The Interfraternity Council executive members at the University of Kansas will face punishments for violating state and university-instituted anti-hazing policies. Despite similarities in size and culture, MU Office of Greek Life officials said they have dealt with no such reported violations in recent years.
Members of KU’s IFC were charged with striking new executive members with traditional Greek Life paddles. There are no traditions at MU that involve hazing, Panhellenic Association Spokeswoman Crystal Richardson said.
Cori Wallace, Volunteer for HazingPrevention.Org and Director of Marketing and Communications for Sigma Sigma Sigma, said from a personal standpoint, hazing is any behavior that denigrates a peer or prevents a peer from engaging in a respectful manner with an organization.
“Hazing divides a chapter and creates a barrier between new versus old,” said Chris Blackburn, a volunteer for HazingPrevention.Org and Greek Life Director at the University of North Carolina at Pembrook. “Hazing establishes a ‘better-than-you’ mentality and can range from not allowing new members to sit on furniture, to forced consumption of alcohol.”
Concerning the long-held tradition of “pomping” within MU sororities, Richardson said the activity can’t be considered hazing.
“Pomping has been a tradition at the University for as long as homecoming has been around,” Richardson said. “It’s just for the betterment and success of homecoming.”
Wallace said pomping has the opportunity to be decisive.
“It can be considered hazing if new members have to do it to ‘put in their time’ because of ‘tradition,’” Wallace said. “Pomping takes a lot of time and there shouldn’t be unfair or unequal expectations. It needs to be a balanced activity.”
Hazing is considered a felony under Missouri state law. The law was passed in 1995 after the death of Michael Davis, a former Kappa Alpha Psi pledge at the Southeast Missouri State University who died from severe cranial bleeding induced by repeated blows from fraternity members.
“There is absolutely no tolerance concerning hazing,” Richardson said. “All members of fraternities and sororities are required to sign and return an anti-hazing contract to the Office of Greek Life in order to stay in good standing and receive recognition from the University of Missouri.”
Hazing is defined explicitly on several different levels within the official MU hazing policy — subtle hazing, harassment hazing and violent hazing. Each level has its own description, varying in severity from name-calling and sleep-deprivation, to coerced alcohol consumption and physical abuse.
“Hazing comes in many forms,” Richardson said. “Sometimes it seems so innocent that some victims might not know it’s hazing.”
Although hazing may be subtle, Wallace said, victims always have a gut feeling when they’re being disrespected.
“Nobody walks in to an organization and gets the warning, ‘In two weeks, you’re gonna feel like crap,’” Wallace said. “Sometimes they can’t identify what’s happening to them. The best thing to do is identify when an experience is not what they were told it was going to be, and to have a conversation to address it.”
As long as hazing exists, Wallace said, organizations are out of sync with the values upon which they were formed.
“We would love to not have a hazing organization, we would love not to have to volunteer for a hazing organization,” Blackburn said. “But we have students willing to be educated, to follow-up on that education and stand up for their beliefs. This gives us hope for people invested in the community.”
