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Hazing confessions of a Dartmouth Alum
I haven't yet read the Rolling Stone article (link) but I've read that he's been getting a lot of heat for his story. I feel like many of the hazing accounts I've read are usually through fraternities or involve mostly males; I've heard less about female hazing, so I thought this was worth the read. I was pretty shocked by the administration's response - just taking her word for it that it wasn't hazing.
Posted: 04/ 9/2012 8:46 am
Dartmouth is rightly one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It is dynamic, intellectually rigorous and turns out global leaders in all industries from finance to public service and diplomacy. But now, my beloved Alma Mater is embroiled in a very public conversation about its campus culture -- and it's a conversation that needs to be had.
Last week, Rolling Stone published an expos? on Dartmouth College, detailing a Greek fraternity/sorority culture that broadly tolerates and covers up extreme hazing. Andrew Lohse, a member of the class of 2012, was widely quoted in the article, and he is paying the price. Many in the Dartmouth community have come out publicly to deny the truths in his story and to castigate Lohse. I presume this reflects the instinct of all of us alums to protect the university that is our intellectual home and the source of so many of our opportunities and memories. But denial is not the way to protect Dartmouth.
Instead, we need to confront our Dartmouth experience with honesty. There was much in the Rolling Stone article that I found to be true. In particular, I was struck by Lohse's musing that a student might die one day as a result of hazing. His sentiment gave me pause. Because I was very nearly that death.
In 2006, as a sophomore at Dartmouth, I still hadn't quite found my social footing. Like most Dartmouth students, I turned to the Greek system and ultimately decided to join Kappa Kappa Gamma, one of Dartmouth's nine sororities.
I was content with my decision until, one night during the rush process, I was blindfolded with two of my fellow pledges. We were guided into the back seat of a car and one of our future sisters commanded us to chug the alcoholic punch that had been pre-prepared for each of us in individual 64-ounce water bottles. Simultaneously, I was handed numerous vodka shots from the older sister sitting in the front seat. Things happened quickly.
After what couldn't have been more than a fifteen-minute drive, I was told to get out of the car. I did -- but then I lost all consciousness. To this day, I have no idea what happened that night.
I woke up the following morning in the Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. I wasn't alone. I later learned that three other girls had also been admitted, each having overdosed on alcohol due to hazing rituals. Two were fellow pledges, and one was pledging another sorority, Sigma Delta.
I had bruises and cuts all over my body, two of my teeth were broken and I was intubated and restrained. The doctor informed me that I had entered the hospital with a .399 blood alcohol content. I soon learned that a .4 BAC is coma and death. I was literally one sip of alcohol away from dying.
I fell into an emotional tailspin. My mind kept racing back to how I would have left my life. When was the last time I spoke with my parents? When was the last time I told my brother how much I loved him? I could not identify with this person who had treated her life with so little care.
I didn't recognize myself. And I didn't recognize the environment around me. My acceptance to Dartmouth was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. But in those days after joining a sorority, everything felt altered. Somehow, this wasn't quite what I'd dreamt.
A few nights after being released from the hospital, one of my fellow pledges knocked on my door. She had also overdosed. We sat on my bed, both still in shock. She appealed to me, "You're not going to call this 'hazing' are you?" "Of course not." I reassured her. I took full responsibility. Nobody had forced me to drink. I quickly listed all of the reasons why this was the farthest thing from hazing. In truth, our real fear went unstated: neither of us wanted to point fingers at our sorority and incur the social ostracism that would surely follow.
A few weeks later, Dartmouth held a hearing to investigate what had happened. I assured the administration that I had not been hazed. I could almost hear a collective sigh of relief. This was just the bad judgment of one sophomore. There would be no bad PR. My sorority went unpunished.
Here's the thing. I was absolutely hazed that night -- and I nearly died as a result. But those girls sitting in the front of the car who were hazing me into near death, they were victims too.
Classic social psychology research teaches us that in certain environments, good people are capable of terrible acts. In Stanley Milgram's now canonical 1963 study, participants were instructed to use a "shock generator" to deliver ever-increasing electrical shocks to another person, ranging from "slight shock," to "danger: severe shock," to a purposefully vague "XXX." Of course, the "shock generator" was actually a prop and electrical shocks were not truly being delivered. Yet without this knowledge, 65% of participants continued to deliver electrical shocks through to the bitter end. Participants displayed deep discomfort with their behavior (wringing their hands, chewing on their lips, sweating profusely), yet they continued to obey the commands of the head experimenter as they delivered (what they believed to be) lethal electrical shocks to another person. Milgram proved that in certain environments, most people will obey dangerous instructions, despite any personal misgivings.
