Hazing

Myth vs. Reality

Myth: Hazing builds unity among new members.
Reality: Hazing may create unity among new members, but often there are costs as well. The effect of hazing on a group can be like the effect of a hurricane on a community: residents feel closer to each other afterward but some may be suffering. More often, Hazing builds animosity between people and does nothing to foster trust, unity or respect. It simply makes better hazers.

Myth: Hazing is the only method for holding new members accountable.
Reality: While holding new members accountable is important, there are effective ways to do so without hazing. Effective parents, teachers, and bosses all know ways to hold others accountable without humiliating, degrading or physically hurting them. Chapter officers can work with Fraternity and Sorority Programs staff and the volunteers and staff of their national organization to develop programs that hold new members accountable without hazing them.

Myth: Hazing is okay as long as it is not physically dangerous.
Reality: Mental hazing can be brutal and leave lasting psychological scars. Some hazing victims report that the mental hazing they endured was worse than being physically abused.

Myth: A little hazing should be okay, as long as there's no mean-spirited or injurious intent.
Reality: Regardless of intent, some group bonding activities designed to be "all in good fun" still may raise some serious safety concerns." For example, serious accidents have occurred during scavenger hunts. And when members are drunk, they sometimes subject the new members to more than they originally intended. While there are more and less severe forms of hazing, even low-level hazing crosses the line. Even a "little" hazing can have an unintended negative impact on new members. Also, if the action meets the definition of hazing, the group will get in trouble if caught.

Myth: Hazing continues because everyone in the group supports it.
Reality: Many group members may not approve of hazing but go along with the activity because they mistakenly believe everyone else agrees with it. This "reign of error" helps to perpetuate hazing. The strongest supporters of hazing are often the most vocal and dominant members.

Myth: The new members want to be hazed.
Reality: Occasionally there are new members who say they want to be hazed. But generally most do not want to be humiliated, intimidated, or physically abused. "Wanting" to be hazed usually means desiring an intense, challenging experience. It is not necessary to haze new members in order to challenge them.

Myth: If someone agrees to participate in an activity, it can't be considered hazing.
Reality: In states that have laws against hazing, consent of the victim can't be used as a defense. This is because even if someone agrees to participate in a potentially hazardous action, it may not be true consent because of peer pressure, intentional or unintentional threats, and the withholding of information about what will occur.

Myth: Since alumni and current members were hazed it is only fair that the new members go through it too.
Reality: "Tradition" does not justify subjecting new members to abuse. Traditions are created by groups, and groups hold the power to change or eliminate them. It only takes one year to break a hazing tradition. Remember that the founding members of organizations were not hazed. One class can break the "tradition" of hazing- it just takes some courage and integrity to do what is right.

Myth: Hazing practices preserve the uniqueness and exclusiveness of the group.
Reality: Since hazing practices are secret, group members often don't realize that their "unique" practices are typically variations on common themes: extensive memorization with verbal abuse for incorrect answers, sleep deprivation, servitude, kidnappings, drinking rituals, calisthenics, lineups, cleaning up messes, isolation of members, theft, impossible games, sexual embarrassment, inappropriate clothing, absurd scavenger hunts, unpalatable food, and physical violence.

Myth: Other groups on campus will not respect an organization that does not haze.
Reality: A positive, educational program will result in a better all-around organization and the ability to attract the best new members. Being able to recruit the best students will earn the respect of other groups.

Myth: I'll never get caught or turned in!
Reality: If you haze, there will be a time when even your friends will have to choose between you and their integrity and well-being. It is in their best interest to report the hazing, no matter who is involved. Also, someone may decide to come forward even after college and you can still be held accountable.

Myth: Hazing only exists in fraternities and sororities.
Reality: Hazing incidents have occurred across the country in athletic teams, military units, performing arts groups, religious groups, and other types of clubs and organizations. Hazing occurs in high schools as well as on college campuses.

Myth: Enduring hazing is a sign of strength.
Reality: While it does take a certain strength to make it through hazing, many people submit to it because they desire acceptance by others, are afraid to resist, or feel a need to prove to themselves or others that they are worthy or tough enough (e.g., "a real man"). These motives reflect conformity, fear, and insecurity, which are not qualities typically associated with strength. In contrast, standing up to a group of abusive peers or breaking free from hazing takes courage. That's real strength.

Adopted from Babson College and Stophazing.org

Facts (according to national statistics)

Fact #1:
55% of students involved in clubs, teams and organizations experienced hazing.

Fact #2:
47% of students are hazed before they enter college.

Fact #3:
Alcohol consumption and humiliation, isolation, sleep deprivation, and sex acts are hazing practices that are common across student groups

Fact #4:

There are three components that define hazing:

1. It occurs in a group context
2. Humiliating, degrading, or endangering behavior
3. Happens regardless of an individual’s willingness to participate

StopHazing Research Lab. (2020, December). Hazing: The Issue, StopHazing Consulting. https://www.stophazing.org/issue

Here are some alternative ideas to hazing that help build community rather than harm individuals:

Please keep this in mind when planning activities for your organization:

Some of the activities listed below may seem more relevant to fraternities and sororities than other organizations.

