New claims surface regarding Penn State football trainer’s testimony…
http://wjactv.com/news/local/new-claims-surface-regarding-penn-state-football-trainers-testimony
Grand jury report on Penn State frat culture of ‘hazing and excessive alcohol’ to be released…
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/12/penn_state_hazing_excessive_dr.html
DA Stacy Parks Miller to announce Grand Jury’s Report, Recommendations for Penn State greek life…
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/crime_courts/article_5e6ace9a-df87-11e7-ad07-233aab35857d.html
Hazing expert Walter Kimbrough: 2017 one of deadliest years for campus fraternity deaths…
http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_fec19898-deaa-11e7-b582-473f747ba4ee.html
READ: Stunning grand jury report on Penn State University fraternity culture…
http://6abc.com/read-stunning-grand-jury-report-on-penn-state-frat-culture/2784700/
Grand jury: Penn State showed ‘shocking apathy’ to drinking…
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/grand-jury-report-due-fraternity-culture-penn-state-51811334
Penn State fraternity oversight was ‘a joke and a catastrophe’: DA on grand jury report…
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/12/penn_state_fraternity_hazing_g_1.html
“Grand jury report: Penn State failed to properly monitor frats, hazing”
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/grand-jury-report-on-psu-frat-life-to-be-released-20171215.html
ugh. And I really mean that. These colleges say that they’re all over it but the reality is that they don’t want to give up those alumni dollars so they can’t risk offending past frat members. It’s a mess.
They CAN risk those tainted alumni dollars and many have. Some chose not to because the administrators of those colleges, including Penn, are part of the problem.
I have yet to read about a college that phased out frats that ends up regretting it. I’ve done two dozens tours. A majority don’t have frats now and all of them that didn’t bragged about it on the tour. They clearly saw it as a marketable positive and if anything were trying to compete over who did it first.
I hope you’re right @citivas No one loathes the fraternity system more than me…from its emphasis on drinking to its emphasis on exclusion (right when a kid should be having the most chances to meet others, he’s filtered into a group of kids just like him).
My kid is attending a state university with a largish greek life presence. He’s not in a frat (no interest , thank god…he’s on a sports team and that takes all of his time) but his roommate pledged one of the largest fraternities and its really been a disaster. he didn’t know this kid before they roomed together but this kid was so cheery, so healthy, so together when we met him during orientation. After rush, he seldom made it back to the dorm before 2 (even when he had 8 am classes), stopped working out (no time…he had to do crazy things like go the fraternity at 6:30 in the morning to clean as part of hazing) and now has fallen sick (maybe mono?) and has had to ask an extension on his final exams and has gone home. He could be a poster boy for what NOT to do in the first semester.
Penn States leadership has a long, long hisory of placing self preservaion as its 1st priority. Just look at the ongoing Sandusky scandal, admissions and now the frat history. Pleasing the alumni…sports and frats. It is time for leadership to lead…as corny as it sounds…the popular choice is not always the right choice…PSU - start making the right choices…please.
Did you mean to refer to Penn there? The school is far from perfect where Greek Life is concerned, but I wouldn’t put it in the same league as Penn State.
From CNN…“Grand jury slams Penn State for ignoring reports on dangerous hazing”
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/us/penn-state-fraternity-hazing-grand-jury-report/index.html
“The report described activities such as the “elephant walk,” in which pledges had to walk in a circle while inserting a finger into the anus of the pledge in front of them and cupping the scrotum of the pledge behind them. There were also “crate races,” where pledges had to finish the contents of a crate of several bottles of alcohol and beer; and forcing pledges to drink concoctions of old food and condiments blended together – and in one case, a drink made from cat food, urine, semen and alcohol – which usually resulted in the participants vomiting.”
How could anyone justify greek behavior after learning this? It is insane that this is tolerated anywhere!
Eliminate ‘these dens of depravity’…NBC
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hazing-in-america/penn-state-hazing-death-grand-jury-report-highlights-school-s-n829991
I’m with bester – while I appreciate what seems to actually be a crackdown at PSU, at last, it’s too little too late. Close 'em all. And what kind of young man is so despearate to be included that he would tolerate or instigate this kind of abuse? Eternal question, I know. Neither of mine were remotely interested, otoh, I have nieces who were very much challenged, changed, and matured in their greek systems. I was in a sorority for the three months it took from the inside to see the racists and elitists were setting a tone I couldn’t be part of. My heart breaks for all the parents who have suffered .
From Students at PSU…LISTEN: Ex-Penn State frat brother compares university’s handling of Tim Piazza’s death to Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_e4ef0d9a-e1c2-11e7-8ef2-ab0e44bc4242.html
“The fact that Penn State held the information, withheld it … I mean what is this, Joe Paterno all over again?” James Vivenzio said, referencing meetings with higher-up university officials in 2015, in which he says he indicated flaws in Penn State greek life that were ultimately ignored."
This is a leadership issue
The BBC has an article on it and it’s among their top 10 news of the day.
I agree it’s a leadership issue.
It doesn’t matter what fraternities elsewhere do. What matters is what Penn State does after all these years of failing its students.
As for why young men submit: it’s the story of the frog. if you throw it into a pot of boiling water, it jumps out. if you throw it into lukewarm water it swims around even if the temperature rises little by little. And when the water’s really hot, the frog is half cooked and can’t get out…
Submitting to peer pressure doesn’t mean you consent.
The need to completely purge the leadership including the Board. They need to clean house and replace the leadership with outsiders who have experience at schools that have phased out frats and regulated sports programs to remain secondary in priority to academics. Let the frat alumni scream and withhold their donations. So they won’t have as much money to spend on the sports program – sounds like a good thing for this school’s culture at this time.
Apparently the sports program pays for itself. The Alumni donations go elsewhere.
Changes nothing. This is a school. Frats and sports programs should only exist to the extent they contribute positively to the overall academic culture. Even worse, it’s a public school. Theoretically a really bad private school could decide to prioritize sports and partying over academics as it’s mission, though from what I have seen these smart private schools are more likely to eliminate frats than the public ones. But a public school has an obligation to its’s state’s citizens to prioritize education.
Very few of the athletes belong to frats, they don’t have time. Their graduation rate and gpa are higher than the national and state average. There’s no need to conflate athletics with frats (apart from the obvious administrative malfeasance regarding either). And as we often point out, Penn State is a public university mostly in legality and name. Very little of the funding actually comes from the state of PA.
There are thosands of PSU students doing really impressive intellectual work. It is a hard school to party at AND be successful. Much of the continuing problems with the frats comes from wealthy adult alum who will not just stop reliving their alcohol fueled college days. Yes there is a problem, and yes, PSU has handled it poorly.