In my misspent youth on the College Park campus of the University of Maryland, I belonged to a fraternity which shall remain nameless here for obvious reasons.
I believe we were the role model for that comic movie hit, “Revenge of the Nerds.”
It’s not easy to confess this but by the eternal standards of college youth, there’s no better defining attribute of my old fraternity than our nerdiness.
- We had a whole bunch of guys with straight-A averages;
- We led all fraternities in overall grade point average;
- We were among the klutziest fraternities in intramural football and basketball. Promise not to tell anyone, and maybe I’ll let you know our nerdy “secret password.”
And yet, to get a little more serious here, none of this is the real reminder of embarrassment over my fraternity — or anybody’s fraternity — at College Park, or anywhere.
But the reminder is all over the news at the College Park campus these days.
As reported first in the school newspaper, The Diamondback, university officials on Mar. 1 placed a “cease and desist order” on all fraternities and sororities, citing allegations of excessive hazing.
Chapter members were placed on “social moratorium” and prohibited from holding events with alcohol or communicating with pledges about chapter business.
Greek-letter leaders have called the action “punishment without due process,” saying it spreads the blame to the entire system for the misdeeds of a few.
They’ve called on the university to lift the moratorium, saying the restrictions were imposed on “chapters lacking evidence or allegations of misconduct.”
In response, the university has now hired a consulting firm to interview fraternity and sorority members.
And so, a little personal reaction to events so far:
I have no doubt the university overreacted with its blanket punishment of all fraternities and sororities. Officials want to get a handle on this before any serious hazing damage occurs — and before any serious lawsuits might follow.
I also have no doubt that incidents of excessive hazing have occurred.
It’s the nature of youth to engage in excessive behavior, and maybe feel guilty about it afterwards when it’s too late.
It’s also the nature of young men, with all their macho instincts activated, to judge themselves on their ability to stand up to such lunacy, even when it starts getting dangerous. (I have no idea why the young women would put up with it, owing to their more highly developed instincts for common sense and civility.)
And yet none of this touches on the real problem here, which is the Greek-letter elitist system itself. It gives certain young people the power to humiliate other young people.
We see the evidence during pledge periods where desperate kids are told to perform idiotic orders. Some of this becomes “hazing,” and some of it inevitably becomes excessive.
We see it during so-called “Hell Weeks” when the orders are intensified. We see it when votes are taken and certain pledges are “blackballed,” cast aside for not being — well, what? Attractive enough? Cool enough? Obedient enough?
Whatever the flimsy reason, they’re left with psychological scars that can last for years.
The University of Maryland is suddenly aware of “hazing” as a problem? Are they not aware that the entire system is built on a foundation of it?
That’s the real problem here, and it’s been going on forever.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” (Johns Hopkins University Press) and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home” (Johns Hopkins University Press).
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