Similarly, Philip Zimbardo revealed the power of deindividuation in his 1973 Stanford Prison Experiment. Deindividuation occurs when a person loses site of his own identity while operating as part of a larger group. During the experiment, Zimbardo randomly assigned students to the role of "guard" or "prisoner" and allowed them operate as though they were in a prison environment. The behavior of the guards quickly became so inhumane that Zimbardo was forced to end the study after only 6 days (even though it was slated to continue for two weeks.) As students took on the respective roles of prisoners and guards, they embraced those group identities, losing sight of personal beliefs and mores.
Taken together, the Milgram and Zimbardo studies show that otherwise thoughtful people can act in atrocious ways. Within the context of Dartmouth's social environment, two intelligent and compassionate women commanded me to drink a lethal amount of alcohol. And within that same environment, I listened. I almost lost my life that day and, infuriatingly, nobody -- and everybody -- was to blame.
We were all stuck in the Dartmouth web, where people who were once hazed grow up to haze others. I ultimately depledged the sorority. But had I not overdosed, who knows what would have happened. Maybe I would have been sitting in the front seat of that car pouring vodka shots a few years later.
This leaves the question -- so what? Dartmouth College is an exciting, important, and intellectually powerful institution with many of the best and the brightest. But it is not flawless. And one of its great flaws is the unchallenged power of its Greek system, which allows and deceptively conceals hazing and perpetuates attitudes that many Dartmouth alumni take with them to positions of power on Wall Street, government and beyond (sexist gender dynamics and blind entitlement among them).
Dartmouth graduates obtain high-profile positions in our work force, and often bequeath those same jobs to new generations of similarly-minded Dartmouth alumni -- often through their Greek affiliations. The same girl who overdosed with me, also confided to me months after the hazing event that she was unhappy in the sorority but didn't want to burn any bridges. She said having her sorority on her resume would help her land a high-profile finance job. (It worked.)
Dartmouth's current President, Jim Yong Kim, promised the Dartmouth community that he will not overhaul its Greek system. Certainly, Kim is in a tough position. When his predecessor President Wright (Dartmouth President 1998-2009) attempted to eradicate the Greek system, both alumni and students balked, forcing Wright to back down. While Wright was unsuccessful, his intentions were in the right place. The mental and physical health of Dartmouth students is at stake and the Greek system's hold on Dartmouth's social life needs to be loosened.
At best, President Kim's tepid response to Dartmouth's hazing pandemic can be traced to a fear of reduced alumni giving and campus tension. At worst, Kim's tepid response can be attributed to his personal ambitions and fear of bad publicity. This is particularly relevant given President Obama's recent nomination of Kim to The World Bank's top post.
What happened to me was undeniably hazing. And my story is important because it's a common -- and often concealed -- tale. The article in Rolling Stone is creating negative publicity for a place that I will always treasure. But it is also creating an opportunity.
The discussion is now wide open and it's time for President Kim to engage in this dialogue and initiate change. Kim needs to take control and stop the hazing. But he cannot do it alone. It's up to the alumni of this great institution to be truthful about their experiences and support reform for our college on the hill.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ravital-segal/hazing-dartmouth_b_1411932.html?ref=college
Re: Hazing confessions of a Dartmouth Alum
What kind of backlash is she facing here? I feel like this isn't brand new information - of course plenty of sororities and fraternities do this sort of thing with a wink and a nudge while the administration looks in the other direction.
A Zimbardo prison experiment shout-out! I love me some Zimbardo. I want to make creepy babies with him. Not the point of the article, I know.
So...what about the fact the girls were consuming alcohol in an open container in a car? Was anything ever said about this? Even if the sorority never faces punishment for hazing, it seems like there are plenty of other potential legal issues.
I just read the RS article yesterday and was appalled.
I was in a sorority and heard rumors of hard-core hazing but I never heard any first-hand accounts or saw anything that confirmed those rumors. My so-called hazing was laughably mild. We got an early morning phone call one day and were told we were being picked up by sisters, no questions asked. It turned out to be a breakfast mixer at a fraternity house We all showed up looking like hell, half of us still in our PJs because we hadn't been told what the purpose was or where we were going, but it was a fun event and we all had a good, if half-awake, laugh about it.
If even some of what is alleged in the RS article is accurate, it is beyond disturbing. As if to add insult to injury, aside from the hazing allegations, Dartmouth itself is described as a bastion of sexism and entitlement. As I read it, I found myself silently swearing that my children would not be permitted to attend Dartmouth under any circumstances. Unfortunately, I am certain that what happens at Dartmouth is not unique to Big Green.
I also was disgusted by the RS article.
I went to a heavily Greek, top-tier university and hazing was definately a part of fraternity life--much more than sorority. "Dry rush" was pretty much a joke, too. I did hear that there was a big crackdown a few years after I graduated and a guy fell out a second story window at ZBT.
That said, I thought it was rather telling that almost none of the houses at Dartmouth are associated with their national chapter, which gives them leeway on house rules.
Did it say that in the article? I thought I read that the Dartmouth chapter of SAE was still associated with their national.
