Hazing is not a Joke

Christopher Harris, Contributor

Imagine you’re walking around at night and you begin to hear chanting from the darkness. You look around and no one is there, but the voices continue in unison. As you become worried, you realize that the voices are coming from underground beneath a storm drain. It sounds like something from a movie about a cult.

Last week, the events I described happened. A fraternity chapter, Pi Kappa Phi, held a ritual below ground in the sewers at Kennesaw State. Being a brother of this fraternity at Southern Polytechinc State University, where I served as president among other positions, I’m actually familiar with the ritual. It’s based on the poem called “Man in the Glass” by Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr. and can be found in our public pledge manual.

Although I’m not affiliated with any chapter anymore, I can imagine what was going on. I don’t know whether there were pledges beneath the storm drain, but I wish I could believe there weren’t. While the official word is that of silence, neither confirming nor denying pledges beneath the storm drain, I don’t know anyone who willingly goes into a sewer for a ritual, especially when actives usually skip the rituals to begin with. I have no choice but to assume there were pledges there.

Like every fraternity and sorority, there are secret rituals performed for both active members and pledges, and the location helps provide not only a sense of mystery but also the atmosphere.

The ritual in question, nor any Pi Kappa Phi ritual, does not need to be performed in a sewer though. In fact, this specific ritual actually calls for the opposite. Without telling the actual ritual, it invokes the reading of “Man in the Glass,” which is about being happy with yourself and the decisions you’ve made and not basing your choices or the opinion of others.

Having rituals in places like sewers and hazing in general are contrary to the values of Greek organizations. Many of you who read this will probably agree that hazing is bad but also go farther and dismiss Greek life altogether. I both understand and empathize. Hazing in undergraduate chapters of Greek organizations is why I decided to leave.

Hazing is detrimental to brotherhood and sisterhood and bleeds dry the values of what Greek organizations stand for. When I pledged, I was not hazed and I can call those in my fraternity brothers because we share the same values expressed through our rituals. Those who haze people deemed below them only for the purpose of having fun under any justification I do not call brothers.

If someone beats you, humiliates you, forces you into uncomfortable situations and removes you from your social group if you refuse, how are you supposed to call them brothers or sisters? Your pledge class bonds on the hatred of the actives and once you become active you turn into the people you hate. Your bonds are formed not on values, but on the ability to withstand mindless humor or even brutality in some cases.

One of the best lines from “Man in the Glass” is when the author writes, “It isn’t your father or mother or wife whose judgment upon you must pass,” and you can hear in the video the word “wife” substituted for “brother.” Are we supposed to believe that you need not pass the approval of people you know, including actives, when you’re brought to a sewer? When a chapter leaves you in a field and tells you to walk miles and miles back home? When a sorority pledge is forced to become sexually involved with a fraternity?

Greek life has so much to offer. It promises leadership, service opportunities, socializing, scholastic help, network opportunities and mostly the bond that occurs from spending time with those who share the same values as you. It isn’t exclusive in these attributes, but it is far and above the best at doing so.

Pi Kappa Phi stands for the values of character, leadership, academics, service and sportsmanship. Many Greek organizations have similar public values. Hazing undermines all of these and Phi Kappa Phi is no exception.

I have no tolerance for those who haze and no sympathy for when they are inevitably caught and punished.

As for the events, I hope either the active brothers or the national organization step forward and admit what happened and the guilty parties are punished accordingly. For every Greek organization, when they’re caught doing something bad just imagine what they haven’t been caught for.