In the article “Death at a Penn State Fraternity” by Caitlin Flanagan, the tragic story of Beta Theta Pi pledge Timothy Piazza’s last moments are recounted in great detail. Throughout the analysis of the situation, Flanagan subjects her audience to a substantial amount of heartbreaking details, as well as her opinion and speculation. Flanagan’s purpose in her writing of this article is to display the message that fraternity hazing is apart of a much greater problem in the fraternal system. She does this in a number of ways, including her interviews with other frat brothers such as Kordel Davis, and her stringent analyzation of Greek Life as a whole. What happened to Tim Piazza is in no way okay.
The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze student cultures in the book Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, by Alexandra Robbins. The book provides a glimpse of the historically white national sorority system and investigates their secret group behavior. In the United States and Canada, approximately 800 institutions host social Greek Life on their campuses (Long, 2012). These chapters within the Greek Life system promote the ideals of scholarship, leadership, service, and friendship. However, in the Robbins’ book and narrative of a sorority illustrates sorority life and negative realities of that system, such as rush, bid, racism, pledging, initiation, Greek Week, breaks-up and sexual assaults.
In Caitlin Flanagan’s article, “Death at Penn State Fraternity,” a number of important topics are addressed, revolving around a college student’s death in a fraternity house. The student, Tim Piazza, was in the process of being accepted into the fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, and experienced severe hazing, leading him into a life threatening situation. The fraternity brothers refused to do anything to help Tim, as they were not about to face the consequences for hazing. Instead, Tim Piazza died at the hands of people who could have easily saved his life. Throughout the article, Flanagan brings light to many of the flaws in the system intended to prevent hazing and keep fraternity members safe.
This organization is not unreasonable and gives everyone chances. If the suspected culprit is proven guilty, they will most definitely be placed on probation and/or removed from the sorority. It is crucial to uphold the importance and value of Alpha Phi Gamma Sorority, Incorporated’s Code of Secrecy because the organization wants to see who can follow these simple rules and if they care enough to respect the integrity of their
One last main cause of many of the rapes on campus is the setting. The way each student behaved changed with were they were located and places such as high-risk parties held an attitude that condoned and even encouraged rape. Boswell and Spade identifying the cause of rape helps reduce the rates by making it so faculties can recognize the issues and propose effective
Britannica School proves reliability through out there article, showing both side and being fair to all argument points without
1. Lisa Wade explores the culture of sex within college campuses and how it has impacted the lives of the students she has researched in her book American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus. A major issue that she probes is the fact that her students are lonely and not in a physical way, but rather a mental way. The presence of hookup culture is causing students to feel out of place, unempowered, and objectified based on their traits. This peer pressure is undoubtedly inflicting objective harm causing students to feel unhappy (Wade 18).
Hazing became an issue in many colleges and universities during the 1980s. It has turned into a very detrimental doing that was soon introduced to be a health hazard in the medical field in 1982. Because hazing has become huge in fraternities and sororities, nurses and doctors will most likely know males from ages 19 to males in their 20s are in hospitals from suffering hazing incidents during February and April or September and October. Many students suffer from different types of hazing practices. Injuries and accidents are caused from alcohol intoxication, heat exhaustion, electrocution, sexual torture, and other dangerous hazing practices (Hazing Remains Secret…).
Dorothy Siegel’s argument in the essay “What Is Behind the Growth of Violence on College Campuses?” is persuasive. Siegel persuades the reader by presenting her points and validating them with facts and statistics. One of the strongest aspects of the argument is that contrary to popular belief, students are committing a majority of the crimes that take place on college campuses; the students “themselves may become the assailants”, not persons from outside of the campus. She further supported this by pointing out that students tend to know their attackers. Another strong aspect of her argument is that campus violence is due to substance abuse.
Dangerous traditions: Hazing rituals on campus and university liability. Journal of College and University Law, 26 (3), 511-548. Drout, C. , & Corsoro, C. (2003). Attitudes toward fraternity hazing among fraternity members, sorority members, and non-greek students. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 31(6), 535-543.
All around the country there are hundreds of Greek organizations spread among college campuses. For some college students it may be the ultimate college dream to join a fraternity or sorority. In movies like “Neighbors” and “House Bunny” fraternity and sorority life in college is typically portrayed as the stereotype of being one big party all the time. Through social media outsiders may see joining a fraternity or sorority as a way of “buying” your friendships. Some may even have a fear of Greek life from hearing of hazing incidents and deaths.
In my opinion, the presented evidence in regard to the claim and reasons are valid. Not only is the used evidence valid, but it is relevant and sufficient as well. As previously stated,
In society and college campuses, sexual assault occurs quite frequently. According to an estimation one third of women experience a forced sexual experience at least once in their life and most of the time it occurs in colleges. Men have also been reported to be victim of sexual assaults mostly by other men. Most of the time the sexual assault is planned and perpetrated by a third person, who is known to the victim of incident. Drug and alcohol use play role in this issue and contribute to the problem as most of the time the victim and perpetrators are under the effect of alcohol or any other drug during the incident.
Many people have heard the rumors about hazing happening on college campuses. The rumors are particularly associated with Greek Organizations. While most Greek Organizations, such as National Panhellenic Conference and the North American Interfraternity Conference, have policies forbidding hazing, it is still very prevalent within Greek life. Hazing practices within Greek organizations is something that has been happening and will continue to happen as a way to initiate new members into these elite organizations. When it comes to talking about hazing within Greek organizations, first the terms “hazing” and “fraternities and sororities” must be defined.
Reflection: In general, most of the research does not look at the media’s perception of sexual assault. Most articles look at topics related to sexual assault. Some articles look at Greek life and Greek member’s risky behavior, which can overlap with alcohol and drug use that relates to sexual assault. A main theme is that students associated with Greek organizations are much more likely to consume more alcohol and participate in risky activities.
