Packer: Is It Really Hazing?
By Karina Packer, Guest Columnist
Published on Monday, February 4, 2013
My name is Karina Packer ’15, and last year I was “hazed.”
I can already see people reading this and rolling their eyes: Another person coming forward with an exposé of a Greek house/team/club and how it has harmed them. But the tale I have to tell is different, so bear with me.
Before I entered Dartmouth as a freshman on the Nordic ski team, I had heard of the team’s many traditions and quirks. The most longstanding one occurs during Winter Carnival — the freshmen dye their hair bright pink and green for the week. This tradition was started in the 1990s by a class of especially spirited freshmen who wanted to celebrate their team in a vibrant way.
Contrary to what you may be thinking, no one ever told me this was something I had to do. Last year, the freshman members of the team ordered dye and spent five hours getting to know one another better late one Sunday night. Don’t get me wrong, the upperclassmen definitely stopped by — to bring us cupcakes and reminisce about when they dyed their hair. There have been people in the past few years, including one last year, who decided not to dye all of their hair and were not punished, harassed or kicked off of the team because of their decision.
I loved having pink hair and cherish the memories of bonding with my teammates. Before that night, the four ’15s on the women’s team barely knew one another, but now we will be friends forever (as cheesy as that sounds).
This year, we have a delightful group of five freshman ladies. With all of the hazing reforms on campus, the team has wondered if our tradition would be allowed to continue. Several alternatives have been thrown around, including having upperclassmen revisit their pink ’dos, but the freshmen have indicated that they want to be the only ones with pink hair — they want to distinguish themselves from rival ski teams and the entire campus as the proud ’16 Nordies that they are. Our freshmen, without upperclassmen’s input, contacted the administration to ask for approval for this upcoming event. They received a firm no.
My question to the administration is how they think that they can combat real hazing when students who try to be honest about a situation are simply turned down. Hazing events are now conducted secretly and students are much less likely to ask for help when needed because the consequences are so high. This is much more dangerous than if the same events were out in the open.
It is ridiculous that the administration would consider preventing one of the campus’ most successful teams from competing because our freshmen decide to temporarily dye their hair a silly color. Our tradition is public because it is meant to be a celebration of the team and what we do, not because it is harmful. If the administration is so worried about outside appearances or perceptions, then they should defend activities like the pink hair, which promotes Dartmouth athletics, which, in turn, places Dartmouth as a whole in a good light. The Dartmouth ski team is known in the skiing community for being a program of excellence and our traditions have given us the reputation of being a fun and positive team, which is attractive to prospective skiers.
Because of the new policies, our freshmen are unable to experience the same bonding and recognition that so many past Dartmouth skiers have enjoyed. The extreme blanket ban on hazing has eliminated many positive traditions because the administration is too lazy to target the real, underground hazing that is actually detrimental. I understand that this is a slippery slope and that there is a fine line between bonding activities and hazing, but is waking up freshmen 30 minutes early and taking them out to breakfast to meet the team really a bad thing? Will we have to get rid of rookie awards because they single out first-years too? What about having a freshman team for sports like crew? Doesn’t that segregate freshmen? The administration should be more open to working with teams, Greek houses and other organizations on campus instead of shutting down attempts at honest conversation.
I am so happy to see this written. One of my best friends is on the Nordic Ski Team and when she dyed her hair our freshman year, I remember how happy she was to be a part of the tradition. She didn’t even dye her whole head of hair – just the tips!
I sincerely hope readers and the administration look closely at your piece, Karina. I’m right there with you.
By Kate Shelton, ‘14 on Feb 4 | 3:10 am
This is not hazing, It’s a fun tradition for a day that highlights who the freshman team members are. Apparently no one is forced to do it and that is a good thing. How about a streak of pink across the front. Many yrs ago while working in a hosp.we Irish girls dyed our hair green on St Patrick’s Day. The administration loved it as did the patients.
Pam Tagliareni (aunt to a freshman)
By Pam Tagliareni on Feb 4 | 7:53 am
Make no mistake, things are falling apart in Hanover. Dean Johnson, JD has painted herself into a corner. After the racially motivated decision to let alpha phi alpha off with a slap on the wrist! She has no supports left!
By Falling Apart on Feb 4 | 8:29 am
Dartmouth has reached a turning point. It can accept the fate of being slowly murdered by the incompetence of Dean Johnson, or it can stand up and say enough is enough. Dean Johnson’s blatant war on fun is just too much!
This type of story demands a response. Dean Johnson must explain why she ordered this assination of a Dartmouth tradition. As long as Dean Johnson is free on campus things won’t get better!
By Lions, Tigers, Dean Johnson, Oh My! on Feb 4 | 9:12 am
Wait this can’t seriously have happened. Someone needs to be fired.