Activities cannot include consumption of alcohol by new members.

Some group activities can be non-hazing or hazing, depending on how they are done. For example, having new members do skits can be a non-hazing activity. But not if members verbally degrade the performers or throw food at them. Similarly, scavenger hunts are not inherently forms of hazing (as any day camp counselor can tell you). But when the list includes things that must be stolen or would likely be humiliating or embarrassing to obtain, then it becomes hazing.

Having current members participate along with new members in certain activities, such as cleaning the chapter property, can shift the activity from being hazing (i.e., servitude) to non-hazing.

Community Service and Philanthropy

Divide the new members into two groups with current members as team leaders and conduct a ravines clean-up on a Saturday morning.

Serve meals once a week at a local homeless shelter, or distribute food at a food bank.

Require new members to perform a set amount of community service hours in support of community agencies.

Service Learning Trips

New members and selected current members spend spring break working with OU Alternative Spring Break.

Work with OU’s Office for Student Involvement volunteer opportunities to explore additional service learning opportunities.

Mentoring

Set up a "big brother/sister/sibling" mentoring program. Assign the mentor responsibility for teaching about the values of the organization and monitoring the new member's participation and academic performance (to ensure minimal expectations are met).

Have the mentor take a new member out to dinner or to an athletic or cultural event at least three times.

Programming/Entertainment

Put on a talent show. Include categories such as karaoke singing, instrumental music, skits, impersonations and magic tricks. Since it is not the new members' responsibility to entertain the members, have willing members from each year participate and entertain each other.

Hold a movie night for new members in the Habitat in the Oakland Center.

Share Common Activities

Have new members join members for meals 2-3 times a week, either on or off-campus.

Reserve a room on campus and schedule bonding sessions to allow for current members to find out more about new members, and vice versa.  Provide the group with discussion questions that they are expected to talk about. Start with non-threatening questions or incomplete statements (e.g., "If I had a billion dollars, I would . . .") and end with more probing ones (e.g., "I'm afraid that . . . " or "If I could live my life over I would . . . " Option: have each member write a question on a card and put it in a question box. Select one question at a time and discuss it.

Hold study hours in which new members are expected to be present and studying with current members. Provide food if budget permits.

Divide new members into two teams. Give them each a box full of miscellaneous materials. Give them one hour to devise a competitive game using all of the items (only rules: everyone must plan and no one can get hurt). Have the two teams compete against each other.

Group Outings

Have members go with new members to a local ski resort for a day of skiing, a sporting event such as a Detroit Red Wings game, Detroit Tigers game, Detroit City FC game, a play or musical in Detroit, or any other events which gets members away from campus, and involved in something besides school work, or the organization.

Accountability

Have each new member meet with his or her mentor weekly to review the new member's knowledge of the group and its members.

Provide written guidelines for new members outlining the expectations of the group.

Hold new member review panels periodically in which a small group of members discusses the new member's progress with him or her. If deficiencies or a lack of commitment is noted, the panel places the new member on probation.

In serious situations, the organization determines whether or not to terminate the relationship with the new member.

Physical Team Builders

Have your group participate in activities such as a high-ropes course or rock climbing.

The following facilities offer opportunities for your organization:
Tree Runner Adventure Park at OU

Golf on OU’s two golf courses, The R&S Sharf Golf Course and the Katke-Cousins Golf Course

Athletic Competitions

Have new members compete in basketball, volleyball or softball against current members or other groups.

Have new members compete against current members in bowling or golf.

Have new members compete against members in laser tag or paint ball.

Start an intramural team with both new members and current members.

History/Values Exercises

Have new members learn about the history underlying values of the organization. Divide them into groups and have them prepare Powerpoint presentations about the organization. Make the presentations preparation for the work world: have current members dress formally. Invite alumni to attend.

Have current members and alumni speak to current members about the values of the group and what they hope the new members will contribute and receive as part of their experience.

Report the incident.
Safety is the first priority. If you are in a space to do so, report hazing using the Non-Academic Incident Reporting Form.

Stay connected.
With friends outside of the group. Groups that haze often try to isolate their new members from others who might challenge them to question what they are going through.

Talk with others about what you are going through.
You do not have to keep it a secret. Demanding secrecy is a common practice designed to protect people who are abusing others.  You have a right to tell anyone anything you want about what you are going through, even if you were made to promise that you would not do so.

Seek guidance.
From someone you trust, such as family members, friends or university members.

Refuse to participate.
Others before you have also refused to participate in activities they believed to not uphold the values of their organization.

Join together with other new members to refuse to be hazed.
There is power in numbers.  By joining together with other new members, you can help to change the culture of hazing in the organization.  It is harder to ignore a group than it is one individual.

Leave the group.
Starting a process does not mean that you have to finish.  At any time you feel that you are not being treated with respect or dignity, know that you can leave the group.  No one has the right to diminish who you are or what you can be.

Talk to University authority.
If at any time you believe you are experiencing hazing, or have questions about hazing, please reach out to the university for guidance. Report hazing or to speak to someone in the Dean of Students office please call (248) 370-3352 or email [email protected].