Greek Letters Don't Justify Cult-Like Hazing of
                    Pledges

                    By HANK NUWER

                    The term "cult" conjures up images of the burning of David
                    Koresh's Branch Davidian settlement and the mass suicide of Jim
                    Jones's Peoples Temple devotees. Most of us believe that cult
                    members are misfits who live in remote places; we take comfort in
                    the fact that their influences are far removed from our daily lives.

                    Yet, in fact, many students, faculty members, and administrators
                    regularly confront -- and even participate in -- cult-like behavior.
                    The most prevalent cultlike groups among us are the numerous fraternity and
                    sorority chapters that engage in abusive hazing practices on
                    campuses, large and small, all across the United States.

                    No one has a firm count of how many members of fraternities and
                    sororities engage in at least some form of cult-like activities. None
                    of the national organizations that represent Greek organizations on
                    various campuses have conducted formal surveys. But, based on
                    my research of the topic since 1978, I believe that the percentage
                    of Greeks, mainly male, who perform cult-like acts of hazing is
                    probably at least as high as the 20 per cent of athletes who
                    admitted in a recent national survey that they had been severely
                    hazed.

                    Examining the cult-like aspects of hazing in Greek organizations can
                    help us all understand why the practice is so difficult to stamp out.
                    It also reinforces the urgent need to find new strategies to prevent
                    the pledging-related injuries and deaths that have occurred for
                    decades, despite strong efforts to eradicate them.

                    The latest attempt to discourage hazing is the Massachusetts
                    Institute of Technology's decision to revoke the diploma of a
                    graduate who was accused of serving alcohol at an event where a
                    freshman pledge drank himself to death. However well-meaning,
                    M.I.T.'s gesture seemed only to make the graduate a scapegoat
                    and, more important, did not come to grips with the complex
                    influences on hazing. If we recognize that the abnormal behaviors
                    found in Greek organizations are similar to, and as deeply rooted
                    as, those found in cults, we will take a first step toward developing
                    a broader, more systematic approach to the problem.

                    In Cults in Our Midst, the author Margaret Thaler Singer, a
                    former adjunct professor of psychology at the University of
                    California at Berkeley, identifies many traits characteristic of cults,
                    traits that, I believe, are shared by fraternities and sororities that
                    practice hazing. I do not apply the term "cult-like" to the many
                    Greek groups that operate legally without hazing -- only to those
                    that use, in Singer's words about cults, "systematic" manipulation
                    and coercion to effect "psychological and social influence."

                    For instance, the control and isolation of newcomers is a technique
                    used both by cults and by fraternities and sororities that engage in
                    hazing. Some Greek groups order pledges to limit or suspend
                    communication and intimacy with parents, classmates, and others
                    outside the chapter. Members pressure pledges to give their
                    waking hours to the chapter, and deprive them of sleep to get
                    maximum involvement. Members of some fraternities order pledges
                    to avoid speaking to non-members. The members shave pledges'
                    heads, forbid them to take showers or change clothes, and
                    mandate the wearing of strange apparel.

                    Cut off from the day-to-day life of the college, fraternity and
                    sorority recruits develop, in Singer's words about cults in general,
                    an "enforced dependency." Just as cults convince recruits that
                    membership brings with it the one true answer, so, too, hazers
                    reassure tired, spirit-numbed pledges that the reasons for abuse will
                    become apparent after initiation. So, too, do they claim to be able
                    to satisfy all needs and wants.

                    Members of hazing fraternities and sororities, like those of some
                    cults, emphasize the notion of "family." They appeal to recruits who
                    consider themselves in need of friends and potential dating partners,
                    or who find themselves under stress in a new environment. And,
                    just as in cults, members of hazing fraternities and sororities believe
                    that pledges are not part of the brotherhood or sisterhood until they
                    have endured an ordeal or have successfully made it through an
                    initiation ceremony.

