How to Prevent Sorority Hazing

Although we are much more used to hearing news about fraternity hazing, don't be fooled by the female members of the expansive Greek system. Unfortunately, sorority hazing is a serious problem on college campuses across the country. Hazing is like wildfire, which is why prevention is the most viable option.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Provide alternative activities. Parents, friends, faculty and Greek advisors can talk until they are blue in the face about the dangers of hazing, but until there are equally enticing alternatives available, hazing will continue. Consider the creation of "healthy hazing" through inter-sorority contests or by opening up bars (without serving alcohol) to sororities and fraternities for social events with pledges. Provide sororities with money from the university budget to plan trips, bring in concerts and host events.
2. Reiterate the consequences to those responsible. Every campus has a slightly different policy, but sororities in the National Panhellenic Council (most nationally known sororities) hold their house presidents and/or executive boards partially responsible when accidents or injury arise from hazing rituals. The leaders of a sorority caught hazing can suffer serious setbacks to their reputation and education. If a sorority's executive council is educated, they are much less likely to encourage (or quietly allow) hazing to continue.
3. Clarify the common misconception that hazing creates unity among sisters. Greeks get through grueling rituals by telling one another that hazing is necessary to build a strong sisterhood. This isn't actually true, since some pledges bend under pressure while others break. While older members like young pledges to believe that hazing will only make them stronger as a group, hazing is when schisms begin to form and cliques are created. Instead of a "hazing creates unity" theme, it becomes a "survival of the fittest" theme, which just sets up a pledge class to be a dysfunctional family over the next 3 to 4 years.
4. Use scare tactics. Hazing prevention can occur easily when sororities see that history repeats itself. Make an effort to display examples of sorority hazing gone wrong. Some houses have sessions where each member stands and reads a different press release detailing a death, serious injury or disciplinary action that has resulted from hazing. Whether or not members admit to it, these moments of "it could happen to you" leave them thinking twice about hazing.
5. Take away recruitment. A sorority is only as strong as its collective members. By taking away rush, a house cannot replace the senior Greeks it loses to graduation. Houses fill quota with new pledges, who financially support the organization. The folding of a sorority chapter on a university campus is a heartbreaking and embarrassing time for the members. A smart sorority will not risk hazing if the consequence is being shut out of recruitment.
6. Start with the pledge, not the house. Although most strategies aim for prevention among the sisterhood, focusing on the pledges can be incredibly effective. Develop programs that alert, educate and empower newly Greek women. Most hazing occurs because pledges can't, won't or don't know how to say no. If advisory councils and executive boards can give them the tools, hazing will be much more easily prevented. Simply put, a house can't haze if the guinea pigs won't stand for it.

Tips & Warnings

• Incentives programs have been successful at a number of universities. Hazing may be less of a problem if sororities have something to work for (money, access to a bar for an event, a higher quota at recruitment).