HazingPrevention.Org Newsletter

HAPPY HOLIDAYS & BEST WISHES FOR A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2010!

Newsletter

December 2009

Greetings!

Many exciting things continue to take place in the world of hazing prevention and YOU play an instrumental role in this movement. Thank you to everyone who observed National Hazing Prevention Week, nominated someone for a Hank Nuwer Anti-Hazing Hero Award, participated in a webinar or visited our booth at the recent Association of Fraternity and Sorority Advisors Annual Meeting.

As the holidays quickly approach, I hope you are able to enjoy some downtime with family and friends before the start of the spring term. Look for our display at Greek regional conferences this spring. We will also be attending the NASPA conference, March 10, in Chicago to present the first Zeta Tau Alpha Award for Innovation in Campus Hazing Prevention & Programming. Four campuses submitted applications for this inaugural award: University of Arizona, Drexel University, Florida State University and the University of Texas - Arlington.

Thank you to the ten campuses that submitted outstanding proposals to host our 2010 Interdisciplinary Institute - renamed in honor of its creator and lead facilitator, Kim Novak. The Novak Institute for Hazing Prevention will be held June 9-12, 2010 on the campus of SUNY-Geneseo, a short drive from the Rochester, NY airport. Please mark your calendars and plan to join us. More details and registration information will be available in mid-February.
Signature

2009 Hazing: Year in Review

by Hank Nuwer

    The year 2009 included some of the most exciting hazing education developments ever attempted.
    Chief among notable accomplishments was a "think tank" in October devoted to the development of solutions to hazing based on hard research and the best educational theories available today. Co-sponsored by the University of Maine and HazingPrevention.Org, the sixth annual National Hazing Symposium brought leading researchers, practitioners and student life professionals together to develop the first-ever national agenda for hazing prevention. Notes from the meeting are being compiled at the University of Maine, and an initial report will be available in March with the full agenda being released summer 2010.
    There also were a flurry of creative programs and endeavors to address hazing prevention in September during National Hazing Prevention Week. Phi Delta Theta Fraternity posted a week-long blog addressing alcohol and hazing issues, including essays written by seven nationally known researchers and practitioners in the area of hazing research.
    In another exciting development, Zeta Tau Alpha and the ZTA Foundation partnered with HPO to offer a $10,000 award to the collegiate institution demonstrating the most innovative, comprehensive program aimed at reducing or eradicating hazing practices on campus. Four campuses applied for this first award, and the winner will be announced in March.
   In October, a hazing milestone of sorts was reached when the 20th anniversary of board member Hank Nuwer's "Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing" was celebrated at the National Hazing Symposium. This was the first book to address the issue of hazing as a societal problem, not merely a fraternity and sorority issue. This year also was the 50th anniversary of the death of Richard Swanson who choked on liver during a hazing by Kappa Sigma, an incident re-created years later in the movie Fraternity Row.
    There also were reminders that hazing practices continue to be violent and degrading. In October, police began investigating the death of Phi Beta Sigma pledge Donnie Wade of Prairie View A & M University who collapsed and died during a so-called exercise session.
    Arman Partamian, 19, a sophomore from the New York City borough of Queens, died March 1 following an alcohol-sodden hazing party put on by a subrosa State University of New York at Geneseo local fraternity.
   In November, a Phi Delta Theta new member at the University of Arkansas survived a .68 BAC after a hazing party, causing the international fraternity to dissolve the chapter.
   On a happier note, SUNY Geneseo was chosen by HPO as the site for the 2010 Hazing Prevention Institute to be held June 9-12, 2010. The institute was renamed this year in honor of its creator and lead facilitator, Kim Novak, a longtime nationally known anti-hazing advocate and educator.
   Internationally, hazing deaths also continued. The Phillippines endured three brutal deaths.

John Daniel L. Samparada, 18, a Tau Gamma Phi fraternity pledge at Lyceum of the Philippines in General Trias, was beaten to death in a brutal physical hazing in October.

Also in October, Scout Royal Brotherhood (SRB) in Cavite province was held responsible for the death of 21-year-old neophyte Elvis Sinalia.

Then in November, a girl was shot and murdered when a gun meant to intimidate her in a hazing was accidentally fired. The victim was Glacy Monique Dimaranan who also was trying to become a member of the Scout Royal Brotherhood (SRB). Several men were charged, including the group's 33-year-old adviser.

Alfred Study: Ten Years Later

by Lisa Gregory

Being part of a group plays a role in nearly every student's life.
In fact, 91 percent of high school students join at least one group, according to the "Initiation Rites in American High Schools" study conducted by Norm Pollard in 2000. Forty-eight percent of students who belong to groups also reported being subjected to hazing.
Similarly, in Pollard's 1999 "Initiation Rites and Athletics" study, 80 percent of NCAA student athletes participate in team initiation behaviors that could be defined as hazing, but only 12 percent actually reported they were hazed. Clearly, there is a disconnect between behaviors students actually engaged in and how they labeled these acts.

Ten years after these studies, it is unclear if the number of students hazed is growing. What has stayed the same is that students are unable to clearly distinguish between levels of severity in hazing.
"They weren't calling hazing 'hazing,'" said Pollard, director of counseling and student development at Alfred University.
The National Study of Student Hazing, conducted in 2008 by University of Maine researchers Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden, asked similar questions to a broader audience and found similar results and disconnects 10 years later, but also found that hazing may become increasingly more public.

In more than half of the hazing incidents in the study, a member of the offending group admits to posting pictures on a public web space. Twenty-five percent of coaches or organization advisors were aware of a group's hazing behaviors. These disturbing results indicate that for too many students, hazing is regarded as "normal" even though banned and even forbidden by institution rules and 44 state laws.

