they are likely to spend more time with memorization of fraternity traditions rather than class work. The white fraternities have much shorter pledging periods and do a better job of tutoring their members."

Dr. Peter Kuriloff, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that positive changes can be made. "Fraternities need strenuous and difficult initiation rituals as a means of bonding and building trust. The challenge is to make these rigorous but pro-social," says Kuriloff.

Believing that fraternities may have gone too far in trying to ban hazing, he goes on to suggest that Outward Bound and other wilderness survival experiences might be a good tough substitute for beating each other up. Another solution, according to Kuriloff, might be to place more emphasis on the safer physical rigors and the silly but non-violent public displays that Black Greeks also emphasize -- such as (the more reasonable) calisthenics, requiring pledges to shave their heads and eyebrows, marching around campus and learning to ‘step’, perform songs and wearing “scrolls”."

"Rituals and initiation aren't the problem," Kuriloff says "the real enemy is violence and hiding it."

RELATED ARTICLE: A Brief History of the National Pan-Hellenic Council

Blatant racism had prevented many African American students on historically white campuses from joining general fraternities and sororities. Culture and tradition as well as continued racial separation on campuses continue to be reasons for traditionally Black Greek organizations.

Thus, African American students on both historically Black and historically white campuses established fraternities and sororities to enhance their college experiences. These organizations did not then -- nor do they now -- restrict membership to African Americans. Many of the major NPHC fraternities and sororities report having non-Black members. Nevertheless they do all have a distinctive history growing from an era when Black students were compelled to create Black institutions.

These organizations had three distinct growth periods. (Sigma Pi Phi or “The Boule” was founded as a non-collegiate fraternity in 1904.) The first Black collegiate fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, was founded at Cornell University in 1906. Alpha Kappa Alpha, the sister sorority was founded soon afterwards in 1908. The initial growth phase went into high gear following World War I when existing fraternities grew at both historically Black colleges and universities and those historically white major research university campuses that admitted African Americans. By 1922 there were four fraternities and four sororities begun by Black students. In 1930 the NPHC was founded as a coordinating body for Black fraternities and sororities. Alumni chapters established in cities across the United States became civic and service organizations, filling a void left by the fact that racism hampered African Americans participation in general civic organizations

After the Second World War, NPHC chapters proliferated on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Many cultural traditions from white fraternities, Freemasonry, military service and the Black community became embedded and refined within traditional Black Greek culture. Examples of such traditions include regimented public displays on campus that were a part of the pledging process.

The third phase began with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Institutions which had previously denied admittance to African Americans could no longer legally do so. As a result, the number of African Americans and their organizations -- swelled at historically white campuses. Eventually, there were more than 400 undergraduate chapters -- with as many alumni chapters, on average, as undergraduate chapters -- of organizations affiliated with NPHC. Presently, there are approximately 1.5 million members of undergraduate and alumni chapters served by NPHC.

(Featured are the firsts for people of color- elected U.S. Senator, elected Governor, NYC Mayor, Ambassador to the UN, Nobel Prize winner, House committee chair, Supreme Court Justice and the president of Jamaica in the post colonial period; and Martin Luther King- all of the first college fraternity created for men of color Alpha Phi Alpa.)

Harvard Final Club is Poor

In March 2008, the City of Cambridge took possession of the A.D. Club—the final club conspicuously located at the corner of Plympton Street and Mass. Ave.—for failure to pay over $41,000 in taxes.

The A.D. Club is a final club established at Harvard in 1836, the continuation of a chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity existing as an honorary chapter until 1846, and then as a regular chapter until the late 1850s. At that time, owing to the prevailing sentiment against such societies, it became a strictly secret society, known among its members as the "Haidee," the name of a college boat. The chapter surrendered its charter in 1865, and has since existed as the A.D. Club.

According to a government document obtained by The Crimson, the club fell short on its 2007 tax payment and did not subsequently make up the difference when the city first contacted the club in the summer of 2007.

A member of the City of Cambridge Finance Department—who declined to be named because the document is confidential—said that the club has begun paying off the back taxes and interest but that city records show that it is still approximately $17,000 short.

The individual said that the club still retains physical possession of the building, but that the document—signed by Louis A. Depasquale, the assistant city manager for fiscal affairs—constitutes a lien on the property, which will be seized if the club fails to pay the unpaid taxes and accrued interest.

The A.D. is one of Harvard’s eight final clubs—all male social organizations that are no longer affiliated with the University.

Several A.D. alumni, listed as corporate officers or directors on the club’s 2007 tax filing, said they had no knowledge of the back taxes when contacted last night.

