National Hazing Prevention Week (NHPW) took place from Sept. 19-23, and Dickinson College took part in reinforcing their no-hazing policies by distributing informational flyers in students’ mailboxes and displaying a poster in the HUB with testimonies of students against hazing.

The college defined hazing in the flyer as “any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”

According to HazingPrevention.org, the organizer of NHPW, this week is “an opportunity for campuses, schools, communities, organizations and individuals to raise awareness about the problem of hazing, educate others about hazing and promote the prevention of hazing.”

The poster entitled “#TheseHandsDon’tHaze,” which can be viewed in the lower level of the HUB, was created by sorority Pi Beta Phi.  However, members of other organizations also signed the poster, including but not limited to, the Octals, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and the Dickinson swim team.  The hashtag was the creation of HazingPrevention.org to promote no-hazing policies and healthy organization communities.

According to Julianna Barr ’17, President of Pi Phi, the banner was created last week during Pi Phi’s event on Britton Plaza, “Lemonade for Literacy,” with the intention to recognize and support NHPW. The banner was posted on Thursday Sept. 14. “Our chapter, Pennsylvania Gamma of Pi Beta Phi, is the responsible organization for the commissioning and displaying of this banner in the Underground of the Hub,” stated Barr.  “The banner displays the handprints and names of many that pledged their commitment to NHPW. Seeing as NHPW is a PanHellenic-wide initiative and campaign, we encouraged other Greek communities to support the campaign by tracing their hands and pledging their personal and organizational commitment to hazing prevention.”

The issue of hazing on campus was brought up at the Community Town Hall event on Monday, Sept. 19.  The senior staff at the meeting reiterated Dickinson’s zero-tolerance hazing policy, and discussed their plans to work with clubs, organizations, Greek life and sports teams to help them understand different types of hazing and how their behavior might be hazing. They stressed the importance of educating students about hazing policies and different types of hazing.

Other Greek organizations voiced their respective approaches to Dickinson’s hazing policies.

Ryan Schutte ’17, president of Phi Delta Theta fraternity says, “Phi Delta Theta has the slogan “become the greatest version of yourself.”  With this in mind, we have a goal for our new members to contribute as much as possible to our fraternity and the Dickinson community as a whole.”

He continues: “Hazing in no way helps us achieve that goal.  If we want them to succeed, why would we treat them [new members] negatively or different than we treat each other?”

Abigail Stasior ’17, president of sorority Kappa Alpha Theta mentions that since Theta was the first “Greek letter fraternity known among women,” the members rose from discrimination from the fraternities of the time, “And rather than hazing them, we shower our new members with love!” she states. “We appreciate them for both their individualism and their embodiment of Theta’s core values. We host sisterhood and bonding events chapter-wide to build relationships based on trust and friendship.”

President of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, Trevor Diamond ’17, states, “Delta Sigma Phi has no tolerance for hazing.  That’s something that was stressed to me when I joined four years ago and something we have upheld since then,” he maintains.  “Hazing has no place at Dickinson and we are glad the school is coming together to call attention to this issue.”