Are colleges really doing enough to stop fraternity hazing deaths?

- The Washington Post 12/5/17, 5(49 PM

The Washington Post

Answer Sheet Perspective

Are colleges really

doing enough to stop
fraternity hazing
deaths?
By Valerie Strauss November 16

The headlines keep on coming these days: one school after another taking
action to curb the activities of fraternities because of hazing gone wrong.
Florida State University recently suspended all Greek life after the death of a
fraternity pledge, as did Texas State University after an alcohol-related death
of a fraternity pledge. At Penn State University, 17 members of a fraternity
were recently charged in the alcohol-related death of a pledge earlier this
year.

While there is no official list of hazing-related deaths nationwide, the Los

Angeles Times recently quoted Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at
Franklin College in Indiana who has been studying hazing for decades, as
saying he has counted at least one death each year from hazing since 1959 in
the United States and Canada, most of them involving fraternities and
alcohol.

Are hazing-related deaths inevitable? Are colleges and universities doing

enough to stem the activities of Greek organizations where these deaths have
occurred? These and related questions are discussed in this post by Liz
Willen, a veteran journalist and editor of the Hechinger Report, an

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Are colleges really doing enough to stop fraternity hazing deaths? - The Washington Post 12/5/17, 5(49 PM

independent news outlet focused on innovation and inequality. This appeared

on the Hechinger Report, and Willen gave me permission to publish it.

By Liz Willen

A few days after headlines exploded about yet another university president
suspending Greek life activities after yet another hazing death, a group of
college presidents sat around a dinner table expressing concern about bad
behavior at fraternities.

But somehow, they couldnt help singing their praises as well.

Fraternities foster a sense of belonging. Their members do community service

and care about social welfare. They boost retention and graduation rates.
They raise money for charity and provide vast alumni job networks. They add
value to the college experience. Its wrong to generalize from a few bad actors.

These rationalizations for Greek life on campus came up during last weeks
annual gathering of presidents of mostly large public universities and
journalists at the Penn Club, organized by Arizona State University. Guests
included Louisiana State President F. King Alexander, who presides over a
campus reeling from the death last month of 18-year-old freshman Maxwell
Gruver.

Over dinner, LSU President Alexander noted that hed immediately

suspended Greek life after Gruvers death and set up a task force to study it,
but at the time, hed made sure to add a supportive statement: Many of our
Greek organizations represent all that is good about our university. At the
dinner, he acknowledged that there are bad actors but I know what good
they [fraternities] do and I value what they do. You cant generalize and say
Greeks arent doing good things.

Its getting harder to appreciate the good. Reports of the events leading to

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Are colleges really doing enough to stop fraternity hazing deaths? - The Washington Post 12/5/17, 5(49 PM

Gruvers death at LSU are sickening: During a night of drinking at the Phi
Delta Theta house, which has since been shuttered by the national chapter,
Gruver was reportedly ordered to recite the Greek alphabet, pelted with hot
sauce and mustard and forced to chug hard liquor if he messed up.

Gruver died at a nearby hospital with a blood alcohol level of .495, more than
six times the legal intoxication level in most states. Ten students have since
been charged with hazing at LSU, and one with negligent homicide. Two more
fraternities have since been suspended for infractions, six have been removed
from campus and seven are on some form of probation.

Hazing horrors and their accompanying headlines are becoming relentless.

Just one week after the college presidents dinner, sophomore Matthew Ellis,
who was pledging the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Texas State, died after
attending an initiation event; the fraternity had already been under
investigation by the university. That same day, I watched the parents of 19-
year-old Beta Theta Pi pledge Timothy Piazza, a sophomore engineering
major at Penn State, sob in front of television cameras at a news conference.
Authorities had just released a previously deleted video revealing that their
son had been given 18 drinks in 82 minutes, before falling down a set of stairs
and fracturing his skull.

They left him to die alone, James Piazza said. Seventeen former Beta Theta
Pi members face numerous charges, including involuntary manslaughter and
aggravated assault, and as of Monday, five other Beta Theta Pi members now
face legal consequences. James Piazza and his wife Evelyn have repeatedly
spoken out and unlike some college presidents they arent equivocating.

We need parents talking to their kids about this, Piazza said during a news
conference this week. We need parents to put their foot down and say, You
must not do this. We need parents to stop encouraging their children to get
involved in fraternity antics like hazing.

