Preventing Hazing at Harvard crimson shield

 

Historical Perspective

Hazing at Harvard: A Historical Perspective

Dating back to the Colonial days, presidents of American post-secondary institutions often endorsed hazing. Hazing was viewed as a catalyst to intensify students’ connection with their school and to help students from diverse backgrounds become more similar than they were different.1-2

However, these hazing activities often resulted in serious injuries or death. Though tracking injuries is difficult, numerous publications have chronicled hazing deaths at American universities and colleges. Early hazing-related deaths generally resulted from annual traditions between the freshman and sophomore classes.1 It was not until the late 1920s that more hazing deaths were attributed to fraternities and other student organizations than to college-wide initiations.1

Though few recorded hazing deaths have occurred at Harvard, it appears that some hazing has existed at Harvard for centuries. Below is a timeline of significant hazing events that have impacted Harvard students and administrators. As you’ll see in the timeline below, there is a shift over time in students’ and administrators’ attitudes toward hazing from acceptable and encouraged to unacceptable and prohibited.

1641 Oxford University students were arriving at Harvard; there is some speculation that one Oxford student passed along anecdotes of hazing traditions.2-3
1657 Harvard upperclassmen received fines for hazing first-year students, John Cotting and John Whiting.4,7

Harvard student Joseph Webb was expelled from the college for hazing first-year students, but was later granted re-entry when he repented.4,7
1700s Hazing was embedded in the campus culture. Sophomores published hazing customs to uphold class traditions: first-year students were expected to dress in specific attire and assist second-year students with errands.3
1781 The honorary society Phi Beta Kappa was established and was one of the first Harvard student organizations to use hazing activities.3
1818 The Medical Faculty Society, a group of Harvard undergraduates that operated in secrecy, was founded at the college. Med. Fac. members pulled a range of pranks on the Harvard campus—a prerequisite for admission to the group—ranging from producing fake degrees to painting the John Harvard statue red. The Med. Fac. continued its tomfoolery for much of the 1800s.5
1860 The president of Harvard College expelled eight sophomores for hazing two freshmen.6,8

The Harvard faculty voted to abolish hazing, as well as the annual “Bloody Monday” football game between freshmen and sophomores (which was later revived in 1875).8
1872 Harvard juniors and seniors enacted an agreement to renounce class hazing.9
1883 The Harvard faculty established a committee to consider ways to change the initiation practices of Harvard secret societies.10
1893 A student died from a hazing-related injury at the Dickey Club.6
1924 The Freshman Discussion Club voted in favor of reinstituting hazing at the college.6
1979 An initiate of the Pi Eta Club, Paul Callahan, was paralyzed during a wrestling match on a beer-soaked floor following an initiation event.6,11
1995 As a result of two near-fatal alcohol poisoning incidents, three university administrators issued a memo to student organization leaders and athletic team captains to curb alcohol and other substance abuse within their groups/teams.12
2007 Following two near-fatal cases of alcohol poisoning, Harvard College approved a new policy under which student organization or athletic team leaders might be held responsible for serious incidents involving hazing or the consumption of alcohol or drugs.

Twenty-five varsity captains unanimously endorsed a statement that denounced hazing and approved the use of non-hazing activities that promote meaningful cohesion among teammates.

Sources:

1 Nuwer H. (2004). Introduction: Exterminating the frat rats. In H. Nuwer (Ed.), The Hazing Reader (xiii-xxiv). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

2 Nuwer H. (1999). Wrongs of passage: fraternities, sororities, hazing and binge drinking. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

3 Lipkins S. (2006) Preventing hazing: How parents, teachers, and coaches can stop the violence, harassment, and humiliation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

4 Nuwer, H. (2004). A Chronology of Hazing Events. In H. Nuwer (Ed.), The Hazing Reader (xixv-xxvii). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

5 Thompson, A.H. (2005, April 14). “Doctors” of destruction. The Harvard Crimson Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=507061.

6 Nuwer H. (1990). Broken pledges: The deadly rite of hazing. Atlanta: Longstreet Press.

7 Morison, S.E. (1936). Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century, pts. 1 and 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

8 Freshmen thankful for lack of class hazing. (1925, November 10). The Harvard Crimson Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=429753.

9 Gurney, E.W. (1874, October 2). Hazing. The Harvard Crimson Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=278189.

10 No Headline. (1883, February 7). The Harvard Crimson Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=288276

11 Korry, A.D. (1979, September 28). Pi-Eta Club Initiate Seriously Injured Following Fraternity's Initiation Rites. The Harvard Crimson Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=262735.

12 Chen, J. (1995, October 23). Officials issue drinking memo. The Harvard Crimson Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=142943.