We have all seen grieving parents clutching photos of sons killed during college hazing, grim-faced deputies leading handcuffed fraternity members to police cars and outraged university presidents announcing tighter policies on their Greek life systems.
Yet, hazing persists, a long-standing tradition that neither student deaths nor threats of criminal liability have led frats to abandon.
The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill last week that the parents of hazing victims hope will discourage the practice. The Stop Campus Hazing Act compels colleges to report hazing incidents across student organizations and develop comprehensive programs to prevent it. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate for a vote.
Among those advocating for the Stop Campus Hazing Act are the parents of Max Gruver, 18, of Roswell, a Louisiana State University student who died in 2017 as a result of a Phi Delta Theta ritual that required pledges chug from a bottle of Diesel, a 190-proof liquor. Max’s cause of death was acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration.
Had Steve Gruver and his wife been aware of the disciplinary and hazing infractions against Phi Delta Theta, their son would not have been pledged there. Instead, when his parents talked to Max about where he might pledge, all the Gruvers knew from the LSU guide was Phi Delta Theta’s average grade-point average, good deeds and community activities.
“This bill would put all the information out in a public place and give parents the opportunity to do more due diligence,” said Gruver in a telephone interview. “If we had known about all the violations, and that this frat was not a great group of guys, I know for a fact that would have saved my son’s life.”
Max’s case and other hazing-related deaths in 2017 received widespread publicity and prompted promises by national Greek life leadership to reaffirm the ban on hazing and police their chapters.
Yet, earlier this month, the University of Virginia terminated Kappa Sigma fraternity’s organizational agreement after a student was hospitalized last semester following an alleged hazing event at the chapter house. The student reportedly fell down a set of stairs and struck his head after drinking heavily.
Kappa Sigma joins two other frats forced by UVA to close their doors in the last few months because of documented hazing in the last year. The three houses cannot seek reestablishment until 2028.
In its investigation, UVA Student Affairs office cited other hazing, including pouring hot sauce on the genitals of pledges. The report also stated, “New members were coerced or forced to engage in the heavy consumption of alcohol, which included the drunk pledge on duty consuming a large volume of alcohol in a relatively short period of time.” New members suffered injuries that included lacerations, scrapes, bruises and one member being hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
According to the Stop Hazing organization, the most common hazing behaviors involve alcohol consumption, such as drinking to the point of sickness or blackouts.
I’m at that age where my friends’ children are getting married, so I attend wedding receptions with humorous and heartfelt toasts from the couple’s college pals. Those toasts often fondly recall campus escapades that involve alcohol and frat events. The anecdotes are presented as rites of passage or tests of mettle, survival stories not about staring down the barrel of a gun, but the bottom of a bottle of Jim Beam.
Whenever I write about the prominent role of alcohol in Greek life culture, I receive emails defending fraternities for the good they do on campuses and for the lifelong bonds and career connections they forge.
Yes, their campus contributions extend beyond hosting booze-fueled bashes. However, the research is clear: Members of fraternities and sororities report higher levels of binge drinking than other college students, and those excesses can follow them into adulthood.
A 2018 study that followed young people into their mid 30s found young men who lived in fraternity houses during college had the highest levels of binge drinking and marijuana use compared to peers who weren’t frat members or college students. At age 35, 45% of residential fraternity members reported symptoms of alcohol use disorder, defined as a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use it even when it causes problems. The study used data from the ongoing federally funded Monitoring the Future project to track multiple cohorts of high school seniors.
The Gruvers have already changed Louisiana law to raise hazing to a felony. Their efforts have not been as successful in Georgia where hazing remains a misdemeanor. “We can’t get the bill out of committee in the House and they’ve never let us testify in the House committee,” said Steve Gruver.
“They will tell you we have laws to handle this. I am here to tell you that we don’t,” he said. “If someone becomes wasted during hazing and the fraternity members carry him back, put him in a bunk bed and he rolls over, falls and dies from blunt force head trauma, guess who is not going to get prosecuted — anyone in that fraternity.”
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