"If [adults] don't say no and aren't clear and consistent about what's appropriate or inappropriate, [students will] view that as a nod and a wink that it's OK. If no one intervenes, they will do much more dangerous things in private. Adults need to take the stand as far as enforcing policy [...] They need to be mentors and help students understand how to be a part of something that is larger than your own individuality," said Pollard.

Pollard continues to be active in anti-hazing research. He was a featured presenter last October at the National Hazing Symposium at the University of Maine as well as last summer's Interdisciplinary Institute for Hazing Intervention at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Spotlight: HPO Volunteer Elliot Hopkins, NFHS

by Ruth Goodman

Elliot Hopkins became a volunteer member of the HPO advisory board in 2009, but has been involved since 2004 when he attended the very first National Hazing Symposium. A devoted family man with a passion for sports and motorcycles (he teaches a class in motorcycle safety), Hopkins is also an executive with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), a leadership organization for athletics and other student activities. For nearly seven years, he has placed hazing education high on his list of priorities for summer workshops for coaches and athletes. Here, the former Wake Forest University football captain discusses his passion for eradicating hazing in athletics with HPO Newsletter Associate Editor Ruth Goodman.

Goodman: Many readers may not be aware of the kinds of hazing taking place in high school athletics and how predominant it is. Can you please give readers "the lay of the land" so they have a sense of what's happening?

Hopkins: Unfortunately, hazing is becoming more prominent in high
schools, middle schools and junior high schools. We are finding that
the incidents run the gamut from older students requiring the younger, less powerful team/group members to wear funny clothes or sing silly songs in front of the student body to physically hurting their teammates by beating them with items, socks filled with rocks, coins, and marbles, on up to sexual assault. They are injuring their teammates' genitalia through insidious means and methods. This is not bonding but assault.

Goodman: Have any inroads been made to halt high school hazing or is this a time of crisis?

Hopkins: We are in a dire time of crisis. When the Alfred
University study came out in 1999-2000, that should have been the
wake-up call for high school administrations to react nationally and
view this practice as the crime it is. While doing research for a
capstone paper for my Master's, I have found that at least one college student has lost their life from hazing every year since 1970. I am concerned that high school students will begin to be included in this reprehensible statistic.

Goodman: How do you get coaches and players to buy in to your message?

Hopkins: Speaking as an educator, we need to place the consequences directly in their [hazers'] faces and the faces of the parents. We must demand that they assume the responsibility for their team's actions and behaviors. We have to assist them in finding alternative actions to build team unity and cohesion. Humility and degradation cannot be the only method for a young person to learn how to work with their peers toward a set of goals.

Goodman: What role is HPO playing to help put an end to high school hazing?

Hopkins: HPO is an extremely valuable resource. Not enough non-collegiate schools are aware of the information and suggestions HPO can provide. The NFHS works closely with HPO and supports its efforts. Obviously, our focus is on interscholastic hazing and prevention at this level. However, our efforts are strengthened by HPO's commitment to eliminating hazing.

Goodman: Can you give me a little background on yourself?

Hopkins: I was a high level high school and college athlete. My first experience with hazing was with my daughter who was pledging a Greek-letter organization in college and experienced a hazing incident. It really hit home. That an intelligent young person would allow the things she allowed to occur in her life to be a part of this group dumbfounded me.

Goodman: What prompted your interest in working for the NFHS?

Hopkins: I believe in what the NFHS stands for, [just as] we provide lifetime lessons for the young people who participate in our programs. Regardless of their playing status, through participation in interscholastic activities and athletics we are creating better young people and hopefully positive and contributing future adults.
___________________________________________________________
New HazingPrevention.Org Board Members

by Lisa Thibault

HazingPrevention.Org is pleased to announce the appointment of its new members to the board of directors. Responsibilities for board members include determining the mission and purpose of HPO, insuring effective organizational planning, supporting the executive director and fiscal oversight.

Chad Ellsworth is the coordinator for the Office for Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Minnesota. In 2007, he received the Outstanding Volunteer Award from the Association of Fraternity Advisors and the Anti-Hazing Hero Award from HPO.

Matt Jarrard is a campaign consultant for The Laurus Group and assistant director of development for Kappa Delta Rho, the fraternity he joined at Franklin College. At Laurus, he provides campaign leadership, volunteer training, and major gift solicitations for fraternity and sorority housing corporations.

Mary Wilfert is the associate director of health and safety for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). For the past 10 years, she has represented the NCAA at national meetings on wellness issues for college students and has developed health and safety education programs for NCAA student athletes. She spearheaded a successful attempt to address athletic hazing at the 2008 NCAA convention.

Anna Zinko is a graduate student in student affairs at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She is also a graduate assistant in the Office of Student Life at State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College. She served as chapter president for Alpha Epsilon Phi at SUNY Plattsburgh.

These new members replace those who are leaving the board: Dan Bureau, who will continue to serve as volunteer coordinator; David Stollman, who served as treasurer; Lisa Hurwitz, student member, whose term ends December 2009; and Mandi Wise a board member at large. HPO salutes and thanks them for their service.

THANK YOU 2009-2010 PLATINUM LEVEL SPONSORS

Kappa Alpha Theta - NEW sponsor
Pi Beta Phi - 5 year sponsor
Zeta Tau Alpha - 3 year sponsor
Plattsburgh State University - 2 year sponsor

OUR WORK WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT
YOUR EXTRAORDINARY SUPPORT.

For a list of all organizations and campuses that sponsor our work, and to find out how you can become a sponsor, go here. Sponsorship forms are linked on the right-hand side of the page.