Michael Bernard
Engl 2000
Prof Toucas
Final writing assignment
Hazing on LSU Campus
We have all witnessed that hilarious scene in old school, where will feral has a bunch
of pledges drop cinderblocks tied to their junk as proof that they trusted the active members. We
all see this as outrageous and hilarious, but how close is it to the truth. Louisiana State University
prides itself on its Greek community, hosting 19 fraternities and 13 sororities. I was a part of the
beta phi chapter of tau kappa epsilon, therefor I have more insight on the inner workings of
fraternities than the average Joe. During my time as a “teke” I witnessed the hazing I heard so
much about during my time as a freshman at LSU. I was able to see the extent some members
would go to push pledges and the amount of control it gave them over the pledges. I also came to
understand the reasoning behind the hazing, why it was done and the overall after-effect caused
by the hazing. Many outsiders see this as boys just bullying each other, but many do not realize
that this is a form of bonding, both between pledges and actives, and pledges and other pledges.
By researching the subject I found that hazing has many people who play a part in it. Not just
restricted to active members, but also alumni, other pledges, sorority members and non-member
university students. Hazing is also not a new invention, as it has been going on since the
beginning of fraternities. By researching the problem of hazing, I was able to come up with a
solution that might help put a stop to the situation.
The official Louisiana State university handbook, code of student conduct section 5.2.B.3
states, “Hazing is defined as any intentional, knowing, or reckless act, occurring on or off
campus, by one person alone or acting with others, that subjects a student to an unreasonable risk
of physical, mental, emotional or academic harm for reasons related to that student's status at the
University or for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into, affiliating with, holding office in,
or maintaining membership in any organization whose members are or include students at the
University.” Under this definition, the majority of fraternities are guilty of committing the sin of
hazing. But if this is true, then why does the university turn a blind eye to this behavior. The
main reason is because at one point or another, the board members who run the university were
frat members committing the exact same crime. I recently interviewed an active member of the
acacia fraternity, which was kicked off campus for “excessive” hazing caught on camera. The
member had this to say. “We’ve been warned before not to take it too far, but we kept getting
caught up in it (hazing) and some idiot actually taped it. We’ve (acacia members) made pledges
do stuff like bows and toes on bottle caps and made them clean the house for hours.”(Louviere) I
knew this was accurate, because it was pretty similar to my own experiences as a pledge. The
acacia member went on to say that, “Sometimes alumni would stop by the house to talk to the
prietnus (chapter president) and they would usually make the pledges resweeps the halls or
funnel a beer”. The alumni do this as a way to establish themselves as a dominant role among the
younger members. By watching alumni treat the pledges in this way, active members are inspired
to do the same once they are alumni.
Officially, hazing in fraternities is illegal and punishable by expulsion of the
students involved in said hazing and the chapter as a whole being kicked off campus. In my own
experience, TKE has a guidebook called the “blue book” which pledges are supposed to
complete instead of a pledging process. The book itself has detailed instructions on how to be a
proper man, everything from tying ties to changing a wheel on a car. This book is given to
pledges from the hegemon (pledge educator) who is then supposed to review the book everyday
with the pledges. I received this book on my first day as a pledge, and to this day I’ve never seen
the inside. Instead my fellow pledges and I were ushered into a small room and made to do
pushups until we were told to stop. Now at this point I find it only fair to mention that before any
hazing actually started, we were told that if we ever felt we were being pushed too far, then we
were to say stop, and the hazing would cease. At one point during my pledging, one of my
pledge brothers started crying, and he was immediately taken to another part of the house, given
water, and was told to relax. The point of this hazing was not to break us, but to force us to
become stronger together. After being subjected to the “torture” that is hazing, pledges are more
susceptible to conforming to the frat image.
LSU has a long history of hazing events taking place on its campus. One recording I
discovered of Earl Johnson, a student at LSU during World War 2, had Johnson describing the
hazing he would undergo at LSU from senior members, such as, “they (seniors) would announce
that we were basically living under the rules of a pleab at WestPoint, and for every little
transgression we were hazed, by hazed I mean beaten with a broom.”(Johnson) Whilst hazing
has come a long way from a beating with a stick, it is no less harmful to the person being hazed.
Today’s hazing is much more mental than physical, which in some ways is actually worse.
Physical hazing will heal with a little time, but mental hazing lasts much longer. At one point
during the recording, Johnson mentioned “the big hazing event” which was a tradition of LSU.
“The sophomores would come around with clippers and they would just clip us a path of hair
right down the middle the top of your hair, and then we would go with them back to their rooms
and they would finish the job.”(Johnson) This history of abuse at LSU is general knowledge to
most local students, who have grown up hearing horror stories about what happens at LSU.
These incidents that used to be brushed aside by faculty and taken care of “in house” are no
longer so easily contained. With today’s media and technology, all it takes is one video on
YouTube to expose hazing at LSU. This is exactly what happened to one fraternity on LSU
campus, Acacia.
