Wednesday, December 14, 2011

FAMU Tragedy Or Not, Hazing Will Go On As Usual

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- For all of the tears shed and pain felt in the aftermath of Robert Champion’s death, it is likely that the practice of hazing will continue. We need only review the number of young men and women who died before Champion took his final breath.

According to figures tallied by Hank Nuwer, an internationally renowned scholar on hazing, an average
of one college student per year has died as a result of hazing since the early 1800s.  In October of 2010, Samuel Mason died while pledging for the Fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon at Radford University in Virginia.



“Just 2 years ago, Donnie Wade died trying to join Phi Beta Sigma at Prairie View A&M, but most people know nothing about that case because America has accepted hazing in fraternities and sororities,” says Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College and an expert on hazing.

That said, hazing is such a facet of so many fraternities’ and sororities’ cultural norm that ridding them of the practice would be akin to stripping them of much of their identity.

A recent study titled "Hazing in View: College Students At Risk" based on ...

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