Deaths Spark Greek Policy Changes: Where’s UGA Stand?
He drank 18 alcoholic drinks in under 90 minutes; he was knocked unconscious, and his severe injuries were neglected until it was too late. Two days after being forced to drink and partake in a Beta Theta Pi hazing ritual, Timothy Piazza was pronounced dead on February 4, 2017 at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
In the past year, the hazing related deaths of Piazza at Pennsylvania State, Maxwell Gruver at Louisiana State, Andrew Coffey at Florida State, and Mathew Ellis at Texas State have caused a tsunami sized ripple effect which is reshaping the policies and rules for Greek life participants across the country. Universities are working cohesively to ensure student safety takes priority over questionable fraternal traditions. Schools nationwide are challenged with the task of altering a type of reckless drinking culture that has existed with fraternity life for many years; however, some schools, such as the University of Georgia, already have stricter policies in place governing their own Interfraternity Council organizations, yet it is the personal responsibility of Greek life members which trumps any policy in place.
Deaths and injuries have occurred consistently in the Greek scene for the past several decades. Research from Hank Nuwer, author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives, has found that at least one hazing related death has occurred per year in US colleges, secondary and elementary schools since 1961, and 70 student deaths have occurred due to hazing since the year 2000, and in most fraternity hazing cases, alcohol is involved.
Research conducted by Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden of the University of Maine found that 82% of deaths from hazing involves alcohol.
John Hechinger, author of True Gentleman, says, “The heart of their problems is alcohol. It is why so many fraternity members are dying during pledging…and it usually contributes to just about any embarrassing episode.”
While some of the earliest fraternities met in taverns, Hechinger deems the rise of their popularity and reckless habits began in the early 80’s and continued to intensify over following decades.
“People kind of looked to [Animal House] as a blue print of what college was,” he said, “Fraternities kind of stepped in and became the unofficial bartenders on campus. A lot of the problems we see dates back to that period.”
In 1984, the U.S Congress changed the legal drinking age from 18 to 21.
This is when Hechinger suggests that fraternities began to rise in popularity and to gain power on campus; since, at huge universities, fraternities controlled the flow of alcohol. Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, the intensity of drinking and hazing increased in Greek life. Hechinger continued to say that the real danger began with a shift from beer to harder liquor.
While it is more difficult to consume a deadly amount of beer, “liquor has made the drinking and hazing much more deadly,” he stated. Per John Hechinger, the research has shown that men in fraternities drink twice as much as other men on campus.
“If alcohol continues to be the focus then they’re going to be shut down chapter by chapter.”
This past year was trying for many as half a dozen universities suspended their Greek life activities. Now, a ripple effect of reform has begun across college campuses as universities attempt to stamp out the dangerous actions revolving around hazing and alcohol consumption.
Some universities, such as Louisiana State University, have utilized task forces to investigate the issues involving their own Greek life community. The task force provided recommendations to address the concerns surrounding hazing and the Greek life culture itself; president of LSU, King Alexander, announced on February 28th, 2017, that LSU would be moving forward with new policies in place to protect its students. Some of these policies included the prohibition of hard liquor and a common source of alcohol at events as well as a zero tolerance for hazing. In a letter to the LSU community, President Alexander stated, “these are not meant to be stand-alone solutions, but rather should be taken as an interlocking and comprehensive approach that is stronger than any single policy, restriction or action.” President Alexander recognizes that the culture change will take time, but also asserts, “there will be no return to normal.”
Multiple universities are collaborating with each other in order to encourage a uniformed approach against the reckless behavior in Greek life. Claudia Shamp, director of IFC at the University of Georgia says “all the SEC schools have been working together to come up with general [policies] to do across the SEC.” Mrs. Shamp contends that everyone is trying to find what will work best with their university, but some of the new policies are already in place in Athens. Shamp said, “A lot of stuff you’ll see is stuff that we’re already doing.”
President of UGA’s IFC, Sam Nevers, recently attended a conference with mostly south eastern schools and a few from Texas such as TCU and Texas Tech. The conference gave Nevers and representatives from other schools an opportunity to discuss ongoing issues in Greek life and ways to fix them. A couple of the policies being addressed nationally are already in place at the University of Georgia.
“We’re ahead of the game,” Nevers said, “A lot of schools are implementing policies that we already have had for years past.”
Some of these policies already in place include restrictions on having a common source of alcohol such as a keg or cooler, complying with transparency guidelines such as reporting pledge and social events, and a strict no hazing policy. In just the past year, UGA suspended a couple of fraternities, Phi Kappa Tau and Pi Kappa Phi, for forcing new members to participate in hazing type rituals such as lineups and forced alcohol consumption.
Claudia Shamp weighed in, “These rules are in place so the organization is responsible to enforce these rules or suffer consequences.”
One large change that is already starting to occur at Georgia is the banning of hard liquor. Georgia currently has six fraternities with liquor banned events. According to Sam Nevers, “[a liquor ban] is something we see happening in the near future. We’ve seen it happen at fraternities nationally.”
Indeed, an example of one fraternity who has nationally banned alcohol, beer or liquor, from chapter houses is Phi Delta Theta.
Per John Hechinger, “there have been a number of other fraternities themselves like Phi Delta Theta that have tried to ban drinking in their chapter houses and their experience, with some notable exceptions including last year, has been very good.”
In fact, Phi Delta Theta has nationally seen an increase in membership and a decrease in rapes, hospitalizations, and other accidents since incepting the rule in 2000. The UGA chapters of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi are two organizations to recently adopt the ban of alcohol at their houses, and undisclosed names of other fraternities will follow suit in the coming weeks. But overall, the banning of liquor is a process that Claudia Shamp says will take time.
“Liquor will be hard because its engrained in our culture,” Shamp said, “but we are taking baby steps to enforce it.”
While the University of Georgia has policies in place that others are just now implementing, the real challenge facing UGA’s IFC as well as every other school in the nation is personal responsibility.
“The biggest thing we are trying to approach is a lack of personal responsibility. I think right now we have all those policies in place and now it’s kind of on those chapters to enforce them,” said Nevers.
John Hechinger also agrees that despite putting new policies in place, not everyone abides by the rules, but Hechinger analyzed, “if you think about a speed limit, not everyone follows it, but having a speed limit and lowering it has certainly saved a lot of lives.”
The accountability of the individual is something Claudia Shamp also admits she has no control over. Shamp states, “There is nothing we can do to 100% guarantee that everyone is going to wake up in the morning…the only thing you can do is to educate and talk and manage risk.”
It’s personal responsibility that Nevers says could make all the difference. “We know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong and if someone doesn’t step in to say what’s wrong then it’s just going to continue to happen,” said Nevers.
On February 2, 2017, one member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Penn State attempted to persuade other brothers to seek medical attention for Tim Piazza. A decision was made to not act. The Beta house was supposed to be alcohol free stemming from a 2009 suspension. A policy was in place, and it did not prevent Piazza’s death.
“Ultimately at the end of the day I can’t keep anyone from drinking, period.,” says Claudia Shamp, “I’ll tell y’all why it’s bad for your health or what risks you run for arrest but I can’t change someone’s mind if they’re going to drink. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to come up with creative ways to encourage people to make good decisions or good choices.”
