More than 200 students packed into Collis Common Ground last night to hear David Westol, the national executive director of Theta Chi fraternity, speak out against hazing in Greek houses.
Westol is also a prosecutor in Indianapolis, Ind., who specializes in hazing laws. He speaks often to students at various colleges about fraternity and sorority hazing.
"My message is a positive one. I am attacking hazing because it will be the death of all of us," Westol said.
His speech revolved around a hypothetical story about two fraternity brothers - John Corcoran, a senior, and Michael O'Brien, a pledge.
Westol followed the saga from O'Brien's rushing of the fraternity to Hell Week, when O'Brien dies of over-consumption of alcohol.
Between 44 and 54 fraternity pledges have died within the last 15 years in similar hazing incidents, Westol said.
Throughout his speech, Westol stressed that hazing is a human phenomenon that is fundamentally the same everywhere. He said every campus he visits gives the same excuses for why hazing is justifiable. Similarly, he said, all prospective Greek members are drawn to the societies for the same reasons: sports, social life and brotherhood or sisterhood.
Westol told students that if a fraternity or sorority would not give them a straight answer about what will happen during pledge period, it is probably a hazing chapter.
"If hazing is so good, why don't you advertise it?" Westol asked the crowd.
Statistically, about 90 percent of prospective pledges would not join a Greek house if they knew what they would have to go through, he said.
According to Westol, a good pledge in a hazing chapter is more like a robot than a person. Being this way has no relevance to being a good member, he said.
About 10 percent of the members in any Greek house "live for hazing pledges," Westol said. These same 10 percent are always the worst members, often failing to pay their dues or to arrive punctually for house functions, according to Westol.
In the story Westol told, O'Brien started questioning why he and the other pledges had to use the fraternity's back door, answer the phone in three rings and greet the brothers in a certain way.
"We've got to take pledges and teach them to say, 'Hi'?" Westol asked.
Westol's story climaxed when O'Brien died during hell night and Corcoran, one of the brothers who hazed him, was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Westol did not say what the court's decision would have been.
He said there are many types of hazing and it is not limited to fraternities. He said he thinks the psychological hazing in sororities is sometimes more damaging than hazing in fraternities.
Many of the students at last night's speech were members of Greek organizations.
Panhellenic Council President Melissa Trumbull '95 said, "He drove home the point that any kind of hazing can do serious damage." Panhell is the governing body of the College's sororities.
Westol's speech comes several weeks after two members of Beta Theta Pi fraternity were arrested on charges that they hazed a pledge by serving him unsafe levels of alcohol. Westol said in an interview following the speech that there have been convictions in similar cases in Ohio, he said.
Westol also said he believes the shaving of lacrosse players' heads at Dartmouth is hazing as defined by the law, even if the players agree to it or do it to themselves.
Chi Heorot fraternity pledge Adam Wollowick '96 said, "There's a lot more awareness now about hazing but things aren't going to change so fast. It's going to take time."
