A Price To Pay

Some duders just never learn. That is, until it's too late.

For the men of Alpha Epsilon Pi @ Indiana University, they're finding out the hard way just how costly hazing their pledges would be; their chapter is now shut down & their good name has become anathema in Bloomington (e.g. they can't participate in the Little 5 as AEPi; they're no longer part of the Greek system @ IU as we speak).

In my previous posts on hazing, I focused on how detrimental it can be, particularly with the pledges. Sure, AEPi might have hazed their new guys just for tradition's sake or because that's part & parcel of their pledging program; it could just as well be both of the above. But when it comes to depriving your pledges of sleep, dropping them off at who knows where & expecting them to find their way back to campus (both of which Alpha Epsilon Pi actually did), along with forcing them to drink odd concoctions, reaming them out during the much-dreaded lineups...that's complete BS & none of these actions will help any new guy gain a fuller understanding of their fraternity nor will they help them strive to become better pledges either (& after Initiation, better brothers). And obligations of this sort sure don't give pledges the opportunity to excel academically.

To tell you the truth, hazing is just wrong & always has been. To say that it's not wrong or that it's beneficial to educating your new members the ins & outs of not only your respective chapters but also your fraternal organizations (collectively speaking) - that to me is ignorance at its finest.

Some duders don't learn until it's too late. And what then? they will ask as if they were worthy of a second chance to begin with. Maybe a second chance for AEPi may come around the bend; maybe not. But the damage has already been done to Alpha Epsilon Pi & we're left with a warning on the price one chapter pays just for hazing their members-to-be: it's not worth losing your charter or your house over.