Some people just don’t get it, I was in a fraternity and what was described in this article is mild compared to what went on in the 70s.
The black fraternities at UF in the 70s were far worse than anything we did, Omega Phi Psi a black fraternity actually branded their pledges, an Omega symbol was branded onto their arms.
One of the things I did when I was a pledge was to get naked while the brothers dumped trash on top of us from the 2nd floor.
I agree with you. The black fraternities actually BRANDED their pledges at Pitt.
My fraternity, at the end of HELL WEEK, bent a coat hanger and heated it to glowing. They pretended to brand us pledges, but it was all AN ACT. They dumped a little blob of CANDLE WAX on us.
It was effective and generated the lifelong feeling of BROTHERHOOD in us which was what fraternities were all about.
Of course, this was but part of the craziness of UF campus life in that era. The mass student disruptions and the Vietnam war were over, but other causes bubbled up and could be found represented in the student union and in front of the main library building. Hare Krishnas. The Revolutionary Communist Party. Lesbian Feminists. A street preacher named Jed.
With a VA hospital attached to the UF medical complex, there were also lot of head cases wandering the campus as out patients or on day release. Campus security was loaded with crony hiring and too many unfit officers. Street criminals and rapists found the UF campus and student community easy pickings.
Some good things were also gestating though. Gainesville boy Tom Petty was teaching himself how to play the guitar, write rock tunes, sing, and find and manage a band to success. "I Won't Back Down" is now a staple of UF football games, and the park that Petty enjoyed as a boy is now named for him.