                    James C. Arnold, a policy associate at the Oregon University
                    System, has examined the alcohol addiction prevalent in white
                    college fraternities; his writings convince me that both cults and
                    hazing fraternities fall into the category of addictive organizations.
                    Many fraternities, especially those made up predominantly of white
                    males, have alcohol problems. Reports of alcohol-related injuries
                    and deaths in fraternities are so frequent as to be almost
                    commonplace. Predominantly African-American hazing groups
                    have fewer problems with alcohol. But activist leaders of those
                    groups, such as John Williams, founder of the Center for the Study
                    of Pan-Hellenic Issues, argue nonetheless that the quest of many
                    black pledges to complete physical ordeals in order to become
                    members can be an obsession, tantamount to an addiction.

                    Members of cults and of hazing Greek groups alike are extremists
                    who try to justify actions outside the range of normal human
                    behavior. Members of the one true family -- be they Greeks or
                    cultists -- veer away from conventional moral standards; they
                    tolerate members who perform illicit and even illegal acts behind
                    closed doors. Like cults, many Greek groups encourage
                    near-delusional feelings of invincibility; fail to heed an individual
                    member's moral qualms, in the interest of group unanimity; put a
                    newcomer in harm's way with seeming disregard for that person's
                    well-being; and, after a dangerous or fatal incident, deny that they
                    have erred, even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.

                    One difference between a cult and a Greek organization that
                    engages in hazing is that the latter lacks a quasi-deity, such as a
                    Koresh or a Jones. Nevertheless, at the local level, chapters that
                    haze have gung-ho pledge-class presidents or members who act as
                    "pledge educators." Those individuals pressure newcomers to
                    accept a collective identity and to put the chapter ahead of
                    self-interest. They resemble charismatic military and corporate
                    leaders who jump-start the stalled resolve of others, calm fears,
                    and renew fighting spirit. As scholars in the behavioral sciences
                    know full well, a group not only reflects such a leader, but can,
                    under his or her influence, suppress members' common sense and
                    rational thought.

                    Finally, just as cults make it hard for their members to leave,
                    fraternities and sororities make quitting as a pledge difficult. When
                    pledges in a high-intensity hazing fraternity or sorority decide not to
                    join after all, they can experience the same kind of post-traumatic
                    stress, disconnectedness, and angst that experts have associated
                    with cult members who opt to leave their group.

                    National Greek organizations, confederations, colleges, and
                    foundations have poured time, dollars, and soul into trying to
                    eliminate hazing behaviors. Yet those behaviors seem always to
                    repeat themselves, leaving everyone frustrated and wondering if the
                    problem will ever be solved.

                    Simply abolishing fraternities and sororities is not only impractical,
                    but also unfair to those Greeks who do not haze, and who support
                    the passage of anti-hazing legislation at the state level. It also is
                    unrealistic for national fraternities to say that once-sodden houses
                    will be "dry" by 2000, as executive directors of a number of
                    national fraternities envisioned several years ago. Only about nine
                    national fraternities were able to persuade their undergraduate
                    delegates to vote for no-alcohol rules by 2000, and even those
                    reformists have no power to stop students from returning
                    stumbling-drunk to their "dry" houses after imbibing to intoxication
                    at local pubs.

                    Nonetheless, I think that reforms can occur, if we recognize the
                    cult-like influences that prevail in many Greek groups, and develop
                    specific strategies to deal with them.

                    My solution is to abolish -- with no second chance to recolonize --
                    all hazing chapters that exhibit dangerous, cult-like behaviors.
                    Colleges and universities must identify clearly the rituals and acts
                    that are illegal or that have led to deaths, injuries, and incidents of
                    post-traumatic stress, and must publish those definitions widely in
                    anti-hazing policy statements.

                    Forty-one states have their own laws governing what constitutes
                    illegal hazing; colleges and universities can educate their students
                    about the laws that apply to them. In addition, institutions should
                    clarify which activities are dangerous, manipulative, or inconsiderate
                    of a pledge's human rights -- and then communicate those
                    characterizations often. Those steps would significantly strengthen
                    the general but often ineffectual institutional bans on hazing. We
                    must put an end to decades of passivity, during which institutional
                    leaders have been able to ignore the problem because its definition
                    has been so vague as to be meaningless.

                    College administrators must expel students who engage in illegal or
                    dangerous hazing practices. Away from the pressures of a group
                    identity, those hazers may finally examine their own thought
                    processes and the consequences of their actions. Since nine states
                    lack any anti-hazing laws, the Association of Fraternity Advisors
                    could specify which practices merit suspension or expulsion.