After a Crimson reporter left a voicemail for Michael L. Madden ’76—whose signature appears on the 2007 tax forms as the vice president and clerk of the A.D.—a man identifying himself only as Madden’s “representative” called The Crimson and threatened potential legal action.

“You are blinded by your hatred of final clubs. The Harvard Crimson should have other news besides the tax matters of the A.D. Club,” he said. The Crimson article, blinded though they are.

Update: Okay, not poor.

-Not for Four Years

Let These Idiots Serve As A Reminder

Many of you heard about the utter stupidity of some errant PKA's in Tulane. Tulane Pikes won't be charged for pouring boiling water and seafood seasoning on pledges to "crab boil" them, putting off taking them to the hospital and then trying to cover it up by intimidation and pleas. (Of course it pales in comparison to say, hiring hoods you knew of from high school to pistol whip, strip and dump a fraternity brother. What's GOING ON Hofstra???)

We can only hope these douchebags get hit by a bus or angry lawyer.

We see far too many fraternities and sororities where nothing constructive happens and fraternities are just a waste of time outside of entertainment and an ungrounded sense of belonging to something.

Fraternities and sororities too often do not live up to their well worn platitudes and lofty, nebulous phrases-- and pursue little to benefit their members that would have not been accomplished if the efforts were placed elsewhere; and thus these organizations become mere things of college.

Who is responsible? The members who having the great opportunity of fraternal life waste it doing harm and then waste it again by doing too little good. Let these idiots serve as a reminder...

Tulane frat members won't be charged in hazing incident by Gwen Filosa, The Times-Picayune Tuesday October 07, 2008, 11:09 AM

Orleans Parish prosecutors refused to charge ten members of a Tulane University fraternity arrested this spring in what police called a hazing that included the pouring of crab-boil and boiling water on two pledges.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled today in the Magistrate section of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. Instead, the district attorney's office announced it would seek no charges against the men, all originally booked with aggravated second-degree battery.

The ten men booked were: Jeremy Bendat, 22, of Los Angeles; William Dougherty, 20 of Voorhees, N.J.; Kevin Dunn, 20, of Bellmore, N.Y.; Preston Gelman, 20; Randall Graham, 20, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.; Danny Lazzeri, 20, of Scottsdale, Ariz.; Joseph Lorono, 20, of Rye, N.Y.; Nicholas Maddern, 22, of South Hamilton, Mass.; Oded Nissim, 20; and Joseph Stevens, 23.

They were arrested May 6 days after an hours-long hazing either at or near the fraternity house on Broadway Street, late night April 25 or the pre-dawn hours April 26, sources familiar with the investigation said.

A personal injury lawsuit was filed in federal court May 16 by Matthew Martin against Pi Kappa Alpha Corporation and a dozen individual men - including all ten who were arrested. Martin said that the fraternity members burned him during "Hell Night" and then urged him to downplay his injuries so as not to get the house into trouble.

In addition to the ten arrested students, the lawsuit accuses Lee Rudin, of New Brunswick, N.J., and Craig Rudikoff, of Chevy Chase, Md., of participating in the "Hell Night."

(Read the full story if you must.)

-Not for Four Years

Her Tale of a Black Dress at a Fraternity Party

You’ve seen them in Van Wilder, you’ve watched them in PCU, and you’ve envied them in Animal House. They were, are, and forever will be places of glory for all men, women, and virgins of college age and years afterwards, at least in the imagination. I bestow upon you the exquisite beauty that is a fraternity house and its parties.

For the most part, universities across this great nation are blessed with a stellar Greek System—those that aren’t probably won’t be around much longer (with the exception of Notre Dame of course). My school is not huge but the Greek system here is a center of social activity. Almost every weekend one of the frats gives girls an excuse to dress slutty, and guys the chance to get ripped by throwing a party. And while the themes may be crappy everyone still shows up screaming Toga! Toga! Toga! Even if it's a barn dance.

Let me explain. The popular fraternities on my campus host fashionable Cocktail parties every year. Some are more geared to alum/active mixing with and dates and are demur, at least in the beginning. Most are more like their name suggests- a party consists of—cocks, and tails for them to stick them in. Actually, they're still an invitation only event complete with a specific dress code. More bluntly, the invitees consists of a bunch of freshman girls specifically picked out from the orientation face book, and the hottest upperclassmen women harvested from experience—all who embark on a personal mission to wear the shortest, littlest black dress possible. And all this just to compete for guys who when inebriated spend most of the night dancing with each other, or spilling three hundred dollars worth of booze onto the shortest, littlest black dresses...and the floor.

The event I speak of was a excellent affair, don't get me wrong. But if anyone had dropped a cigarette onto the alcohol soaked carpet, the entire house would have gone up in flames.

