Spring Break
Our future looks hazy
Max Hardy
Issue date: 11/5/08 Section: Opinion
Letter to the Editor:
It is imperative that Rhodes College give fraternities two choices: remove any and all hazing practices unconditionally, or be dissolved. Hazing activities contradict Rhodes College policies, are detrimental to group dynamic and cast a negative image of the college community as a whole.
On September 26, where a feeling of cheer permeated the gym and philanthropy was on everybody's mind at Kappa Delta's All Sing, there was one fraternity in particular that did not did not fit in with the rest. Instead of entertaining the audience with a playful song and dance act, they-the freshmen ordained by the fraternity's upper-classmen to go on stage-offended by executing a strip-tease that ended in nothing but skin-colored underwear. A once family-oriented event had suddenly become anything but. (They were rumored to have been forced to drink excessive amounts of alcohol earlier in the day.
In what way does such a graphic display of disregard for civility affect our image as a college as a whole? What does one say to the grandmothers and small children in the audience after they squirmed uncomfortably through such a presentation? I do not believe that these actions promote the morals fraternities are supposed to instill in their youngest members?
This brings me to a contradiction of Rhodes College policy. "Each chapter is responsible for following the guidelines of its national headquarters as well as the policies of Rhodes College and applicable state law," as the College website details. Every organization of Rhodes is supposed to provide a place "that inspires integrity and high achievement through its beauty, its emphasis on values, its Presbyterian history, and its heritage as a leader in the liberal arts and sciences."
When I asked a Kappa Delta representative who had a hand in overseeing each fraternity the night before to make sure the performance was in good taste, she said, "they only stripped down to their shorts for us." This, my friend, is dishonesty, which breaches our prized Honor Code.
I see no plausible circumstances in which the environment that forced alcohol consumption on All Sing Day and Bid Day-when red plastic cups and empty beer cans made it hard to see the grass on which they were strewn-and during other times help promote an integral "brotherhood" support system. Stripping in front of the entire school and its president cannot, either-nor can the upper-classmen of the fraternity laughing uncontrollably on the sidelines.
The lying, the harassment, and the coerced alcohol consumption must stop so long as we feel the need to uphold the principles of the Rhodes College tradition.
It is imperative that Rhodes College give fraternities two choices: remove any and all hazing practices unconditionally, or be dissolved. Hazing activities contradict Rhodes College policies, are detrimental to group dynamic and cast a negative image of the college community as a whole.
On September 26, where a feeling of cheer permeated the gym and philanthropy was on everybody's mind at Kappa Delta's All Sing, there was one fraternity in particular that did not did not fit in with the rest. Instead of entertaining the audience with a playful song and dance act, they-the freshmen ordained by the fraternity's upper-classmen to go on stage-offended by executing a strip-tease that ended in nothing but skin-colored underwear. A once family-oriented event had suddenly become anything but. (They were rumored to have been forced to drink excessive amounts of alcohol earlier in the day.
In what way does such a graphic display of disregard for civility affect our image as a college as a whole? What does one say to the grandmothers and small children in the audience after they squirmed uncomfortably through such a presentation? I do not believe that these actions promote the morals fraternities are supposed to instill in their youngest members?
This brings me to a contradiction of Rhodes College policy. "Each chapter is responsible for following the guidelines of its national headquarters as well as the policies of Rhodes College and applicable state law," as the College website details. Every organization of Rhodes is supposed to provide a place "that inspires integrity and high achievement through its beauty, its emphasis on values, its Presbyterian history, and its heritage as a leader in the liberal arts and sciences."
When I asked a Kappa Delta representative who had a hand in overseeing each fraternity the night before to make sure the performance was in good taste, she said, "they only stripped down to their shorts for us." This, my friend, is dishonesty, which breaches our prized Honor Code.
I see no plausible circumstances in which the environment that forced alcohol consumption on All Sing Day and Bid Day-when red plastic cups and empty beer cans made it hard to see the grass on which they were strewn-and during other times help promote an integral "brotherhood" support system. Stripping in front of the entire school and its president cannot, either-nor can the upper-classmen of the fraternity laughing uncontrollably on the sidelines.
The lying, the harassment, and the coerced alcohol consumption must stop so long as we feel the need to uphold the principles of the Rhodes College tradition.
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