Cpw - a parent's nightmare! Please help

collegealum314
Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:48:39 +0000

collegealum314, an awful lot of your argument appears to be predicated on the assumption that there is a lot of hazing in the MIT fraternity system that is not optional for pledges. Although I have no direct experience being a member of a fraternity, I do know many people who are, and no one I know went through the kinds of things you are describing



Well, first, we have to define what hazing means before we can talk about it.

I define it as:

1. mandatory drinking rituals

2. physical abuse
3 planning activities without notice, such as weekend trips that you are told about when you are supposed to leave.
4.)elements of “breaking them down to build them up” mentality, which can include 1-3. It can also include an inordinate amount of verbal criticism of what the pledges are doing not being good enough.

I’d say the majority of fraternities have one or more of the above. And no, they don’t do a job of eliminating it. Just last year one of the pledges complained about hazing at their fraternity, the fraternity got penalized, and then they appealed and the penalty was retracted. All this happened and was reported in the Tech, yet it was never mentioned what the hazing was. It was swept under the rug. Keep in mind it is extremely rare for a pledge to actually report a fraternity; they generally just depledge.

And I don’t think people would talk about it to their friends, especially if they decide the hazing was worth it. How many people were hazed, joined the fraternity, then hazed the incoming freshmen? It makes you look like a jerk to accept being hazed, and even moreso to continue doing it after you get full membership. Psychologically, I think people minimize what happened to them when they decide to stay. They decide it’s “no big deal.”

Since this is a tangent from the original post, I’m going to step back now from the discussion.