I went back to look at remarks Penn State University President Eric Barron

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Are colleges really doing enough to stop fraternity hazing deaths? - The Washington Post 12/5/17, 5(49 PM

made after the first grand jury indictments last May. He condemned the
incident, but included praise, noting that all indicators suggested Beta Theta
Phi was a model fraternity the house, privately-owned and situated like all
other fraternity houses on private property, was beautiful, the subject of a
multi-million dollar renovation; both the Beta alumni and the national
organization provided strict rules of behavior; and, the brothers had a no-
alcohol policy which stated that anyone caught drinking would be expelled.

All benefit of the doubt was gone by Monday, when additional charges were
announced; a university statement noted that disciplinary process was
underway for 32 individuals related to the tragic death of Timothy Piazza.

At Texas State, President Denise Trauth immediately suspended activities of

all Greek fraternity and sorority chapters, but also announced a review
process for reinstating fraternity and sorority chapters that demonstrate a
commitment to the core values of Texas State and the ideals established by
their respective national organizations.

As the mother of two college students whose schools dont have fraternities,
Ive had no need to warn my sons about their dangers but I hope other
parents will hear the Piazzas. Id also suggest reading Bloomberg News
reporter John Hechingers scathing new book True Gentlemen: The Broken
Pledge of Americas Fraternities. Had I not read it, it might have surprised
me to hear a group of college presidents taking such a cautious defense of
fraternities after so many recent hazing tragedies.

Hechingers book helps explain how college presidents struggle to beat back
the unholy trinity, of drinking, misogyny and racism at fraternities, where
one of six men who attend a four-year college in America belong. Fraternity
alumni are often big donors who offer job and networking pipelines to former
members.

Hechinger whose late father Fred Hechinger was an education editor at the
New York Times and is the namesake of The Hechinger Report points out

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Are colleges really doing enough to stop fraternity hazing deaths? - The Washington Post 12/5/17, 5(49 PM

that Greek organizations own $3 billion in real estate on 800 U.S.

campuses, while their leaders raise more than $20 million a year.

College presidents have reason to fear for their jobs when they take on
fraternities, Hechinger writes; they may find themselves confronting a
determined adversary that is well-financed, politically connected, and capable
of frustrating the most dogged investigators.

Case in point: In 2013, former Trinity College president James F. Jones

announced he would step down a year earlier than expected, under fire from
alumni who withheld donations and threatened a lawsuit after Jones banned
pledging, cracked down on alcohol and pushed for co-educational pledge
classes at the Hartford, Conn., campus.

Meanwhile, the list of recent hazing horrors seemingly grows. (Professor

Hank Nuwer at Franklin College in Indiana keeps a database that goes back to
the 1960s.) Last spring, four young men pleaded guilty to voluntary
manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Baruch College freshman Chun
Hsien Deng, who was blindfolded, forced to wear a backpack weighted with
sand, pushed to the ground and knocked out. Earlier this fall, a University of
Oklahoma student suffered a brain injury during hazing.

And just last week, Florida State announced it would suspend Greek life, after
the death of 20-year-old Pi Kappa Phi pledge Andrew Coffey, a junior
engineering student from Georgia who was found unresponsive at an off-
campus residence after a night of drinking at the Phi Delta Theta house.

The national chapter has since revoked the frats charter, and Florida State
President John Thrasher shut down Greek activities indefinitely at 55
fraternities and sororities. Coffeys family supports Thrashers efforts and
thanked him, but his strong stand has led to a backlash from parents:
Thrasher recently told the Chronicle of Higher Education that some parents
had accused him of ruining their childrens cultural life by shutting down
Greek life. Thrasher added in an interview that he was flabbergasted during

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Are colleges really doing enough to stop fraternity hazing deaths? - The Washington Post 12/5/17, 5(49 PM

Parents Weekend when he saw parents drinking shots with students some
of whom appeared underage at a local bar.

When college presidents cant stem the horrid hazing, we have to hope that
students step in. Thats what happened earlier this month at the University of
Michigan, when a student-led council suspended Greek activities after
multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, hazing, hospitalizations and drug
use, including a Champagne and Shackles event, where dates at a party were
handcuffed to each other until they finished a bottle of champagne.

John Hechinger says colleges can do more to reform and hold fraternities
accountable, starting with collecting and making public any information
about alcohol-related hospitalizations associated with local chapters.

In the meantime, listen to parents such as Evelyn Piazza, grieving for her shy,
athletic, red-headed son Timothy, at a Penn State news conference on
Monday:

It is really important for people to see the damage, the far-

reaching damage, that has occurred because these young men
decided to protect themselves instead of Tim. They have
destroyed so much; they have destroyed our joy.

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, an independent news

outlet focused on inequality and innovation.

" 4 Comments

Valerie Strauss covers education and runs The Answer

Sheet blog. # Follow @valeriestrauss

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