Alumnus, State Focus on Anti-Hazing

Managing Editor

   While hazing incidents have occurred in Arkansas in the past, Greek organizations and universities have joined the anti-hazing movement to correct the problem.

   Paul Smith, national secretary for Phi Lambda Chi Fraternity and a University of Arkansas at Monticello alumnus, said the fraternity adopted an anti-hazing policy several years ago, and the chapters have really made great strides in not only adopting the program, but adopting the mentality to constructively build stronger bonds between brothers.

   “For an improved fraternity experience, it's best that the organization have an anti-hazing policy that encourages stronger bonds throughout the organization and not just in an individual membership group,” Smith said.

   The Bailey and Oliver law firm based in Mountain Home, works with fraternity and sorority chapters in Arkansas. Its Web site said national organizations need to educate local chapters on the dangers of hazing.

   “The national fraternities create the local fraternities but do not give these youngsters the proper guidance to function safely,” Frank Bailey and Sach Oliver said on their Web site.

   Smith said Phi Lambda Chi focuses on hazing education at its annual leadership academy and national convention

   “(The national officers) feel it is important to express to members, new and old alike, how important it is for the chapters to take a proactive role in preventing hazing,” Smith said.

   Some universities and Greek organizations are working to better educate members about hazing.

   If a student wants to join a National Pan-Hellenic organization, according to its Web site, the University of Arkansas requires all prospective members to attend a seminar to educate new members about anti-hazing policies at the local, state and national level.

   Smith said Phi Lambda Chi committed to being a leader in the redefinition of the fraternity experience when it mandated a no-hazing policy.  

   “It takes a continuing education program to show new members that fraternities are not at all what they have seen on movies like ‘Animal House’,” Smith said.

   Other schools in Arkansas promote anti-hazing by participating in National Hazing Prevention Week, which occurs the last week of September every year.

   HazingPrevention.org categorizes what Greeks do to promote anti-hazing by state. According to the Web site, the University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas State University comprised the only Arkansas Universities that held an official anti-hazing event during Hazing Prevention Week in 2007.

    UCA held a mandatory hazing education night for new members of Greek organizations. The informational program discussed state law, university policy and national hazing policies. The program also covered what role peer-pressure plays in hazing.

   ASU provided an informational night about hazing during National Hazing Prevention Week.

   According to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith campus calendar, an educational program focusing on hazing prevention took place as part of National Hazing Prevention Week this year.

   The University of Arkansas, according to its Web site, created the Task Force for the Enhancement of Greek Life in 2003 to make recommendations to improve Greek life at the university. Some of the improvements include eliminating elements that promote hazing and creating an atmosphere conducive to promoting anti-hazing.

   Smith said he thinks some of the Greek advisers over the years at UAM adopted the best policy by requiring Greek organizations to abide by their national policies. While some might argue this policy is not strict enough, Smith disagrees.

   “I would have much rather had a phone call from a Greek adviser on campus than from someone at our national office while I was an undergraduate,” Smith said.

   Universities in Arkansas acknowledge hazing as a problem in Greek life. The reported numbers of incidents in Arkansas have decreased, but hazing still happens. Some hazing incidents that occurred in the past six years include:

• According to a news article published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Southern Arkansas University suspended Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity in 2004 after a lawsuit was filed alleging the fraternity members beat a pledge during initiation. Ty Keith, a 19 year-old of Magnolia, received a beating from his fraternity brothers so badly, he needed kidney dialysis and skin graft surgery.
• According to Hank Nuwer’s hazing Web site, someone filed a complaint against Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Arkansas in 2002 stating the fraternity participated in physical hazing.
• Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity at Arkansas State University, according to an article published in the university’s newspaper, The Herald, received four years suspension as punishment because a pledge suffered alcohol poisoning at a pledge retreat.

   Smith said the argument can be made that the amount of serious hazing incidents in fraternities, compared to the number of Greek men on college campuses, is low, but social standards magnify how non-Greeks perceive hazing.

   “As fraternity men, we have to understand that there was a culture of hazing that really built up the negative public perception of fraternities among people who really don't understand the issue, and every incident only serves to reinforce the perception,” Smith said.

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