JudynTX
03-26-2009, 01:16 PM
Chugging, stripping, paddling, kidnapping — these are just a few of the hazing activities that got the University of Texas at San Antonio's chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, or Fiji, booted off campus earlier this month.
This week, the San Antonio Express-News obtained a letter under open records laws detailing the hazing activities, which included making pledges set fire to toilet paper wedged in their butts, chug beer, eat sand-covered hot dogs and dress in drag.
University policy strictly prohibits hazing, defined as anything that threatens the health, safety or dignity of students in the name of joining an organization. That includes physical brutality, forced calisthenics, forced consumption of food and alcohol and total or partial nudity.
UTSA suspended Phi Gamma Delta's registration until 2013, and the fraternity doesn't plan further appeals, said David Gabler, a university spokesman.
“When alleged violations are reported, we investigate those seriously and take appropriate action,” Gabler said.
J.B. Goll, Phi Gamma Delta's national director of chapter services, condemned the chapter's behavior.
“The hazing activities conducted by our chapter at the University of Texas at San Antonio were in violation of both the values and laws of Phi Gamma Delta and were conducted in spite of regular efforts by the fraternity to educate all chapters on the rules and values of the fraternity as they relate to the treatment of pledges,” Goll said in a written statement.
The 40-member Fiji fraternity is one of 23 Greek organizations at UTSA, most of them affiliated with national chapters, Gabler said. About 3 percent of UTSA students belong to fraternities or sororities. In the past, UTSA has sanctioned three organizations for hazing and removed three others from campus, Gabler said.
In Fiji's case, the Dec. 19 letter from Kevin Price, UTSA's dean of students, listed many examples of hazing:
• At “Brotherhood” events, pledges were told to put toilet paper up their rectums, light it on fire, then run around and put out the fire without using their hands.
• At alumni softball gatherings, pledges participated in “bat races,” where they got dizzy spinning around the end of a bat, ran the bases, chugged a beer and ate a sand-covered hot dog.
• On initiation day, members paddled blindfolded pledges in a garage.
• At campouts, members made pledges strip down to their underwear and lie face-down in the bed of a truck while members drove them to a remote location, then abandoned the pledges to find their way back to the main campsite.
• Pledges dressed in camouflage stormed an after-mixer party and kidnapped a member.
• Around Halloween, scavenger hunts required pledges to dress as women and take pictures of themselves in different places, some of them outside of San Antonio.
• Members made pledges do sprints, push-ups, relay races and obstacle courses, sometimes in the chilly waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Fueling all the activity was extensive alcohol use, according to the charge letter. One popular drinking game called “buffalo” forced pledges caught drinking out of their right hand to chug their drink.
Not only did members fail to report the hazing, chapter officers denied specific activities took place and told other members to “not be fully forthcoming” during the university's investigation, according to the letter.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/UTSA_frat_kicked_out_for_hazing.html
This week, the San Antonio Express-News obtained a letter under open records laws detailing the hazing activities, which included making pledges set fire to toilet paper wedged in their butts, chug beer, eat sand-covered hot dogs and dress in drag.
University policy strictly prohibits hazing, defined as anything that threatens the health, safety or dignity of students in the name of joining an organization. That includes physical brutality, forced calisthenics, forced consumption of food and alcohol and total or partial nudity.
UTSA suspended Phi Gamma Delta's registration until 2013, and the fraternity doesn't plan further appeals, said David Gabler, a university spokesman.
“When alleged violations are reported, we investigate those seriously and take appropriate action,” Gabler said.
J.B. Goll, Phi Gamma Delta's national director of chapter services, condemned the chapter's behavior.
“The hazing activities conducted by our chapter at the University of Texas at San Antonio were in violation of both the values and laws of Phi Gamma Delta and were conducted in spite of regular efforts by the fraternity to educate all chapters on the rules and values of the fraternity as they relate to the treatment of pledges,” Goll said in a written statement.
The 40-member Fiji fraternity is one of 23 Greek organizations at UTSA, most of them affiliated with national chapters, Gabler said. About 3 percent of UTSA students belong to fraternities or sororities. In the past, UTSA has sanctioned three organizations for hazing and removed three others from campus, Gabler said.
In Fiji's case, the Dec. 19 letter from Kevin Price, UTSA's dean of students, listed many examples of hazing:
• At “Brotherhood” events, pledges were told to put toilet paper up their rectums, light it on fire, then run around and put out the fire without using their hands.
• At alumni softball gatherings, pledges participated in “bat races,” where they got dizzy spinning around the end of a bat, ran the bases, chugged a beer and ate a sand-covered hot dog.
• On initiation day, members paddled blindfolded pledges in a garage.
• At campouts, members made pledges strip down to their underwear and lie face-down in the bed of a truck while members drove them to a remote location, then abandoned the pledges to find their way back to the main campsite.
• Pledges dressed in camouflage stormed an after-mixer party and kidnapped a member.
• Around Halloween, scavenger hunts required pledges to dress as women and take pictures of themselves in different places, some of them outside of San Antonio.
• Members made pledges do sprints, push-ups, relay races and obstacle courses, sometimes in the chilly waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Fueling all the activity was extensive alcohol use, according to the charge letter. One popular drinking game called “buffalo” forced pledges caught drinking out of their right hand to chug their drink.
Not only did members fail to report the hazing, chapter officers denied specific activities took place and told other members to “not be fully forthcoming” during the university's investigation, according to the letter.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/UTSA_frat_kicked_out_for_hazing.html