In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

Hazing on campus

(ASU Web Devil) If a new bill is passed, all forms of hazing at universities in Arizona will become illegal, regardless of whether or not freshmen consensually participate in hazing events or whether the events actually harm students.  The Arizona Legislature may pass House Bill 2387 in response to hazing incidents at Arizona State University, which involved the arrests of nine students in connection to a car crash last September.  The new law would allow hazing victims to bring civil suits against perpetrators and would create harsher sentences for hazing cases involving injury or death.  The bill defines “hazing” as physical brutality, physical activity or consumption of beverages or food which could potentially harm or pose unreasonable risks to students or engage students in illegal activities.

1.

Hazed and Confused: A Cornell student's story

Cornell University
This is a first person account of a traumatizing hazing experience at Cornell university, in which student Adam Zwecker portrays his aggressors as “a sardonic group run by a strong minority of violent and aggressive individuals.” Zwecker highlights the humiliation and suffering of himself and others during hazing: He was forced to hold a cinder block at arms length in the woods during sub-zero temperatures, while older students slapped him with sharp objects and forced him to bark like a dog.  During “hell week,” older students abused freshmen continually for 20 hours a day, in which they were forbidden to use the toilet, eat, sleep or drink water.  Students were also psychologically abused and Zwecker frequently refers to students being “brainwashed” by their fraternity leaders. 

2.

Hazing's brutal legacy

The New York Times
Hazing at University campuses dates way back.  This New York Times article from 1913 reports that two University of North Carolina were found guilty of manslaughter in the killing of fellow student Will Rand during hazing activities. Each were sentenced to four months in jail.  The judge was unsure whether Rand fell off a bucket on which he was standing and died or whether the bucket was kicked out from beneath him.  The reports states that hazing had been practised for 100 years at this university and this was the first case of hazing to be tried in the court.   

3.

Hazing and gender

Stop Hazing
Elizabeth J. Allan of the University of Maine writes “Hazing and Gender: Analyzing the Obvious,” in which she discusses the ways in which “rigid and narrow versions of gender work in tandem with homophobia to create environments that are more likely to tolerate and perpetuate hazing practices.” Allan claims that groups of men are more likely than women to engage in homo-erotic hazing activities, such as marching around naked holding each others genitals.  These activities are designed to threaten students' manhood and demonize homosexuality. She speculates that this is a manner of expressing culturally-forbidden same-sex intimacy.  Allan also cites studies which have shown that  “hazing among men is more likely to be violent in nature and hazing among women is more likely to be psychological/emotional in nature.”  

4.

One woman's experience

Stop Hazing
Stop Hazing, an educational organization working to eliminate hazing, includes a poem about one woman's experience of hazing and sexual abuse from the collection “Mary Was Here.”  The narrator recalls a group of fraternity boys listening to a recording of a date gone wrong between herself and a fellow student.  The male student was supposed to have sex with her and record it as proof  of his worthiness of “brotherhood.” The narrator had been raped in the past and recalls that she begins to cry when the student makes sexual advances.  She feels psychologically traumatized because the male students laugh at the recording of her crying.  The anonymous author writes: “I found out later/ that some of them apologized
/ to him for me/ for what an awful date i was/ but none of them ever apologized to me/ even though/ it's true/ they saw me/ every day.”

5.

Hazing is common, study shows

US News
Two professors from the University of Maine surveyed 11,482 students at 53 institutions and found that the majority of students in campus organizations are hazed.  Students frequently experienced various types of hazing, such as exposure to the elements, public humiliation, forced binge drinking and watching or engaging in sex acts.  Researchers found that 74 per cent of varsity athletes,  73 per cent of fraternity and sorority members, 64 per cent of students in club sports and 56 per cent of students in performing arts organizations were hazed, whereas only 28 per cent of students in academic clubs 20% in honor societies experienced hazing.  Researchers also found that 90 per cent of students reporting the above abuse didn't believe they had been hazed.