When hazing results in injury or death, it is a serious problem that impacts the whole community. The problem is also easily preventable.
These were two of Hank Nuwer’s central messages in an anti-hazing forum Monday night in the EMU Ballroom.
Nuwer, a nationally known authority on hazing, delivered a speech, “When Rites Become Wrongs,” to headline the event. He is an author and television journalist whose segments about hazing have appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNN, ESPN and ABC’s 20/20.
“From 1970 to 2000, there was at least one death of a student from hazing each year,” said Nuwer, also a former fraternity member.
He called on audience members to help make 2001 the first year free from hazing deaths.
When Acasia Wilson, contemporary issues coordinator for the Cultural Forum, introduced Nuwer, she asked the audience how many had actually heard of a hazing incident. The majority of the audience members raised their hands.
“Hazing is an issue that affects the entire campus,” Wilson said. “There is hazing in sports, housing and the military — not just the Greek system.”
Though there have been few recent deaths in Oregon from hazing, “it is still a topic that is worth discussing,” said Hannah Unkefer, spokeswoman for the University’s Panhellenic Council.
Hazing is defined as “a power struggle where someone who is new to the group gives up power with the expectation of getting it back later,” Nuwer said.
“My next book will be about hazing in the Russian military since my grandfather, who was Polish, was conscripted into the Russian military for life,” she said. “My grandfather and his brother managed to escape.”
Hazing incidents often include alcohol, which makes the victim and the perpetrators both do things that they would never do sober, Nuwer said. One example is fraternity members’ pouring alcohol down the throat of someone who is already unconscious.
Nuwer said that though hazing is often considered a fraternity problem, it is also rampant in bands, military organizations and sports.
He presented stories, including photographs, of five young men who died in hazing incidents and described how catastrophic the deaths were for the victims’ families and fraternity brothers.
Hazing can involve verbal abuse, physical abuse and excessive calisthenics. It also includes the rite of passage in the military known as “pinning,” or shoving a metal pin into an aviator’s chest, Nuwer said.