A well-known and heavily manned fraternity on campus, Acacia had great standing in the
LSU community. Having 51 members and 43 recruits as of fall 2014, Acacia was in the running
for being the most popular fraternity at LSU. That is until one pledge came forward and revealed
what was really happening. The pledge videoed the fraternity members forcing pledges to do a
number of activities, such as eating dog food, excessive smoking, and forced exercises. The
video quickly gained attention and the LSU board of education was forced to intervene. While
researching this incident I came upon an article published by The Advocate, which stated,
“According to LSU, the university was notified of several allegations against the fraternity,
including forced alcohol consumption and physical violence. The university says it confirmed
those and other Student Code violations, including numerous acts of theft during a road trip to
Auburn University last fall. Those thefts included “several high value items from a tailgate and a
fraternity composite” from an Auburn fraternity house.”(Crisp) During an interview with a
former member of Acacia, I asked him if he felt that punishment of the fraternity seemed
justified. He responded, “I mean, I guess. I think that if you’re going to punish one frat for
hazing then you should punish them all. The only difference between Acacia’s hazing and every
other frat’s hazing, is that acacia got caught.”(Louviere) This goes to show that even though the
active members were caught hazing, they do not regret hazing, only getting caught. This ties in
to what Johnson mentioned about hazing being part of a long tradition. An official report I came
across in the LSU library while researching this incident had stated that, “the university was
notified of several allegations against the fraternity (acacia) including forced alcohol
consumption and physical violence” (AP) and afterwards, “LSU President and Chancellor F.
King Alexander said in a statement that hazing will not be tolerated at LSU. Alexander
suspended the fraternity until 2018.”(AP)
Another well-known incident of hazing that occurred on LSU campus, is that of the
hazing done by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, commonly called SAE. During pledgeship, pledges
were told that in order to join that they had to take the virginity of a sorority girl on campus,
video it, then afterword’s they were to spray paint the lions standing outside the SAE house the
colors of the girls sorority. This is an example of how hazing in fraternities does not just affect
the active members and pledges. One of these videos of a pledge taking a girls virginity was put
online and the sorority girl was shunned by the university and her own sorority. While talking
with one of the previous presidents of the chapter about the incident, I asked if he felt that this
constituted as hazing, and he replied, “Hazing is when you make someone do something they
don’t like, all we’re doing is letting the pledges have some fun, nobody got hurt” (Landry) When
asked what his thoughts about the video being put online were he responded, “that was a
(explicative) stupid move. They (the video uploader) ruined everything we were trying to create
here.” When asked how he felt about the sorority girl in the video, he stated, “She got a
(explicative) deal, I think it’s hypocritical to blame her, when most of them (sorority members)
have done the same.” (Landry)
Fraternities and Sororities have a long standing tradition of partnership. Fraternities on
LSU are known to have a chapter “sweetheart”, which usually comes in the form of a girl from
the sorority paired with that particular fraternity. In my case, the sorority paired with TKE was
kappa alpha theta, and our sweetheart was Chloe Gusler. The role of chapter sweetheart was to
cook meals for members, introduce members of the chapter to members of her sorority, and help
put on events hosting both fraternities and sororities. Another key role of the “sweetheart” was to
haze new members by making them do embarrassing tasks, such as cleaning her car shirtless, or
asking out a cute member of here sorority, knowing the pledge will be rejected. This goes to
show that hazing is not limited to just fraternities, but that sororities have their own fair share.
While talking with a member of the sorority kappa kappa gamma, I stated that in all the news,
only fraternities appeared where there were incidence of hazing and then I questioned if sorority
pledges were ever hazed. She replied, “We do, but it’s different. Our hazing consists of taking
away makeup or not letting pledges use their phone. Our pledge process is a lot more formal, but
that doesn’t mean we can’t haze at all.”(Miller)
Hazing has a long and complicated history within the walls of LSU, and has affected
many young students, leaving them physically and/or mentally wounded. If we are to progress as
a society, we must do away with these barbaric traditions forced upon us by our forefathers.
Hazing is just another form of bullying and should be treated as such. One solution to the hazing
problem would be to assign a mentor to each incoming student. These mentors should be
trustworthy students who are in good academic standing. Each mentor should be one year older
then the student/s they are mentoring, which would remove the power struggle caused by age
difference. If each mentor were to monitor one or two students, it would create a more personal
atmosphere, instead of the big group atmosphere that hazing is associated with. This would also
allow students to form friendships outside of their class group, reducing the animosity between
classes.
Sources
Campus Life Mission And Involvement Overview. 2013-2014TABLE OF CONTENTS (1 of 2)
(n.d.): n. pag. Web.
Crisp, Elizabeth. "LSU's Acacia Fraternity Booted from Campus following University Hazing
Probe." LSU's Acacia Fraternity Booted from Campus following University Hazing Probe. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.
Johnson, Earl. Lsu Voices from the past. Cassette 449. N.d. Cassette
"LSU’s Fraternity Booted from Campus following Hazing Probe." AP Regional State Report.
Louisiana, n.d. Web.
<="http://libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ns
m&AN=APa106f4f405f547a481b2b6a19a321558&site=eds-live&scope=site&profile=edsmain"LSU's fraternity booted from campus following hazing probe>.
Louviere, Drew. Personal interview.
Landry, Matthew. Personal interview. 29 Apr. 2015.
Miller, Morgan. Personal interview. 27 Apr. 2015.