History
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The Pi Kappa Alpha House at Northern Illinois University
Hazing has not been a temporary issue facing the Greek systems at American universities today, but rather a longstanding and continual subject that has affected a majority of the world throughout history. Despite hazing being a popular occurrence within the American Greek system in recent years, its earliest roots are found over two thousand years ago in ancient Greece. During this time period, hazing was a well-known enough occurrence that even the famous philosopher Plato made observations on the subject, perhaps making the first recorded references to hazing in history. Furthermore, St. Augustine of Hippo, a fourth century Catholic bishop, also mused upon the occurrences of hazing, proclaiming hazing to be acts of the devil (Hosansky 142). Around the 16th century, the term hazing first took hold after veteran sailors would harass rookie sailors on days when the weather conditions created haze, thus creating the term hazing (University of Virginia Police Department 4). However, after occurring around the world throughout history, the practice finally took hold within the American Greek system during the 19th century after the Civil War. Prior to the Civil War, fraternities were primarily a venue for discussing academic ideas and musings, a social gathering that many individuals did not find particularly engaging. However, after the Civil War, fraternities took on a whole new role as soldiers from the war returned home and told their children about the everlasting bonds they created with other men during the war. The traumatic events of the war, in the eyes of these soldiers, created lasting bonds between them that could never be replicated. With this idea in mind, the sons of these soldiers, when they began college, looked to fraternities as a way to create those bonds, hazing new members of the organizations to recreate those traumatic events described by their fathers to promote bonding within the brotherhood (University of Virginia Police Department 4). Not long after the Civil War, hazing began to get out of hand, with the first death due to hazing occurring in 1873 after a Kappa Alpha Society pledge died upon falling into a gully after being left alone in the woods blindfolded. From that point to the present, many other deaths and injuries, both physical and mental, have occurred because of hazing. One of the more recent examples occurred in November 2012 when a pledge at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at Northern Illinois University died after being forced to answer questions and consume alcohol throughout the night. State governments, academic institutes, and the national bodies of fraternities have all forbid hazing, but the act still continues despite these reprimands (Hosansky 142). The issue derives from the grey area that hazing presents, the unclear line that separates hazing from innocent bonding activities, and the haziness of a problem that creates proponents that swear by hazing and the positive effects that it creates. These proponents are the individuals who continue to haze and continue to believe in hazing, referencing positive qualities of hazing that, they claim, cannot be replicated by other types of activities.