"Hazing is very much alive and part of our Greek community today; it is back in a big way," said Gary Bonas, director of leadership and development at Villanova University and a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity's national board of directors.
Last night hundreds of new Greek house members gathered in Alumni Hall to hear a mandatory speech on hazing titled, "Broken Pledges," which Bonas made.
"I think the issue is that we do stupid things. We go around telling people we are the best, the leaders and then they see what we do," Bonas said.
Bonas gave many examples of hazing nightmares such as branding, excessive drinking and gauntlets where new pledges were beaten to death.
"Obviously these are horror stories, the extremes, but sometimes the lines are blurred," Bonas said.
"If in your mind you have the slightest idea that this is not right, deem it hazing and bag it. You can say no," Bonas said.
He then moved into the audience and attempted to expose the blurred lines of what is and is not hazing by citing specific examples of pledge related activities among the new members present.
Some new members found these examples to be ineffective and unnecessary.
"Mr. Bonas presented only extreme and trivial cases of hazing, such as lunch boxes and reversed shirts, failing to touch on the middle ground (like basement drinking) that seems to present the most danger to Dartmouth students," Jodi Scarpa '97, a sorority pledge, said.
Audience reaction was mixed. There were spurts of uncomfortable laughter at some of the examples that Bonas cited, such as a pledge who almost "lost his family jewels," while scaling a cast iron fence on a scavenger hunt.
At other times the mood of the audience was very somber, especially when Bonas told stories of pledges who lost their lives while participating in hazing activities.
Still, some new members could be seen rolling their eyes at the presentation or dozing off.
Bonas urged both new and old members to fully realize the repercussions of their activities.
"You have embarked on the greatest adventure of your life -- joining the Greek family. It only takes one action by you to ruin it for all of us," Bonas said.
Bonas' speech is the first in a series of three lecture/workshops presented by the Coed Fraternity Sorority Council to educate new members of the CFS system on some of the issues they will encounter as pledges.
