A dozen students and faculty at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh are facing charges of negligent homicide and reckless endangerment for the death of a fraternity pledge.
The students and faculty are being charged because of their participation in an underground fraternity hazing ritual that led to the death of Walter Jennings, according to The New York Times.
The idea of hazing someone to death has got to be one of the most pointless activities anyone can do to another human being.
According to The New York Times, the underground fraternity in question had lost its recognition at SUNY five years earlier because of incidents involving alcohol.
Surprisingly enough, the fatal hazing didn't even involve alcohol. The suspected fraternity members' sick idea of brotherhood meant drinking an extreme amount of water every day for 10 days. Jennings drank so much water that he vomited continually, and in the end the high volume of water in his system caused his brain to swell and killed him.
To be fair to the fraternity brothers, they probably thought that since it was water and not alcohol it wasn't dangerous. They might have been thinking, "Hey, 80 percent of the body is made up of water anyway, right?" But if someone is consuming so much of anything that it's making him vomit, that should be a clue that it's not a good thing.
Hazing isn't always a bad thing; done compassionately, it can build solid relationships. But the type of relationship built is directly linked to the form of hazing. If someone thinks that making a pledge drink a gallon of beer and do 100 pushups while he sits on the pledge's back is a good way to start a friendship, he is wrong: It's just the machismo talking. On the other hand, playing a practical joke on a pledge that makes him blush for a few minutes can make him realize he is cared about. Many groups of friends play this sort of harmless joke on one another.
What is really hard to understand about the SUNY Plattsburgh death is why any guy would want to be a part of a fraternity that mean, and what kind of group wanted a pledge like Jennings, who demonstrated a serious lack of spine during this ordeal. He probably puked it out a few hours earlier, but nonetheless, he should have had enough gumption to tell the older guys to take a long walk off of a short pier. Self-pride and personal health aren't things that should be jeopardized in a situation like that. It's just a men's club; it's not worth dying over.
Most people say that those pledges are showing loyalty and dedication to the group, but any kind of group that needs to mistreat - and consequently kill - another person probably isn't worth being loyal to.
Luckily, ASU hasn't been marred in a controversy of that magnitude. However, that doesn't mean we don't have cause for concern.
Last year, Sigma Nu was suspended from ASU after they were charged with hazing pledges. In March 2002, The State Press reported that Sigma Nu members made pledges sit in a freezing pool during a cold night in November while the brothers verbally abused them. While this hazing tactic may have given the pledges a cold and made them uncomfortable for a while, it wasn't as dangerous as forced drinking. The biggest problem with this "ritual" is that it's not creative, and seriously guys, what was all the shouting about?
I want to emphasize that this is only certain guys. It's important to remember that not all fraternities do these kinds of things and that the tragedy of Walter Jennings' death is one of a few isolated incidents. In fact, most fraternity members I talked to about these forms of hazing thought they were just plain stupid.
Thankfully, there are still good brotherhoods out there that serve the community and are responsible and have fun all at the same time. However, ASU is getting a reputation for the decreasing number of responsible fraternities, and this should be monitored so our school doesn't end up with a tragedy like the one in New York.
Chris Fanning is a journalism junior. Reach him at christopher.fanning@asu.edu.
