Virginia State student deaths renew debate over hazing abuse

Universities, police, and prosecutors are making a greater effort to enforce anti-hazing laws, some observers say. Forty-four states, including Virginia, have such laws in place. In recent years, many colleges and universities have suspended fraternities caught up in hazing and alcohol abuse.

But Jones says not enough has been done to combat hazing at either predominantly white institutions or at historically black colleges and universities. “Institutions are doing a terrible job,” he says, even after the FAMU case. “It’s not slowing down.”

Since 1970, author and journalist Hank Nuwer has documented more than 100 hazing-related deaths at US colleges and universities, and Jones says 90 percent of hazing cases aren’t reported.

VSU has faced several hazing scandals during the past few years. Most recently, four VSU students, including the student government president, were arrested and charged earlier this month with hazing connected to the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the nation's oldest black fraternity.

“Most hazing incidents in white fraternities tend to be centered around alcohol, whereas hazing in African-American organizations often involves a desire to inflict bodily harm,” Howard Bailey and Aaron Hughey of Western Kentucky University write in the newsmagazine "Diverse: Issues in Higher Eduction."

In part, that focus on physical tests in hazing rituals reflects "different concepts of manhood and masculinity," says Jones. Historically, “Black males have had access to very few zones of power other than their bodies, so you’ve seen this reliance over the years on physical dominance and prowess, and it’s bled into a lot of arenas,” including Greek life and athletics.

To move the needle on hazing, he says, colleges will have to institute true zero-tolerance policies or eradicate Greek life altogether, as some private colleges have done. “The organizations and individuals are not going to stop,” he says. Their hazing traditions are “too culturally embedded.”

Meanwhile, public tolerance of such threats to student safety is wearing thin. Jones sees the departures of Penn State President Graham Spanier and Mr. Ammons at FAMU as signs of what’s to come – “where you have something going on on your campus that threatens students’ safety and you don’t do everything in your power to stop it.”

• Material from the Associated Press was used in this article.

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