FAMU scandal puts hazing back in the spotlight

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With the intense media coverage surrounding the death of FAMU 100 drum major Robert Champion, hazing is once again in the spotlight.

Hazing, or the ritualized activities used to initiate someone into a group, most commonly college fraternities and sororities, for the most part is ignored and secretive in nature. At its very worst this rite of passage can include alcohol abuse, degrading or humiliating situations involving mental, sexual or physical violence.

Unfortunately, hazing only gets press attention after a particularly brutal pledge forces at student to be hospitalized or when someone dies. Earlier this year, for example, one victim making headlines was Cornell University sophomore George Desdunes, a 19-year-old Haitian immigrant, who died from alcohol poisoning while pledging Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Julian White, the fired director of Florida A&M’s famed “Marching 100” band, claims hazing has been “rampant on university campuses” of the historically black college. He alleges he repeatedly warned university leaders over two decades about the dangers of hazing and says he’s been made the scapegoat for the events leading up to Champion’s death.

In fact, hazing is pervasive across all kinds of universities and students from all walks of life participate. Since 1970 there has been at least one hazing-related death on a college campus each year.

Hazing in sports, for example, is often ignored even when the school policy prohibits it, particularly when it involves coveted athletic teams. It has, for instance, been reported that football players at Penn State University received special treatment compared to other students when accused of violating school rules.

“As we’ve seen in these recent child molestation allegations at Penn State, sports programs, especially in basketball or football, are a dynasty on campus,” says clinical psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Gardere. “Coaches are treated as demigods and athletes are treated as titans. Players can get away with cheating in exams, slacking through school, or being a bit too rough with their girlfriends. People tend to look the other way because of their status,” he adds.

The issue of hazing, in both white and black Greek-letter organizations, has been a subject of debate for some time. In the case of white fraternities, alcohol abuse or binge drinking is an enormous problem. Officers of black fraternities say within black fraternities when hazing is taken to the extreme, it often involves violence.

In 2009, for instance, Prairie View A&M student Donnie Wade II collapsed and died after participating in a grueling series of physical activities while pledging to the African-American fraternity Phi Beta Sigma.The official line of HBCUs is strong action will be taken to eradicate the problem. However, even with strict anti-hazing policies, the problem still persists underground whether it is an athletic team, band or fraternity or sorority.

FAMU has been at the center of some of the worst cases. It has received seven reports of hazing in the last decade. “There have been well documented cases of hazing at the university,” says Ed Sylvain, a former drum major at FAMU. “You’d hear stuff about students getting suspended after someone was injured or involved in an accident.”

“Within the band, each section has its own subculture and some of these subcultures endorse hazing whether it’s paddling or something else,” Sylvain says. However, he concedes that during his tenure, director Julian White worked tirelessly to eradicate hazing within the band.

Mario Page, a Georgia based television cameraman, pledged to the all-black Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity as a 19-year-old undergraduate in early 1980s.

“We knew fraternities hazed but that didn’t stop us from joining” Page says. “We were willing to go through whatever it took to join. We were hazed but it was in a controlled environment. The problem is when people take it to the extreme.”

“In its extreme form hazing involves the intentional lowering of someone’s self-esteem” Dr. Gardere says. “They strip you of your identity and give you a new identity that is now bolstered through this exclusive group, which also gives you privileges and access. You start at the bottom of the totem pole and earn your way up the hierarchy until you become a full member.”

Dr. Gardere says there is a culture of hazing. “A person being hazed is a participant,” he says. “Students feel for it to be worthwhile and exclusive they need to earn their place. They want to transform themselves and work hard for the allegiance.

“People who have been hazed in the past now do the hazing. It’s their turn to be in a position of power and domination,” says Dr. Gardere.

Dr. Gardere, of the all-black Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, says at Rochester he pledged to a graduate group and they made sure that the hazing was never ever abusive. “Later on when I pledged students, I made sure they were required to do hours in the library and bring up our grades to a certain point before they could become part of that fraternity,” he says.

“Students want to join an organizations which bigger than themselves,” Dr. Gardere says. “It gives them a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood throughout college. As graduates they have a support system and lifelong network for jobs and connections.”

In fact, alumni chapters of black fraternities are well-known for being larger and more active than their white counterparts. Many take part in mentoring schemes and social responsible community programs.

Dr. Gardere says it would be a shame if the enormous contribution of black fraternities is overshadowed by the controversy surrounding hazing.