(U-WIRE) CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In an effort to decrease the occurrence of hazing in fraternities and sororities, 21 national greek organizations have banded together to create an anti-hazing hotline.
The hotline, 1-800-NOT-HAZE, will allow students to anonymously report incidents of hazing within chapters.
According to Norval Stephens, chairman of the Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation, reports will be recorded on an answering machine in the office of Cincinnati attorney Manley Burke.
“It took a lot of research and planning, but one of the things we’ve learned is that if you are trying to prevent a crime — and hazing is a crime — then you have to report it directly to an attorney,” Stephens said.
The law office would then inform the reported chapter’s headquarters of the incident, regardless of whether the organization is a sponsor, according to Stephens.
“We think it is another crucial tool for frats and sororities to continue to prevent hazing,” Burke said.
According to Bill Martin, executive director of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, one of the reasons hazing persists is that students are unwilling to report it for fear of being discovered by their chapter.
“We certainly hope that it will make students, parents and others feel less intimidated by the idea of providing information about hazing that they may be aware of,” Martin said.
Although hazing has been outlawed in most states, it still occurs on campuses nationwide because it is difficult to define.
“Can you do it with the person’s mother, the dean of students and the district attorney in the room?” Stephens said. “It is any form of mental or physical abuse, or threat of abuse, in order to join or remain in an association. Many use the terms demeaning, embarrassing and harmful.”
Although the University of Virginia’s chapter of Delta Tau Delta had its charter revoked after a reported hazing incident last fall, Inter-Fraternity Council President Charlie Morgan, said hazing is not a serious problem at the University.
“We think that it’s more controlled here than at a lot of universities, but that is always one of the areas that we struggle to enforce because a lot of initiation procedures are confidential in the first place,” Morgan said. “We have tried to get RAs and people who have more contact with first-years to report incidents, so the hotline should help.”
Seven of the participating fraternities and eight participating sororities have chapters at the University.
According to Aaron Laushway, dean of fraternity and sorority life, the University has strong policies on hazing that all organizations must follow. The University also provides several hazing hotlines that can be found on the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life’s Web site.
Anne Emmerth, national executive director of Chi Omega sorority,also echoed an anti-hazing stance.
“We believe that hazing has no place in any organization and we feel it is important that there are many avenues for reporting hazing so we can eliminate it,” Emmerth said.