"Hazing" at Service Academies

KillarneyRose · #1 08-06-2001, 10:01 PM

Every year around fall rush time, I get nostalgic about my years as an active and I get out the scrapbooks, songbooks, pledge manual, paddle, etc just because I enjoy looking at them and showing them to my daughters.

My husband is completely clueless about all things Greek and, while he doesn't object to my continued involvement on an alumna basis, he has seen the negative way Greeks are often portrayed in the media and he chooses to believe that steorotype instead of my firsthand experience and no amount of argument on my part will change his mind.

We can agree to disagree, that's fine. But the thing that is upsetting to me is that he puts down a large part of my college experience by dismissing greeks but is a graduate of one of the service academies. I know for a fact that the things he and his classmates and everyone else I know who graduated from the place had to do would constitute hazing if they were fraternity pledges.

For example, it is mandatory that the entire student body attend football games and whenever their team scores all the freshmen have to do down onto the field and do the same number of push-ups as the score. In other words, if they score 5 touchdowns (including extra points) in a game, the freshmen have to do seven, then fourteen, then twenty-one, twenty-eight and thirty-five push ups.

They are also made to "sit at attention" while eating their meals and are taught to never have more in their mouth at one time than they can swallow immediately in case an upper classman chooses to put them on the spot and ask them questions.

They are not allowed, as freshmen, to use the main entrance in their dormitory and they are required to do something called "chow call" every morning where they have to stand in the hall and scream out the meal menus for the day.

I never experienced anything like that when I was a pledge, nor do I know anyone else who has. My husband claims that those things aren't hazing because they are pertinant and because it helps the class share experiences which brings them closer together. That the....??????

In addition to using this forum as a place to vent, I was wondering what you all think about this. Don't get me wrong, I think my husband went to a wonderful school and I am very proud that he gradutated from there. However, I think what they go through at the service academies is hazing and it upsets me that it is going on in a government sanctioned institution funded by my tax dollars while Greek systems at schools throughout the country are fighting for their lives.

KILLARNEY ROSE IS NOW LEAVING HER SOAPBOX!!!

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@~Tracy~@

"...For it's just the flame of a sister's love, that makes the world go round."

[This message has been edited by KillarneyRose (edited August 06, 2001).]

AlphaSigLana · #2 08-06-2001, 10:09 PM

That must be hard to have a husband who is not fully supportive of your greek experience. I think that the service stuff sounds awful. I think people are more likely to defend something that they are a part of bc they don't want to feel like anything is wrong with it so they find fault in others. I once heard that the things you dislike are often the things you do- ie. eat with your mouth full. I am not saying you hazed so i hope you understand what I am trying to say.

carnation · #3 08-07-2001, 08:38 AM

I get so tired of hearing people say that hazing is necessary in the military. When I was in college, the Corps at Texas A & M was very large and they hazed horribly. (I don't know if they still do.) I remember one guy telling me how he crawled under the table and set all the new guys' napkins on fire--boy, did he think that was funny. He claimed that all the vicious stunts they pulled taught discipline.

Some coaches say that too--don't even get me going on nasty athletic hazing.

Mariposa13 · #4 08-07-2001, 01:40 PM

Killarney Rose-
I also am an Alum of my Sorority and every so often, I get nostalgic and wonder about my sisters, get out my photos... But like your husband, my fiance has also generated a negative outlook on the whole greek system, and refuses to take my own positive experiences at face value. Not only have the media portrayed GLO's in a negative manner, but it's big bucks as far as the box office is concerned. The more outragous the hazing, the better the ratings. I just wish that someone would show the other side, the positive side of Greek life. My fiance says that he never wants our kids to join a GLO (Especially after watching movies like Dying to Belong, the Skulls...) and it makes me so sad that because of incorrect preception and false common knowledge, so many young people will never get the positive experience that a Sorority or Fraternity can bring.

AlphaChiGirl · #5 08-07-2001, 09:01 PM

We discussed something similar to this in another thread--the "well, the military hazes". I'm not being anal-retentive about doing searches, it's just that a lot of articulate things were said, by those for and against physically and emotionally difficult new member activities.

KillarneyRose · #6 08-08-2001, 11:05 AM

Hi AlphaChiGirl! I am very interested in reading all the articulate things people have already had to say regarding this issue. Could you please let me know exactly what search criteria you used to find the thread or threads? I tried "well, the military hazes" as well as "military" "military hazing" and "service academies" but nothing comes up. Thank you!

- Tracy