The fraternity house of Fmr. Innovate Presidential Candidate, Scott Kennelly, as reported in IFAlligator, will prepare to begin a suspension period January 2009.
The issue of hazing goes all the way back to August 2005 (the very first post of this blog, then dealing with the KA suspension).
Hazing is a touchy subject. Pledges are hand-picked by each fraternity and from a pool of candidates that visit the houses during Fall or Spring Rush Week. Pledges are expected to earn their keep, impress the brothers, and do as they're told - no questions asked. A good pledge keeps his mouth shut and acts in the best interest of the house. Pledges that rat out their brothers should never have been in the process to begin with. And this is coming from a guy hated by the majority of his brothers (mainly because of Access and electing one of four African American SBP's in UF history).
On the fraternity end, the E-Board is expected to keep its Pledge Masters (the brothers in charge of pledges) in line. In many houses, the President will operate with as little knowledge regarding the pledges as possible -- this is a popular strategy.
Popular hazing techniques of the current decade at UF include sleep deprivation, confinement, compulsary domestic services, paddling, and other more distinct acts reserved from comment that tend to strike fear and humiliation into the pledge. The more prestigious the fraternity - the harder the pledging; many times the Pledge Masters oppose a single member from crossing, but if blackballing is not an option, they will raise the bar as high as possible to get the target member to either drop off or have the Pledge Class take care of the matter on their own. Sometimes, for as much as a member may be disliked, if he's able to meet all demands of a rigorous pledging process, he will have earned sufficient respect to be allowed to cross. (We see this phenomenon occur often with racial minorities & suspected gay pledges)
In the houses...these tactics are not silly, they are not backward. The Pledge Master expects complete subservience, often times barking orders with a straight face and turning [genuinely] angry when anything less than what's asked for is produced. In a very real way, the fraternity answers to the House President and the pledges answer to the Pledge Master - it's a house within a house - a separate but very much unequal one.
All this having been said, fraternity's should not be engaging in off color practices. All men orgies, the elephant walk, and/or the practices of which TEP is being accused of -- fall very short of even hardnosed hazing. Laxatives and intense exercise...that's for another day, maybe another week.
I believe what is called "hazing" serves an important purpose. However, what TEP is accused of, does not seem to serve any kind of a team-building, fraternity-respecting, endurance-oriented goal. It seems to be couched solely on humiliation - again, this is not where, when, and how hazing should be used.
11 comments:
Thankfully this is not one of the greek houses looking to support o&b this spring.
Before you criticize, you should learn more of the facts... I heard some very interesting rumors about the University's actions in regards to this incident!
No greek houses will support O&B this spring.
Thankfully, the Sam/Cain/Huey ticket will bring all the Greek support needed to sweep the exec.
Couple truths, maybe one myth:
Ricardo Cortez getting heavily involved in HSA politics, rivaling Maryam.
Hardwick pushing for Jim Martz to bring IRHA onto JJ's ticket.
SigEp very, very, very greedy during tapping...turned against minorities...about to get fucked this spring.
Gator to rename itself as Reform.
FBK rivalry brewing between Jenny Cohen, Justin Stone.
Goldberger run out of town by Weingard, JCB to run JJ's campaign from Nashville.
The fact they accepted a deal. Phi Gamma Delta accepted a similar deal and I would bet that both houses could have fought.
Usually House Corps are more concerned with the future than squabbling with UF.
Pledges need to earn those letters, if you want to call that hazing then so let it be. However, there's boundaries in all things and the alleged use of laxatives seems beyond my scope of comprehension.
Who cares about TEP, it's Phi Tau that everyone should be looking at this month.
Ben C, you are a loser. Phi Tau sucks... TEP has over a dozen Keys... they have kids in power (Comiter, Lutin, Sadkin). The fact that they got one year is crazy! They basically lose nothing.
7:04 we're all sick about hearing phi tau this and phi tau that! It's bad enough Sig Ep is trying to corner the campaign, but don't think ATO isn't going to make damn sure it gets its taste.
ATO is the only house in the general area that can deliver sure numbers, so shut your faces already.
and fuck phi delt while we're at it, their brothers are like they're parties -- GAY!
Ricky Cortez was not active in FBK this semester. What a waste of a tap for Maryam! She could have picked someone who was going to show up for her bloc. So, I don't buy them fighting it out in HSA. They are above what happens there.
Hardwick is pushing for the ticket, indeed. Interestingly, 3 men would be on the ticket.
Yes, SigEp is against the minorities because they get in their way.
Jenny is from a weak house, but has the best political advice behind her to maneuver this minefield. Look out for AEPi though.
Weingard can't afford for Goldberger to run the campaign again. Goldberger was lackadasicial from the beginning and did not refute any of the negative press O&B threw at them 2 weeks earlier.
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