Leonarda Gisone November 16,2017 Abriana Jette FYW- Social Issue Assignment
The Evils of Hazing
Greek life, plays a major role on college campuses across the world. The idea of joining
either a fraternity or sorority crosses almost every college students mind during their years there
Every college student is exposed to Greek life in some way. Whether its walking around on
campus and seeing your peers with Greek letters on their clothes trying to figure out which
organization they're apart of, or actually being a part of one. Although it seems like everyone
you encounter is a part of Greek life, getting there isn't easy. In order to be a part of an
organization everyone there went through a six to ten-week process. This process isn't easy
especially with the intense and brutal hazing pledges have to go through in order to gain their
spot in their particular organization.
Hazing, any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes
embarrassment, harassment or ridicule. These actions often risk emotional and/or physical harm
to members of a group or team regardless of the person's willingness to participate. When most
people hear the term "hazing" the first thing they think of is fraternities and sororities during
their pledging process. Most think of Greek life, but hazing also occurs in the military, athletic
teams, and student organizations. Hazing is simply an abuse of power that could lead to harmful
and life threating situations. According to Hank Nuwer, hazing has been associated with more
than fifty deaths in college fraternities. Also, it has been associated with countless physical
injuries which include paralysis and the devastating emotional effects that it could have on the
young men and women being hazed (Hank Nuwer). So the same common question asked by
many, why is hazing still a thing when so many deaths and injuries result from it? Why hasn't
someone put a stop to it?
When it comes to hazing with fraternities and sororities, everyone from an outside
perspective always wonders, why do young men and women participate in such horrific and life.
threatening activities just to belong to a group? It's a very simple question with such a hard
explanation. No one really understands why they're putting up with all the hazing just to be a
part of an organization. Also, many potential members don't really know what they're getting
themselves into when they join. This is because they are not informed of the pledging process
and hazing will involve because all the information is covered in secret of the organization. The
secrecy plus the increasing harshness of the hazing over the weeks of the pledging process places
the pledges, the new members, in a very vulnerable position. With the pledge being vulnerable it
makes them more at risk for unfair treatment. Hazing is so underground and hidden that it's hard
for people to truly know what goes on. The people who have been hazed with great harm aren't
going to tell the severity of it