UNLV students want anti-hazing laws

Stacy J. Willis

Thursday, Dec. 10, 1998 | 11:06 a.m.

No whipping. No beating. No forced consumption of alcohol, no forced deprivation of sleep, no forced calisthenics.

In short, no hazing.

UNLV student leaders want Nevada to join the 40 other states that have anti-hazing statutes, and this spring they will ask the Legislature to pass a far-reaching law making hazing -- and witnessing hazing without reporting it -- a crime.

"I want to make sure that the threat of judicial action is greater than the joy of making a pledge clean the bathroom with a toothbrush," Michelle Friedlander, a member of a sorority and former UNLV Panhellenic President wrote in an open letter to the 1999 Legislature. "I make the request that a bill be enacted that would help to prevent future acts of death by alcohol poisoning or pledge beatings."

Although UNLV has not had any deaths or serious injuries resulting from hazing, last year the 30-year-old UNLV chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity was suspended for blindfolding, paddling and otherwise mistreating eight pledges.

Since 1970, hazing has resulted in at least one death per year nationwide on university campuses.

UNLV has a campus policy prohibiting hazing, but student leaders and administrators think that making hazing illegal will serve as an additional deterrent. Students began raising the issue last spring and have since gained the cooperation of the university to push the issue in the Legislature this spring.

Rick Bennett, UNLV director of governmental relations, said that the university will seek penalties for hazers ranging from suspension and expulsion to misdemeanor charges.

"Beyond that, other criminal statutes would apply, if a student is harmed," Bennett said.

If enacted, the hazing law would affect all organizations affiliated with higher education institutions in the state.

In drafting the bill, UNLV borrowed language from Pennsylvania's statute, which is one of the more restrictive state laws in the country, according to Bennett. The language in rough drafts of the bill encompasses a wide variety of behaviors, and holds accountable students who were aware of, but did not participate in, hazing:

"(Hazing is) any action or situation, which recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student, or which willfully destroys or removes public or private property for the purpose of initiation or admission into or affiliation with, or a condition for continued membership in, any organization...

"An individual commits an offence under this hazing policy if the individual: engages in hazing; solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid someone else in hazing; intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly permits hazing to occur; or has firsthand knowledge of the planning of a specific hazing event or has firsthand knowledge that a specific even has occurred and fails to report that knowledge."

Nationwide, recent hazing incidents have included:

(bulleted)

May 8, 1998 - A university of Texas freshman sued a fraternity, alleging that fraternity brothers cracked his skull, cut him, and urinated on him during a fraternity ritual.

April 7, 1998 -- Three fraternity pledges at UCLA were hospitalized after a weekend of intense physical exertion that caused massive dehydration and in one case kidney failure.

May 31, 1997 -- A San Diego State fraternity lost its charter after pledges were forced to consume dog food, cat food, and castor oil.

September 30, 1997 -- A Massachusetts Institute of Technology fraternity member died after being in an alcohol-induced coma for three days after a fraternity drinking event.

UNLV has 100 student organizations, including 10 fraternities and seven sororities, that would be affected by the new statute if it is passed by the Legislature this spring.