                    Campus leaders should employ trained counselors to help end
                    destructive patterns of behavior in student organizations. Too often
                    during rush weeks, Greek advisers heartily greet pledges but never
                    inform them that others like them have died or been injured during
                    pledging at institutions across the country. Instead, an expert in
                    abnormal behavior could describe examples of cult-like activities
                    during hazing and could tell pledges that they have an ethical
                    responsibility to report any such activities. Counselors should
                    routinely interview students who voluntarily resign or are
                    blackballed by the chapter, to ascertain whether hazing has
                    occurred.

                    Senior administrators should designate specific offices on their
                    campuses where victims of hazing can receive counseling. Many
                    institutions now provide support services for people who believe
                    that they have suffered sexual abuse. Hazing victims, however, have
                    no similar resources when they are feeling stunned, bewildered,
                    lost, or psychologically distressed (unless the hazing was sexual in
                    nature).

                    When pledges have been treated for alcohol overdoses or have
                    participated in dangerous hazing rituals, student-personnel
                    administrators should enroll them in mandatory counseling and
                    alcohol-awareness classes.

                    The magnitude of the problem is great, and other strategies should
                    be adopted as well. Among them:

                    * Whenever a fraternity or sorority, or one of its members, is
                    convicted of hazing in a criminal court or in a student judicial
                    procedure, campus administrators should keep a record of it, and
                    then publish those records each time rush is held. National fraternal
                    organizations should commission surveys on cult-like and hazing
                    behaviors, to ascertain the extent and severity of the problem.
                    When asked informally, individuals have often been unwilling to
                    admit to being hazed -- but they have given positive responses
                    when asked questions about specific hazing activities, such as
                    whether they have ever been forced to drink excessive amounts of
                    alcohol or eat contaminated food. By assessing the specific ordeals
                    that pledges have undergone, researchers could begin to get an
                    accurate picture of how prevalent and severe hazing is in fraternities
                    and sororities.

                    * We should put responsible adults in Greek living units. Colleges,
                    with support and guidance from national fraternity and sorority
                    headquarters, should hire trustworthy people and train them in
                    aspects of Greek life, notably how to deal with cult-like practices
                    and hazing.

                    * National Greek organizations must expel fraternity alumni who
                    cannot accept positive change or who themselves participate in
                    hazing activities that could result in death or injury. While many
                    alumni serve the fraternity or sorority system as mentors, financial
                    supporters, and moral consciences, a few others have been present
                    during initiations that have caused injuries or deaths. College
                    presidents should inform participating alumni that they have a duty
                    to report hazing, and that they must refrain from encouraging it.

                    * Courts, not student judicial groups, should handle those actions
                    that meet the definition of criminal hazing, as determined by each
                    state's laws. Often, student judicial groups -- whether comprising
                    students alone or administrators and faculty members as well --
                    view pledges as willing participants rather than susceptible victims
                    of cult-like groups; as a result, they punish hazers too lightly.
                    College administrators should encourage every state to enact harsh
                    legal penalties for hazing, and hand over to legal authorities any
                    cases that appear to involve criminal behavior.

                    * Finally, if college presidents cannot get results, Congress should
                    mandate hearings on the alcohol and hazing problems in our
                    institutions.

                    After decades of failed efforts, the message is clear: We must all
                    work together to attack the problem of hazing, with specific
                    strategies aimed at causing social change. College and university
                    presidents, student-affairs and other administrators, faculty
                    members, alumni, psychologists, substance-abuse counselors,
                    anti-hazing and anti-substance-abuse activists, legislators, and the
                    many non-hazing fraternities and sororities should all contribute to
                    the effort. Only then will we break the seductive, powerful grip of
                    the cult-like subcultures found in fraternal groups on too many
                    campuses.

                    Hank Nuwer is the author of Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities,
                    Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking (Indiana University Press,
                   2001 paperback), and an adjunct professor of journalism at Indiana
                    University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. He is also the author of  High School
                    Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs  published by
                    Franklin Watts in 2000.
 

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