Hazing In The News

Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

The issue of hazing just won’t go away.  In spite of the virtually universal efforts by national fraternities and sororities to eliminate hazing, there can be little doubt that serious instances of hazing continue.  Those violations continue to draw the attention of criminal and civil authorities and of course, the media.

On January 7, 2014, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the Chancellor of the University System of Maryland urged that hazing-related penalties needed to be strengthened.  A Maryland State lawmaker, Senator Jamie Raskin, announced that he planned to introduce legislation which would increase the fine for hazing from $500 to $5,000.  Whether such an increase in fines would cause any decrease in hazing is far from certain.  Still, the sad truth is that hazing needs continuing attention.  While there may be serious questions about the accuracy of articles published in Bloomberg, the claim that there have been more than 60 fraternity-related deaths since 2005 will continue to be used as a call to action.