Dartmouth Hazing: Faculty Condemn 'Moral Thuggery' In Letter To Administration

The Dartmouth hazing scandal has now prompted a strongly worded letter from the Ivy League school's faculty, condemning the practice as "moral thuggery."

The letter, which was signed by more than 100 Dartmouth professors, notes that hazing at the New Hampshire college "has been an open secret for decades," and asks how the "physically, emotionally, and psychologically damaging" ritual fits in "with our mission, our core values, and our principle of community?"

Hazing "infantilizes and brutalizes students," reads their response. "It degrades their ability to learn and our ability to teach. It breaks down their understanding of right and wrong, of decency and indecency, and the lines between healthy sexuality and sexual assault."

The faculty letter was drafted in response to an op-ed written by Dartmouth student Andrew Lohse in The Dartmouth. In that piece, Lohse noted the horrors of hazing, and how student pledges in Dartmouth's fraternity system -- himself included -- were humiliated, and made to, among other horrors, swim through kiddie pools of human filth and bodily excretions and to eat omeletes made of vomit.

Lohse also pointed a finger at the school's president, noting that "Jim Yong Kim’s sterling credentials in public health are fundamentally at odds with the pervasive hazing, substance abuse and sexual assault culture that dominates campus social life" at Dartmouth.

The outraged faculty agreed, noting in their letter that "the Kim administration...has not insisted these [Greek] organizations accept Dartmouth's core values of mutual respect, non-discrimination, inclusivity, and openness. We challenge the Kim administration to require these organizations" to do so.

The incident is also the latest in a string of troubling developments at Ivy League schools.

Dartmouth Hazing Faculty Letter

Comments

[ricchh]

09:17 AM on 02/06/2012

These are crimes and the students need to go to jail. Everyone at Dartmouth, Penn, are turning their heads and doing nothing.

[pakaal]

02:03 AM on 02/05/2012

I've yet to figure out what possible advantages there might be to joining a fraternity, whereas the disadvantages seem to pop up on news sites on a weekly basis.

[allerleirauh]

09:22 AM on 02/06/2012

It's about having a ready-made job to step into when you graduate.

[prezusofl]

03:57 PM on 02/07/2012

I'm in my historically black fraternity for the networking, the brotherhood, the strong emphasis on community service, and the chance to fellowship with other successful men and try to make our community better. What you don't see is all the work that goes on at the alumni level. Undergrad fraternities are for fun (for some people). The graduate/alumni chapters uplift the community.

[pakaal]

08:34 PM on 02/07/2012

OK, I can see that. Seems like we only see the bad side of these societies in the news. Go figure.

[genrel1248]

10:25 PM on 02/04/2012

A strongly worded letter. How long until the speeches of indignation begin? Or a symbolic protest?
Hey eggheads, if someone is committing a crime how about calling the police.

[Michele Bennington]

05:57 PM on 02/04/2012

Where the 1% learn to bully the 99%...

...juss sayun

[lilpeg]

09:11 AM on 02/04/2012

As below - Frats and Sorority "hazing" should really consist of the pledges doing work for the community. Figure out a way for these kids to "prove their worth" by doing some hard physical work building/repairing houses, building/repairing hiking trails, and, what the heck, mowing the lawn and shoveling snow at their colleges. If they need that sense of "humiliation" have them work for a real world boss on these projects!!!!

[BurtonDesque]

12:50 PM on 02/04/2012

"If they need that sense of "humiliati­on" have them work for a real world boss on these projects!!­
!!"

LOL

[prezusofl]

10:57 AM on 02/05/2012

Your ideas would be considered hazing and are inappropriate. 'you can't force labor, at least not in my fraternity.

[BurtonDesque]

05:34 AM on 02/04/2012

Sigh... Dartmouth AGAIN... Reminds me of how they had to lock down Harvard Yard when the Dartmouth kids came to town for the football game. Is there something in the water up there in the middle-of-nowhere Hanover, New Hampshire?

No surprise the place was the model for Animal House.

[palindrom]

05:48 PM on 02/04/2012

It's been a lot calmer since they admitted women a few decades back.

Now if they could just abolish the fraternities, or at least radically reform them, it would be the perfect school.

[Charli Fool Bear]

05:48 PM on 02/06/2012

Don't blame all Dartmouth students for the actions of a few.

[helioszephyr]

07:36 AM on 02/07/2012

that's no excuse for the "good" students not to "clean their own house". They should get involved and take any action, including holding back tuition, until the administrators take action against these crimes.

It's the same with the RCC... the "good" members should stop all donations/participation, until the Vatican "cleans house".

