Blog Post #2- Bailey Beeman

In Ethics in Higher Education, I chose to read the articles involving Greek life and the culture that surrounds it. The article I was specifically interested in was Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy: Inside Dartmouth’s Hazing Abuses written by Janet Reitman. The ‘Ivy League Frat Boy’ in the article is Andrew Lohse, former student and fraternity member at Dartmouth College. Of the problems surrounding Greek life, I was most intrigued by hazing rituals within fraternities and even more specifically, hazing rituals within Andrew Lohse’s chapter, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. While the article mainly focuses on Dartmouth’s Greek life, hazing and abuse of new pledges is a prominent issue throughout fraternities all across the country and needs to be stopped. In chapters across the nation, new pledges or potential new members are forced into inhuman tasks and must complete these tasks in order to be a part of the ‘brotherhood’ as described by Andrew Lohse. Because it is such a dangerous act that is so common, a monetary system is essential in insuring the safety and appropriateness of fraternity recruitment.  While it may seem as though colleges keep a close eye on their Greek chapters, that is often not the case; many colleges are not affiliated with their Greek chapters, therefore, they do not have set rules or monitory responsibilities. In Colorado State’s case, Greek life is closely affiliated with the campus and strict rules are often enforced because of it. A solution to hazing rituals may come from the college campus’ themselves; if all colleges were affiliated with their Greek life, they would enforce stricter rules which would lead to less hazing. If every college took the movement to affiliate with their Greek community, rules could be put in place and consequences for breaking these rules would go through the campus officials. In this case, the targeted stakeholders are university officials and Greek life organizers because they could play a massive role in putting an end to hazing, abuse, and the effects of fraternity recruitment. This issue is urgent because of people like Andrew Lohse who have gone through fraternity recruitment hazing as well as enforcing the abuse on the new pledges. Many of these men know that they are wrong in forcing such inhuman acts, yet they have no comfortable way of speaking out against their fraternity or brotherhood. Hazing within Greek communities is a vicious cycle and will be until action is taken and stricter rules are placed upon recruitment processes. Campus officials and Greek life organizers are the most logical audiences for this proposal because they can take action and get involved in making a difference. I firmly believe that hazing in major fraternities on the Colorado State campus is not a massive issue because Greek life is closely associated with our campus. If every college took the initiative to be affiliated with fraternities/sororities and imposed common rules, the Greek community would truly be a place for brother and sisterhood, instead of a place of fear and uncertainty.