IFC appoints students to Hazing Task Force

By David Enders

and Caitlin Nish

Daily Staff Reporters

The Interfraternity Council took another step in its war against hazing when it announced the appointment of the Hazing Task Force members.

"There needs to be a change of culture if we, the IFC, (Panhellenic Council and Black Greek Association) are going to survive in the future. We have to directly deal with this issue," IFC President Adam Silver said. "People have been afraid of this issue in the past."

A change of culture began Monday, when the IFC announced the members of its Hazing Task Force, a group designed to quell the problem.

The task force consists of 15 Greek community members: Five fraternity members, five sorority members and five Black Greek Association members, even though sororities and the BGA have had little publicity regarding hazing.

"The Office of Greek Life is an umbrella organization with three parts - the IFC, Panhel and BGA. Whether there's hazing in the BGA I can only speculate, but the reason we want them to be a part of the task force is because they face the same problems the rest of us do," said Gerald Mangona, IFC vice president for external affairs.

The task force will not act as a judicial branch of the Greek System but will be responsible for collecting information on the treatment of new

PETER CORNUE/Daily

LSA senior Vik Vaishya, a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, rides a teeter totter on the Diag yesterday during a marathon to raise money for Mott Children's Hospital.

I thought I saw a see saw

Greek members and submitting a report to IFC, Panhel and BGA.

"This will be a report which will turn into a policy that will govern the Greek community but hopefully the new policy will also serve as a model to other communities facing the same hazing problems across the nation," Silver said.

Instead of defining hazing, the task force will attempt to define the problems associated with hazing in the Greek community.

"Anytime you specifically define something there always will be a loophole - hazing is anything that endangers anyone mentally, physically or academically, so that's where the concern is for the University," said a task force member who asked that his name not be printed. The purpose "isn't to define hazing but to figure out what to do about it," he said.

Both Silver and the task force member said the problem of hazing goes beyond the pledge term, with ramifications even after fraternity initiation.

"How do you all of a sudden after pledge term respect someone who has beaten you for the past four months?" the task force member asked.

Yet not all Greek members feel this is a question that needs to be asked.

One freshman fraternity member, who wished to remain anonymous, said hazing is a necessary part of the pledge term.

"It makes you tougher. It makes you able to handle mental stress," he said.

The student said he was hazed last semester by older members of his house, but felt no resentment.

"You have to take it with a grain of salt," he said. "There was no feeling of them against us. It was just something we had to do to get in ... It shouldn't make you hate the older guys."

The freshman did admit that he wouldn't participate in the hazing of next year's pledge class.

"It's just not me," he said. He added that the members of his pledge class that were most likely to haze were the ones who had been hazed the worst themselves. "But I would tell (pledges) to clean," he said.

The fraternity member said he doubted IFC's ability to put an end to hazing.

But Silver remains optimistic.

"They have a hard challenge ahead of them, but I think they will succeed," he said.