[shhrubbery!]

Hmmm, this is the first time I've heard of poetry reading as hazing. Sounds like a pretty punishing ordeal though.

[Moose4]

Hazing? If the poetry was by Amiri Baraka, it's a felony.

}:-)4

[raybbr]

Or Maya Angelou? That would be cruel and unusual.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Ping. :)

I trust you'll smile over this.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

You know what this can lead to.

[Jim Noble]

Underage drinking at a Colgate fraternity?

Oh, horrors!

Of course, when I went to Colgate in 1968, the drinking age was 18 and so was I.

Hamilton, NY in the winter offers little better for entertainment than continuous drinking. So, after the ill-advised rise in the drinking age to 21, what are the poor undergrads supposed to do? Lick icicles?

[TheBattman]

I think you missed the "underaged drinking" part.

I do have a real problem with the "hazing" rules as they have been enforced. I can totally understand the problem that exists with underage drinking ans well as some pretty violent behavior by some fraternaties.

The problem is, some behavior classified as "Hazing" is really just pranks that do not present any real danger. I shudder to think of the activities when I pledged that would now get a fraternity booted from a college - yet I never complained. I didn't complain because there was never any harm or danger. Certainly, I was kept up all night a few times, taken on blindfolded "adventures" and generally run through the wringer - but it was all in fun - and I would not undo any of the experience.

Go after those that beat the pledges, go after the ones who force-feed alcohol to pledges, go after those who otherwise cause real harm. But leave the harmless games alone....

[cinFLA]

Hmmm, this is the first time I've heard of poetry reading as hazing.

You missed the part about underage drinking ....

[ghost of nixon]

I remember poetry being a part of my college fraternity experience - but the poetry was all in the form of limericks chanted out loud at drinking parties.

[mountaineer]

Probably haiku, although listening to it while intoxicated would have to be an improvement.

[KDRaiderofthenight]

We were reading sections of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance." And the danger to passing motorists? We parked on the side of the road in a perfectly legal way. When the cops came, they didn't even ticket us for the parking, to show how safe it was.

The administration has exaggerated/left out important details about the charges that make the fraternity look worse than it actually did. And about not wanting to change? we offered them a plan that involved complete membership review, and national fraternity representatives overseeing all chapter operations for the near future. Getting rid of the fraternity makes no positive difference on the campus, and that is what we are most upset about.