[renderstrue]

12:20 AM on 02/04/2012

It's funny how many proponents of elite private universities look down on public universities, often citing the drinking and fraternity culture of the public universities as one of their most adverse features. It is insufficiently recognized that some of the worst drinking cultures are pervade some of our most elite colleges and universities. Surely, Dartmouth falls in this category. You probably can add Bowdoin, Hamilton, Vanderbilt, Duke, and others to the mix.

[ketchupandfries]

11:31 PM on 02/03/2012

I applaud Andrew Lohse and the Dartmouth faculty. Hope the Powers-that-Be at Dartmouth heed the outrage and clean up their school's policies against the practice of hazing. There's no need or excuse for such behavior!

[BurtonDesque]

05:37 AM on 02/04/2012

I wouldn't applaud the Dartmouth faculty too loudly. This sort of disgusting behavior has been going on for a long, long time. The Dartmouth administration and faculty have turned a blind eye to it for just as long.

[ketchupandfries]

11:38 PM on 02/05/2012

You are absolutely right. However, I am happy that the Dartmouth faculty have finally spoken out against it. Too late for past hazing victims, but perhaps future Greek pledges won't be subjected to barbaric hazing rituals.

[dennissinned]

11:27 PM on 02/03/2012

Unbelievable what people will do to earn acceptance.

[helioszephyr]

07:37 AM on 02/07/2012

... or to impose a delusional, self-serving, hierarchy.

[odaat52]

11:24 PM on 02/03/2012

The Greek system should be abolished, lock, stock, and barrel. Sure, I guess, there are some which provide some "good works" of one kind or another, or provide a place for like-minded geeks or athletes or language students or whatever to hang out together. But it should be entirely possible to make those things happen without all this "rushing" and "pledging" and "hazing," not to mention the constant barrage of stories about kids who die of alcohol poisoning or sexual assaults. There is absolutely no reason for their continued existence.

[IndividuallyFree]

02:20 AM on 02/04/2012

As Dartmouth is a private university, it can probably abolish fraternities if it wanted to. However, there might be quite a few wealthy and influential alumni who might object. In general, private universities do -- and certainly public universities must -- respect the right of fraternities to exist under the protection of the First Amendment's guarantee of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble." That clause has been recognized by courts as a "freedom of association" applying to all sorts of groups of American citizens. You can vent your anger, but you can't forget the First Amendment.

[prezusofl]

11:01 AM on 02/05/2012

Not true. Universities have the right to regulate and recognize such groups. As long as they rely on university facilities, attend the school, and associate themselves with the academic environment, universities can shut them down entirely.You clearly don't understand the First Amendment and its relation to the academic environment. If you're going to try to make this a constitutional argument you might do well to cite some relevant court cases.Under your view, universities would have to allow a student chapter of the KKK. Universities have shut down fraternities and sororities for hazing, some universities have nixed their entire greek system.

[Sean Luhks]

11:04 PM on 02/03/2012

How is this "moral thuggery" and not just plain old regular thuggery?

[mflorian]

11:15 PM on 02/03/2012

Is there a distinction?

[andromadextra]

11:02 PM on 02/03/2012

Since when is hazing moral, thuggery or otherwise? I should think it would be considered immoral.

[palindrom]

10:55 PM on 02/03/2012

It's reasonable, and meaningful, for organizations like this to have some kind of initiation ritual.

I suggest a whole weekend spent in heavy, manual physical labor on a community service project.

[johnsonc20]

11:08 PM on 02/03/2012

F & F.

[Air Vice Marshal Park]

10:31 PM on 02/03/2012

Dartmouth was the model for the movie "Animal House."

[pakaal]

02:04 AM on 02/05/2012

The movie was funny. Also, the movie was fiction.

[v2787]

10:13 PM on 02/03/2012

For the life of me, I will never understand why some people feel the need to put up with this hazing crap. I've never, in my entire life, wanted to belong to anything so much that I would allow people to humiliate me or make my life miserable. Screw that. If I had to allow myself to be hazed to belong to a group, then as far as I'm concerned that group wouldn't be worth my time or attention. I have more self-respect than that. I wish people would start standing up to these bullies--for that's exactly what they are--and tell them to stick their hazing where the sun don't shine. But that would require some backbone and intelligence, both of which appear to be in short supply these days, so I don't expect the hazing to stop any time soon. Until people figure out for themselves that hazing is immoral, brutal, and demeaning in every way, and until they come to their senses about the foolishness of it, they'll keep submitting to it. Isn't that sad?