Despite recent public attention and nationwide media coverage, hazing by members of sport teams in high schools and colleges continues at an alarming rate. Coaches and administrators who naively think hazing does not occur (or worse, overlook team initiations) are often surprised when a hazing problem is uncovered in their program. Hazing is…

Noting that high school students are just learning to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and that without healthy adult supervision, initiation rites may become hazing incidents, this study surveyed students' experiences with hazing and initiation activities. Participating in the survey were 1,541 students from a random…

A science teacher forgets to remind her students to wear their safety goggles during a chemistry experiment and one student is injured when the caustic chemicals he is working with splash into his eyes. A teacher is late for recess duty and a student falls from the swings and is injured. A principal sends one teacher and one student teacher on a…

Preliminary results of ongoing reviews of student treatment at the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy show the following: (1) hazing has not completely disappeared from the academies, despite prohibitions against it; (2) women and minorities have not reached the same level of achievement as white males in…

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are often regarded as sanctuaries, protected environments where young people explore great ideas in a collegial atmosphere and make lifelong friendships. Consequently, incidents of violence on campus are particularly shocking for the extended campus community, evoking questions about whether there is any…

This book serves as a sourcebook to enhance and evaluate safety programs, generate new solutions and interventions, comply with new legislation, and present practical steps and guidelines to establish best practices. It pays particular attention to the factors that may give rise to crime, considering high-risk drinking and examining the…

Reviews laws and court cases relating to alcohol and possible civil and criminal liability. Suggests a number of risk management principles, including knowledge of the law, policies forbidding hazing, fostering alcohol awareness, and discipline. (JAC)

Incidents of pledges' injury or death as a result of fraternity hazing warrant formal investigation by individual institutions. Survey results and personal interviews at Mississippi State University suggest that hazing exists. Institutions should reevaluate their policies on hazing. (NRB)

Greek advisors feel some sororities abuse vulnerable young women who will do almost anything, including self-destructive behavior sometimes leading to death, to join. Although awareness of hazing is increasing on campus, many of the activities persist. Members feel membership advantages outweigh problems. (MSE)

Discusses approaches to relations with college/university alumni members of fraternities and sororities in the context of widely reported incidents of serious accidents, hazing, and alcohol abuse. Offers examples of ways to reach out to Greek alumni from Hamilton College (New York), Bowdoin College (Maine), Dartmouth College (New Hampshire),…

Reviews 1998 cases of discrimination against students, focusing on discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, and disability and on hazing. Cases did not usually involve the blatant discriminatory acts that inspired antidiscrimination legislation. They involved increasingly complicated and subtle forms of discrimination and required more…

Because of the discriminatory practices and lack of appeal of many predominantly White Greek-letter organizations, students of color sought the development of their own. Alpha Phi Alpha, Rho Psi, MALIK Sigma Psi, Lambda Theta Phi, and Alpha Pi Omega set the stage for later African American, Asian, African, Latino and American Indian Greek-letter…

Anthropologists have documented the importance of rites of passage rituals for marking the successful passage from one position in the social structure to another. The characteristics and importance of rituals and rites of passage to mark the transition high school to college will be presented. It is proposed that colleges and universities utilize…

While studies by Stanley Milgram have shown that obedience to authority influences subjects' willingness to engage in behavior potentially harmful to others, Drout and Vandler (1992) found that observers consider an authority figure who harms or commands another person to harm someone more responsible and punishable than the obedient subordinate.…

At the annual meeting of the National Interfraternity Conference, the national presidents of 59 fraternities voted to study alternatives to pledging. Some think that pledging has become synonymous with hazing, and that eliminating pledging would reduce the chances for abuse. (MLW)