What I read in the article in terms of the actual hazing doesn't shock me but it surprises me that I'm reading those details in 2012...not 1985. Hazing was a HUGE subject on my campus 15 years ago so the fact that activities like this is are going on in this current time is shocking, and disturbing. Where are the nationals??? Doesn't Dartmouth have a campus umbrella sorority/fraternity governing body (something like Pan-Hell or whatever my memory is fading). We couldn't do anything without Nationals being up our ass and had to document every part of the rush/pledge/initiation process (oftentimes with National physical representative with a "delegate")...I can't imagine Dartmouth sanctioning non-national associated fraternities and sororities...or maybe they do and that's terrible.
::delurks::
I'm an alum. We have both National and local fraternities and sororities. Most of the locals were once affiliated with a National organization and de-affiliated very long ago due to some National organizations being racially exclusive up through the 70s (and later).
I was in a sorority there and never experienced anything I would call hazing. I never drank in a car, was blindfolded, nothing like that and we had several girls who never drank a drop in their 4 years of college. Once I was picked up around midnight so we could all go to Fort Lou's (local diner) for late night pancakes.
I also have zero qualms about encouraging my daughter to attend if she has the ability and desire.
::goes back to lurking::
My husband was in a fraternity at Dartmouth. A frat which was actually suspended around '05/'06 for 5 years (couldn't recruit new members). Which makes me wonder - what the hellll were they doing that was so much worse than the others?
Also, Dartmouth was instrumental in the creation of the original fraternities, and there's still a very sexist/old boy's club sort of culture there, so no wonder they're not jumping to change this.
40/112
I just wish this bullshits would go away.
Reading the RS article is interesting, I'm not finished, but I still have a few thoughts. Obviously there's some sick, demented, and innapropriate shits that happen during pledging, but it's also obvious that Lohse became disillusioned. It wasn't the Dartmouth of his dreams that he'd spent years dreaming about.
We had the opposite problem at my school. The frats that went away were ones that couldn't recruit enough people because they weren't cool enough and it had nothing to do with their hazing. The ones that flourished hazed more.
God, we were woken up with donuts from our rush sisters and stuff. If they caught wind of the word hazing (within the sorority, not the school or the national chapter), they freaked out. It was really fun and low key.
Hazing was really, really bad in the fraternities at my college when I was there.
Most of the sororities hazed as well, but nothing at all like the frats did. I was in a sorority and technically got hazed. One of my pledge sisters dropped out, told on us and we almost lost our charter. But no one ever made us drink or ever even pressured us to drink or do anything that put our safety in any kind of jeopardy. We just had to memorize a bunch of stuff (sisters full names, sorority history) and then if we didn't do well on our tests, they bitched and yelled at us and told us how we weren't good enough to be in the sorority and that they didn't HAVE to initiate us...basically just a bunch of mental bullish*t that only stupid, insecure college freshman girls like myself would let bother them.
However, it was well known that the fraternities worked their pledges over like crazy. The double standard was really appalling. The stuff I knew about was pretty appalling and disgusting and I know that there was a lot of stuff that the guys I knew would never tell me. And the administration had a "boys will be boys" kind of attitude about it as long as no one was getting sent to the hospital. Also, what killed me is that just about every pledge I knew hated the hazing so much, but then once they got initiated, so many of them couldn't wait to become the hazers themselves.
At, Hampden-Sydney, the men's college nearby, it was even worse because it was a private college with an extensive rich, old boys network. I dated a guy there who was pledge a fraternity (SAE) and one night when he was drunk he broke down in tears with me saying that he was terrified of the pledge event that was going on the next night. At the last one, they kept making him drink and had like 10 guys shouting at him, making him do push ups while making him recite fraternity info. And every time he messed up he'd have to drink more and do more push ups. He actually ended up drop quitting the fraternity before he finished pledging and then got so much sh*t from the brothers that he left the school after the semester was over.
(eta: my pledge class was the last one to ever get "hazed' like that. after that we had to treat our pledges like royalty. we couldn't require them to learn anything about the sorority or really require them to do much of anything. I had no desire to yell at pledges like I got yelled at, but it would have been nice to be able to put more importance on them learning everyone's names and sorority history. oh well...I guess it's all bs anyway, but at the time it was terribly important, lol.)
Yup
Disillusioned? The guy was turned in by his frat for doing coke in the house. He was expelled from school.
He definitely effed up; no doubt about that. He had put so much emphasis on being the Dartmouth man and how Dartmouth was going to lift him up, when it didn't happen I think he became disillusioned and lashed out. I don't think hazing is right at all, but it seems he participated in hazing and then wanted eveyrone else to pay for what they'd done. But I think this guy is just a dovche.
He definitely effed up; no doubt about that. He had put so much emphasis on being the Dartmouth man and how Dartmouth was going to lift him up, when it didn't happen I think he became disillusioned and lashed out. I don't think hazing is right at all, but it seems he participated in hazing and then wanted eveyrone else to pay for what they'd done. But I think this guy is just a dovche.