Photo Credit: Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life
Subject: Faith Kelly, junior
The week of Sept. 22-26, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Order of Omega collaborated to educate new Greek Life recruits about hazing prevention. Hazing is a degrading, dangerous, humiliating, and often non-consensual act that someone must go through to join a group. Hazing does not just include Greek Life. It can happen in sports, bands, RSOs, or other groups. FSL encourages all groups to educate themselves on hazing and who to notify if they observe it happening.
The week consisted of sweet treats, prevention presentations, hands-on activities, real-life scenarios, and informational flyers. For part of the week, there were signs and booths set up in the Doc Bryan lobby with flyers that contained some of the laws and procedures concerning hazing from the ATU website.
The week started off with a simple “Donut Haze” event at the Bell Tower.
All campus fraternities and sororities got together on Tuesday night for a mandatory hazing prevention presentation. The goal of the presentation was to promote safety, respect, integrity, and bonding within an organization without hazing.
On Wednesday, the groups had a table set up at Bell Tower that read “These Hands Don’t Haze,” where students were able to paint their hand and place it on the poster. This helped to discuss a serious topic in an open way, while also bringing students’ attention to the cause.
Thursday’s event was a case study competition where attendees joined a hypothetical group and acted out realistic hazing scenarios. The case study taught lessons such as how hazing can present itself. This example discussed forced alcohol consumption, forced ingestion, sexual violation, and assault. It also discussed subtle actions which can include name-calling, demerits, writing progress reports on a certain member, having a member address another member formally, and more.
The week was wrapped up on Friday with a photobooth. For more information regarding hazing prevention, visit Hazing Prevention Guide ’24.
