After Sigma Chi fraternity was kicked off campus January 2014, the University's Greek life programs have continued to work to eliminate the hazing culture.
"Although no hazing policy has changed, the University does not tolerate hazing of any kind," said William Whittelsey, Interfraternity Council (IFC) president.
"The definition of hazing is pretty black and white these days, and we do our job to educate all the fraternity officers and fraternity members to tell them it's not right," Whittelsey said. "We have the Greek Leadership Summit at the beginning of every spring [and fall] semester."
Another program IFC has implemented within the last year is the Pledge Council.
"This past year we put together a council of pledge trainers," Whittelsey said. "Bringing them together bi-weekly for a round table to discuss their policies and create a little pot of ideas that will work (and) will continue to promote a pledgeship without the hazing."
In regard to allegations of Sigma Chi brothers forcing their pledges to complete long study hours, Whittelsey said the hazing involved the amount of hours forced rather than telling the pledges to study.
"We allow a fraternity to conduct a program 35-40 hours a week where members are expected to be doing activities for their pledge program," Whittelsey said.
Whittelsey said the action of hazing is not the entire issue at hand.
"It's more of the culture that exists, and that's our job to get rid of that culture where some guys think things are acceptable when they are clearly not acceptable," Whittelsey said.
Jill Moore, director of Greek Life, said there are two main causes to hazing.
"The first is culture," Moore said. "Many people see hazing activities as something that should happen to everyone and deem those things as a right of passage. The other is when someone uses a position in an organization to exert power and control over others."
Although IFC has not made any policy changes regarding hazing, Tau Kappa Epsilon has.
Tyler Kroeschell, TKE president, said the fraternity has given up hazing completely ever since the fraternity heard about Sigma Chi had been kicked off campus.
"There was an incident about three or four years ago when the hazing hotline was called on us," Kroeschell said. "We don't want to have to deal with anything like that, and we don't think it's worth it to haze."
Kroeschell said switching to this policy has caused some conflict among the TKE brothers.
"There has been animosity between different pledge classes that have been hazed by other ones," Kroeschell said. "The way we did rush in the past was we would just get as many guys as possible and through hazing we could cut the guys out we didn't want. Now, we're focusing on getting guys with the personality traits that would help benefit the fraternity."
TKE has also weighed the risks and benefits of hazing and concluded that it is not worth it.
"We think that having a no hazing policy will really strengthen our brotherhood," Kroeschell said.
Kroeschell also said he wants his fraternity to be an example for other fraternities across campus.
"We want to be proactive and have this done before it becomes a problem," Kroeschell said. "With fraternities cracking down on hazing, it's not worth it to be a fraternity with hazing."
To report a hazing incident contact the University Hazing Hotline, 334-844-4564 or email StopHazing@Auburn.edu
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