But back to the dress code of the party. To fit into these stylish, but very tight cocktail dresses we purchased Thursday afternoon, my friend Nancy and I decided to safeguard our figures and starve ourselves until after the party Saturday night. Going to a party thrown by the future leaders of Alcoholics Anonymous with nothing in our stomachs but accidentally-swallowed mint gum and a couple of pieces of kettle corn? Genius I tell you, pure genius. Two shots of tequila and ten minutes into the party, my friends stumbled up to me screaming “What’s up wasted?” and accidentally spilled their drinks on me, indicating they were just as far along as I was.

Here’s an idea that will never be trendy: maybe alcoholic beverages should be contained in McDonald’s-like, to-go cups with straws—because at frat parties, one of the following two scenarios is always taking place:

1. The obnoxious freshman chick stumbles over and spills her drink all over you, the incredibly hot upperclassman. She is embarrassed for about five minutes, but
you’re embarrassed for the rest of the night because you now have a rum and coke stain resembling the state of New Jersey on your little black dress.

2. The drunkest guy accidentally makes eye contact with you, and, thinking he’s in, takes the quickest route to reel you in. You’re trapped as he whips out his white-men-can’t-groove dance and his cup tips all over you, soaking into a Jack Daniels stain resembling a silhouette of Abe Lincoln.

There’s always a victim, yes. But I'm not deluded into thinking plastic sippy-cups will ever become a reality just for the sake of accidental spillage. There are style considerations I guess.

Freshman year this nice girl on my floor who was also invited came into my room 30 minutes before the estimated time of departure wearing black pants, a long sleeve black turtleneck, and a light pink scarf. Now I know that showing off some skin will sometimes cause image complexes, but like Madonna said, “We are living in a material world.” She also should have mentioned that less fabric would get jewelry and valuable stock options a hell of a lot quicker. Seriously though, when you walk into a party where every other female is practically naked and you're wearing the equivalent of a snowsuit in northern Saskatchewan, the odds of you getting with your crush are slim to none...unless he is somehow drawn to you by that winter scarf you refuse to take off even though it's at least 90 degrees inside.

I'd also like to reiterate that this was an invitation-only event. Superficial as this exclusivity may seem, it was designed that way for a specific reason. No one wants the 300-pound known rambunctious problem-drinker dancing on the refreshments table to fall off and plummet into the crowd below with little warning— which is exactly what happened. I wasn't there when this egregious event took place but a friend who surveyed the damage said it was like King Kong falling off the Empire State Building... especially if the Empire State Building was located next door to a glass recycling plant. Everyone watched in horror as those directly in the line of fire were knocked over by a giant chiffon dress. This isn't about size but how size should have been considered before climbing onto a table- again. Unfortunately for her if a guy would have done it it would have been buffoonish but not embarrassing. Sexism.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of these kinds of parties is waking up the next morning and trying to figure out who you are, where you are, who’s snoring next to you, and how the side of Abe Lincoln’s face got smeared all over the front part of your dress. And then there’s always the long walk of shame home, but that’s next week’s edition. Right now I have make a run to the cleaners.

-Not for Four Years

Saddest, Least Fratty Homecoming EVER: Columbia Loses Homecoming Game Since 1982

Princeton at Columbia in the Homecoming game and Ivy League opener for the Lions. This from student paper:

Afternoon, sports fans. We've got the first big game of the Columbia football season for you, and we'll keep you updated as the game goes on.

4:09 PM (End of game): And that's your heartbreaking final, as Princeton runs out the clock. Princeton wins 27-24. Final stats: Shane Kelly passed for 221 yards from 19 completions on 25 attempts, and ran for 54 yards as well. Jordan Davis (11 attempts for 64 yards) and Ray Rangel (13 attempts for 57 yards) added to Columbia's total of 191 rushing yards. Despite the fumble, Mike Stephens did have 7 receptions for 95 yards. Finally, you have to ask: what if Columbia hadn't faked the field goal at the end of the 3rd? That was the margin of victory (though, in fairness, the lead was only 3 points because of a missed extra point). Overall, just a very tough loss.

That's the offbeat sports story for this weekend. What makes it funny is that every Ivy League pep squad hates playing Columbia since: A) No one shows up, and B) Ivy pep squads do push ups by point tally after score by their own team. Can you say TIRED.

-Not for Four Years

More photos, including Princetonians in boater hats and girls in track bottoms, after the jump:

Pardon us, we don't feel very well. Please, feel free to be brutal in our stead.

Serenading Time

It is that time of the year again. A break from pledging hard has always been the sorority serenade. Here we offer you several instances.

We can't condone all of this. The guy baring his ass and the played out "dick in the box" routine... But you get the picture. - Not for Four Years