It’s time to clear the haze.
This week, the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life sponsored their annual anti-hazing campaign, “Stop Hazing on Rocky Top.” With an agenda to spread awareness within the student population and turn potentially harmful Greek habits into constructive traditions, the office stationed an informational booth on Pedestrian Walkway each day this week and hosted a series of meetings and workshops to confront the issue of hazing.
“The goal is to get information regarding hazing policies and how to report (hazing) in the hands of students,” said Lindi Smedberg, director of Sorority and Fraternity Life.
Workshops promoted by the Panhellenic Council this week trained Greek leadership to recognize the many ambiguous forms of hazing.
Adam Kowalski, assistant director of Sorority and Fraternity Life and member of Alpha Sigma Phi, said the events confronted Greek leaders with scenarios which could indicate hazing and encouraged them to define the term.
“It was an opportunity for officers to engage in some good, meaningful discussions about what hazing is occurring and is prevalent at UT, putting (leaders) in some situations where they have to look at a situation and say ‘Is this hazing?'” Kowalski said.
The definition of hazing was a theme throughout the week. Pledges present at the information booth on Pedestrian Walkway helped clarify the meaning, defining it as an act against another student which endangers their mental or physical health, including “treatment of a violent, abusive, shameful, insulting or humiliating nature.”
Kowalski said the Panhellenic Council is not only educating Greek communities about what hazing is, but also instructing them on how to substitute potentially harmful practices with more positive and productive ones.
“Many of the programs have been more steering away from some of the issues that campus may have seen in the past,” Kowalski said. “The new members facilitate a lot of conversations about how those past programs and things that have happened in the organization and why those are not an essential aspect of their fraternity experience.”
Over the past few years, sorority and fraternity life at UT has been under scrutiny. In 2013, three fraternity chapters at UT — Sigma Chi, Lambda Chi Alpha and Pi Kappa Phi — were disciplined for hazing allegations. One incident resulted in the minor injury of a pledge and another caused the fraternity’s registration to be revoked from campus until August 2017.
In response to the recent negative light shown on UT’s Greek Life, the Panhellenic Council has expanded, hoping to hold sorority and fraternity organizations accountable for maintaining a hazing-free environment.
Meredith Maroney, freshmen in journalism and new member of Alpha Omicron Pi, encourages students to ask questions and see for themselves before writing off sororities or fraternities. Although hesitant to rush a sorority herself, so far she said her experience in Greek life has surpassed her initial reservations about joining.
“I didn’t know exactly what to expect,” Maroney said. “From Bid Day on, Alpha Omicron Pi has been nothing but welcoming … Our sisterhood is meant to be a sanctuary where you can come whenever you’ve had a rough day at school, whenever your grades didn’t work out the way you thought, whenever a stranger was rude to you.
“They’re here to encourage you, and here to help you excel academically, socially and really in any way you want.”
For more information, contact gogreek.utk.edu.
