Greeks promote hazing prevention

The Tulane Greek community is organizing events in conjunction with National Hazing Prevention Week Feb. 2-5.  This is the second time the university has participated. Events, which range from speakers to film presentations, are aimed at raising awareness among the student body about what activities qualify as hazing.
The Inter-Fraternity Council has taken a prominent role in organizing events.
“Tulane’s Greek organizations are undertaking this initiative because we are one of the largest collections of student organizations on campus,” IFC President James Arogeti said. “Hazing is destructive to any individual organization as well as the whole Tulane community.”
Arogeti said hazing is not exclusive to Greek organizations.
“It has been found in NCAA sports teams, military organization, marching bands, honors societies and club sports,” he said.
The week’s events are designed to raise awareness of hazing across all student organizations. He said that because the university has no oversight for other organizations like club sports teams and non-IFC/Panhellenic/National Panhellenic Council organizations, hazing may still be an issue in those areas. Despite the lack of university regulation, hazing remains illegal under Louisiana law, he said.
There are several events planned throughout the week. There will be a general information table set up 11 a.m. — 3 p.m. on Monday in the lobby of the Lavin-Bernick Center. There will be a presentation of the movie “Hazed” Wednesday followed by a general question panel featuring representatives from Reily and the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Rogers Chapel at 7 p.m. Thursday.
David Stollman will be speaking about the core values of Greek life and the obstacles hazing presents to those values Tuesday in McAlister Auditorium. He challenges members of student organizations to reject hazing and the people that condone it. His speech will begin at 7 p.m.
Some students said they believe hazing has become less prominent at Tulane in recent years.
“Tulane (and its students) have acted responsibly over the past four years to get rid of any previous hazing rituals or suspicions, really cleaning up our collective image as student organizations,” said Brian Hoffman, Greek liaison to the Undergraduate Student Government.  “The Office of Student Affairs has introduced ‘The Standards of Excellence’ to hold Greeks to a higher standard.”
Hoffman also said that the event was not organized in response to any particular incident.
“It may seem like this was implemented as a response to the hazing by former members of Pike, but we’ve had it for the past couple years,” he said. “The purpose is to make people aware of hazing and know how to handle situations that may be hazing.”