College Times

Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: News

Media Credit: J. KYLE KEENER Cheryl Drogosch and son Garret in their Northville, Michigan, hom. Garret had his leg broken in two places during a hazing ritual at his school.

More than half of college students in campus organizations have experienced hazing despite the fact that the practice is banned practically everywhere, a new national survey has found.

The study, released this week, didn't limit its focus to the usual suspects - fraternities, sororities and varsity sports teams. Those are still the biggest offenders, with nearly three-quarters of members reporting hazing. But the study also found hazing in club sports (64 percent), performing arts organizations (56 percent) and even academic clubs (28 percent).

Types of hazing activities ranged from benign to extreme. The four most common were drinking games, singing or chanting in public, associating with specific people and not others, and drinking large amounts of alcohol to the point of passing out.

Milwaukee-area students interviewed last week said that by the researchers' definition, they'd been hazed, but in a way they thought was positive.

Marquette University law student Mike Menghini said that as an undergraduate at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, he was awakened by fellow members of the tennis team for midnight practice, which the study described as hazing.

"I would say it's just part of the camaraderie," he said. "It wasn't something I was forced to do. ... It was just a team thing."

The Marquette men's soccer team makes each new freshman sing a cappella on the bus while everyone cheers or boos, said Daniel Addis, a junior on the team.

"It's pretty embarrassing," Addis said. "It's fun. It's just joking."

Researchers Elizabeth Allan and Mary Madden of the University of Maine's College of Education and Human Development surveyed some 11,000 students at 53 college campuses in 2007. An online survey asked students to indicate what kind of campus organizations they were involved in and then asked whether they had participated in 30 activities that the researchers defined as hazing.

"Hazing is more widespread than I think most people would have assumed," said Allan, the study's principal investigator. "Most people typically associate it with Greek organizations ... and more recently with athletics ... but I don't think people think of other types of student organizations and clubs."

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