By ‘09 on Feb 4 | 10:03 am
Nuff said
By WE NEED PHIL HANLON on Feb 4 | 10:49 am
I hope that Interim President Carol “Its not my” Folt will step outside of her 3-story Mansion on Webster Ave and she the devastation her chief lackey Charlotte Johnson has had on the community.
This story is just one of the hundreds of examples of the community being destroyed by clowns in Parkhurst.
By Jake 14 on Feb 4 | 11:08 am
Great article. Thanks
By D’13 on Feb 4 | 11:10 am
Ms. Packer wrote a great piece, but it is missing one key fact. These types of female bonding events are the college’s best defense against sexual assault. Female cohesion is want allows vulnerable freshman to be protected from the more predatory elements of the Dartmouth’s nightlife.
Through this incompetent decision Dean Johnson has just declared open season for Sexual Assault on campus. This, along with the racism and hate brought about by HER decision to give Alpha Phi Alpha a slap on the wrist, is all the proof we need to know that Dean Johnson needs to go.
By Mindy 87 on Feb 4 | 11:17 am
Things have gone too far. Skiers dying their hair is not hazing in the slightest – by any stretch of this administration’s distorted definition. I’m not on the team, and I’m a senior, but I would gladly dye my hair green or pink if it meant they could carry on an ACTUALLY CELEBRATED tradition. And yes, there is a difference between good traditions and bad traditions. I don’t want to hear any more vitriolic nonsense about all “traditions” being big bad wolves.
The administration really needs to butt out of the things that don’t matter and start worrying about what really does.
By shaking my head on Feb 4 | 1:36 pm
I totally agree…not even to mention the absolutely grueling nature of their sport. To consider dyeing your hair “hazing,” next to how tough they voluntarily push themselves in practice and competition and such, is just laughable.
By ‘12 Athlete on Feb 4 | 2:29 pm
Dear President Hanlon,
Please fire Charlotte Johnson on your first day, and please hire someone that understands physical or emotional abuse and willful hair-dying are very different things.
Sincerely,
The Student Body
By ‘14 on Feb 4 | 2:36 pm
Unbelievable to see the school imploding like this. The way to social improvement in Hanover is ethical education of students rooted the liberal arts traditions that formerly made Dartmouth a great school in the first place. Now students are beaten over the head with PC gibberish which has poisoned the soul of school, resulting in broad spectrum incompetence and disintegration of every kind (administrative, Greek life, widespread cheating, sexual assaults, etc). Hopefully Hanlon has the good sense to clean house and remove these PC clowns before they do any more damage.
By Dartmouth ‘11 on Feb 4 | 3:14 pm
Next on the D: How many pseudonyms can Joe Asch make up?
By Oseph Jasch ‘79 on Feb 4 | 3:18 pm
I think we can all agree that because the Nordic Ski Team has a great tradition of bonding, hazing clearly is no longer a problem at Dartmouth….
By ‘15 on Feb 4 | 3:22 pm
The problem is that the College doesn’t want to be seen in the position of tacitly accepting hazing at all, so it takes a hardline position on stuff like this, which then weakens the administration’s position when going after things that are on or over the line. It’s a real damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation from the administration’s point of view.
My honest opinion here is that the situation described is one of those where it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Something tells me that if the ski team had simply carried on its tradition without asking anyone’s permission, nothing would have happened, but because they asked, the College had to say “No.”
My advice to the current Dartmouth students – which, admittedly, is very easy to give when you graduated nearly nine years ago – is that if you have a tradition like this, go ahead, don’t tell the College about it, and dare them to come down on you. Can anyone else imagine the PR nightmare that would have come from the College trying to discipline the skiers over this? It’d make the Applebee’s story look like…well, actually, it wouldn’t top Applebee’s. But you get what I’m saying.
By E04 on Feb 4 | 4:09 pm
One thing I did not understand in the Packer article: Why would anybody ask permission from a dean to dye their hair? And why would a dean consider it’s his/her business to answer? For this alum, there are two morals to this story. For students, remember it’s you who confers authority to whomever you ask for permission. And for deans, every time you pull something out of your authority bag, there is less left for everything else, so don’t squander it.
By Michael Chu on Feb 4 | 4:39 pm
This breaches these young women’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Parkhurst is essentially limiting these ‘16s’ freedom to express themselves as they would like. This type of a mandate would not stand against the Supreme Court.
Dye your hair, girls. Dye your hair.
By Lest the Old Traditions Fail on Feb 4 | 4:43 pm
Clarification: The ski team did not ask for permission to dye their hair. Rather, they received an email from administration at the beginning of the term which explicitly told them they could not participate in the hair dying. To be honest, the ski team had no intention of “asking for permission.”
By “14 ski on Feb 4 | 4:57 pm
@Michael Chu: Where were you from 2000 to 2009?
By DartBored on Feb 4 | 4:59 pm