I visited Dartmouth and I loved it: beautiful campus, the D-Plan, plenty of opportunities for outdoor activities, and more. Then I heard some horror stories about Greek life, particularly fraternity hazing. Do any current Dartmouth students/recent alumni know if there are fraternities that are less brutal to pledges? If so, which ones specifically?
Don’t believe everything you “heard”.
Well, there’s a pretty good record indicating that yes, hazing can be brutal.
Note that hazing, brutal or otherwise, is illegal.
Yes. Hazing can be brutal. Example: the death of the band drum major at Florida State (which was not even a fraternity instance.) Do you have any personal knowledge of brutal fraternity hazing at Dartmouth? I do not count the Rolling Stone “reporting”. The entire Greek system at Dartmouth is on thin ice at this point. Two fraternities have been decertified/unrecognized (I forget what “term of art” they are using). In the current climate, hazing would be the least of my worries. Seriously. If they step out of line even a little bit, that house is toast.
AD was derecognized because some students branded themselves with the house letters, and they were already on some kind of probation for other offenses. The branding was found to be voluntary by the Hanover police, or they would have been prosecuted for hazing.
SAE–the house featured in the RS article–was given the heave ho by their national organization because of alcohol-related hazing. (How dumb did they have to be to engage in this at that time?) The college rules allowed the college to follow suit.
Pres Hanlon, an AD brother himself, seems to be very serious about reform.
From what I have gleaned, I think that you would find that the less bro-ish fraternities, such as Sig Ep, Sig Nu, and Bones Gate are unlikely to want to engage in nasty hazing.
Fraternity rush isn’t available to Freshmen anyway. That’s actually really good because it gives you a full year to get to know the people and flavors of the frats. It’s easy to make a list based on my experiences, but it’s probably inaccurate now, since the people are what make the fraternity experience. Take your time and trust your instincts if you end up rushing. Odds are you’ll meet up with some upperclassmen that are in frats that will be able to suggest or warn you if you’re uncomfortable with the fraternity idea. I had no desire to parade around naked or chug beer until I passed out, and I found a fraternity that I never felt pressured to be hazed to fit in. Others enjoy that process and will choose the more… heavy pledge term houses.
I can guarantee based on my own experience that the people that joined those houses listed above all knew what the level of hazing was going to be before they joined, so join one that fits your level of comfort and where you feel camaraderie with the members. Or don’t join any if none are a good fit for you. Greek parties and houses are all open to campus (except Wednesday nights) and you’ll have friends around each house to play pong with even if you’re unaffiliated.
The only organized hazing or harassment by one group of students of another group that I’ve heard about recently on the DC campus was the defacement yesterday (or the day before) by the Black Lives Matter crowd of the Blue Lives Matter posters prominently placed on a large public bulletin board by the Dartmouth College Republicans. Although President Hanlon decried such acts by BLM, I’m still waiting for the school to take bolder actions against these miscreants. (Hmmm…I wonder what the college would do to one of those wicked fraternities if it had been pulling such wholly disrupting stunts on campus as BLM has been perpetrating over the past several months at Dartmouth and that have been garnering for the school an array of most unfavorable national news, none of which it can afford?) >:P
Although I do not agree with the actions of the protestors, labelling people taking down posters as hazing is a really far stretch.
I agree. It obviously was not “hazing.”
To haze is to harass. To harass is to impede, hound, torment, attack, intimidate, assail, set upon, etc… Someone bent on demeaning/hounding another does not have to abuse the other physically in order to haze. Harassment…hazing…comes in many shapes and forms. The act by one group of taking down and ripping apart, in open defiance of school policy, the public statements properly erected and legally permitted by another group is hazing, harassment and a notorious attack against such other group. And if someone, somehow, thinks that this act is not “hazing”, then it is worst than hazing, for which BLM should be punished.
@toombs61
What a broad and lazy definition. I get that you don’t like BLM, but you are making a fool of yourself for painting this incident for something it isn’t. Hazing and harassment are obviously not the same entity. By definition, hazing occurs only if harassment is used for an initiation process.
Webster dictionary definition:
the action of hazing; especially : an initiation process involving harassment
Google definition:
noun
the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation.
“army cadets were hospitalized for injuries caused by hazing”
humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiation rituals, especially as imposed on college students seeking membership to a fraternity or sorority.
“seven officers of the fraternity were charged with hazing”
Wikipedia definition:
Hazing is the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group. Hazing is seen in many different types of social groups, including gangs, sports teams, schools, military units, and fraternities and sororities.
I think the word you are looking for is “protest.”
You, Oberyn, I fear that you have made a fool of yourself here, not I. Also, you are lazy, if not devious, in employing the word “haze” and then instructing us/me on the one and only true meaning of that word.
What BLM did to the GOP club at Dartmouth was hazing. I am sorry that you don’t like the word or the way I used it. But please file your complaint with Noah Webster, not with me. In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, “haze” is defined three ways, and NOT “only” (as you rudely insist) in connection with the 'initiation process ". One of the definitions of the word “haze” is “to harass by banter, ridicule or criticism”. When the BLM ripped down the GOP "Blue Lives Matter"posters and then erected in place thereof its posters proclaiming “Black Lives Matter”, BLM harassed the GOP Club by ridiculing it, demeaning it and criticizing it. In sum, BLM hazed the GOP Club. Now, you may call such action by the BLM a “protest”, if you wish.
The first thing I would note is that joining a frat is a choice. In other words, there is not need to go anywhere near the possibility of a situation you might dread.
Thing two is that fraternities at Dartmouth have a range of reputations. Students tend to gravitate toward the houses that suit their personal and social style. The system is big enough that there is a range of options and these options are pretty clear once you start talking to people. Upperclassmen are pretty open about what is involved with each house, which mostly involves degrees of drinking. In other words, you can have good sense of what lies ahead.
Above all, if you do not like what is going on you can always say no or walk away.
Just stand tall. No means no. If someone tells you you have to do something that you do not want to do, tell him to KI$$ ure Alpha Sierra Sierra.