tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/fraternities-15468/articlesFraternities – The Conversation2023-05-17T12:40:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049912023-05-17T12:40:15Z2023-05-17T12:40:15ZAttacks on ‘segregated’ graduation ceremonies overlook the history of racism on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526908/original/file-20230517-18592-a08agm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C46%2C5092%2C3366&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Affinity' graduations for certain groups take place on campuses throughout the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/students-throwing-caps-at-graduation-royalty-free-image/532031159?phrase=ethnic+graduation&adppopup=true">Jose Luis Pelaez Inc / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most college students, graduation is a one-time event. But for a growing number of students from various groups, such as students of color or LGTBQ students, there might be multiple graduation ceremonies to attend.</p>
<p>These special graduation ceremonies for certain groups are known as “affinity graduations.” These ceremonies are <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/diversity/2023/05/02/conservatives-rail-against-segregated-graduations">drawing the ire of conservatives</a>, who dismiss them as “<a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/stop-segregating-students">segregated</a>” graduations.</p>
<p>As scholars who focus on issues of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YtZ5NBIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">equity</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EtuGDLAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">student development</a>, we have a different take. We see such celebrations as not only relevant but critical to fostering a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-29432-001">sense of belonging</a> for students of color. This sense of belonging is particularly important among students from what we refer to in <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1062327">our 2021 book</a> as “minoritized” groups – that is, groups that are not the dominant group and are seen as minorities even when numerically they are not.</p>
<p>Special programs to support students of color – both academically and socially – can also bring about a <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.87.1.0059">better sense of self, persistence and ultimately success</a> in college.</p>
<h2>A history of exclusion</h2>
<p>As we state in our 2021 book, students of color formed their own fraternities and sororities <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1062327">in response to larger societal oppression</a> and other forms of discrimination. More specifically, they formed these groups in response to <a href="https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1101&context=oracle">discriminatory practices within historically white sororities and fraternities</a>. These culturally based sororities and fraternities, <a href="https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9781496728883/the-divine-nine/">some of which were founded in the early 1900s</a> during the era of Jim Crow, emerged to serve and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2020.0016">lift up minoritized communities</a>.</p>
<p>Affinity graduations – in our view – are an extension of these <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312042004605">efforts by students of color</a>. Much like different student organizations, such as as LGBTQ+ groups, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2668212?seq=4">Black Student Unions</a> or Mexican American Student Associations, they are not meant to segregate students. Rather, they are meant to <a href="https://sunypress.edu/Books/B/Black-Campus-Life2">create a supportive community on campus</a> for students of color and other marginalized groups. The organizations also serve as <a href="https://escholarship.org/content/qt5q34p1t0/qt5q34p1t0.pdf">ways for students from different groups to organize</a> and advocate for changes in the curriculum and higher education systems in general to better serve their interests.</p>
<p>These kinds of efforts create spaces where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085902372003">students can feel seen and wholly affirmed for who they are</a>. They also provide a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/735229">refuge from discrimination students may experience elsewhere on campus</a>. This discrimination can <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/23/racism-fuels-poor-mental-health-outcomes-black-students">adversely affect student mental health</a>. Further, these spaces serve as a venue for students to <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1170&context=gse_pubs">discover themselves and develop their identities</a>.</p>
<h2>Special graduations</h2>
<p>When students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds graduate, many want to celebrate the joy they feel after having done what it takes to get through college. Affinity graduations are meant to <a href="https://www.nobles.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/David_Roane.pdf">recognize and celebrate</a> the accomplishments of particular communities that have overcome <a href="https://www.equityinhighered.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Race-and-Ethnicity-in-Higher-Education.pdf">barriers</a> to graduate from college. These barriers may include <a href="https://www.insightintodiversity.com/one-in-five-black-college-students-report-discrimination/">racial discrimination</a> or <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/many-lgbtq-college-students-feel-the-weight-of-a-national-pile-up-of-negativity/">anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation</a>.</p>
<p>Affinity graduations are optional ceremonies. They take place at colleges and universities throughout the country. For instance, in addition to its main graduation ceremony, <a href="https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/community-belonging/get-involved/affinity-graduations">Penn State</a> offers a Lavender Graduation for queer and transgender students. It also offers celebrations for Latinx, Black, Indigenous and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American students.</p>
<p><a href="https://edib.harvard.edu/affinity-graduations">Harvard</a> offers similar race- and ethnicity-based ceremonies. The school also offers a graduation ceremony for students with disabilities. So does <a href="https://csumb.edu/diversity/affinity-graduation-celebrations-2/">California State University, Monterey Bay</a>, which also has one for undocumented students.</p>
<h2>Criticism and attacks</h2>
<p>Affinity graduations <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/diversity/2023/05/02/conservatives-rail-against-segregated-graduations#">go back at least to the 1970s</a>. Their formation undoubtedly parallels broader social movements at the time led by minoritized groups in the United States.</p>
<p>As of late, affinity graduations have drawn attacks from conservative thinkers and news outlets. Some have gone so far as to say that affinity graduations serve only as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000142922">a form of self-segregation</a>.</p>
<p>Based on our research, we think the critics miss the fact that affinity graduations are <a href="https://www.nobles.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/David_Roane.pdf">not designed to segregate students</a>, but rather to bring them together in community with others who share similar identities and potentially similar experiences.</p>
<p>Too often, we believe, affinity graduations are the targets of people who are trying to reduce the complex histories of U.S. higher education into overly simplistic narratives. We also see the attacks on affinity graduations as <a href="https://reporting.fiscalnote.com/sharable/reports/K7o8K8wgy7Pizvx4L62yNW96X3ElPVGz4K0COwsxEGrzFZgLdVKgavUAkreOaF44VZsD3dx4a1CItTxdOUdAocm7DrWTpcn49aHpmI24CQbtJQgX401Wdw==--OVczj0f7bD+FxR1b--QzNYHNLdnub7rP2zaMzrHA==">part of a larger attack</a> on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on college campuses.</p>
<p>Many conservatives argue that American schools <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/43-percent-republicans-dont-want-schools-teaching-history-racism-poll-2021-11">should not teach about the history of racism in the United States</a>. The creation of affinity graduations is rooted in a response to racism. Given that there are those who don’t even want students to learn about racism, it comes as little surprise that there are also those who would want these affinity graduations to go away.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Affinity’ graduations have drawn the scorn of some conservatives, but research suggests they serve a vital function for students of color.Crystal Garcia, Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, University of Nebraska-LincolnAntonio Duran, Assistant Professor of Higher and Postsecondary Education, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1548362021-02-17T19:53:21Z2021-02-17T19:53:21ZBlack sororities have stood at the forefront of Black achievement for more than a century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383593/original/file-20210210-19-168gw2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C3000%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members at a get-out-the-vote event in 2020</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-alpha-kappa-alpha-sorority-pose-for-a-photo-news-photo/1229406551?adppopup=true">Octavio Jones/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In her speech at the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/dnc-2020-kamala-harris-speech.html">2020 Democratic National Convention</a> Kamala Harris saluted seven women who “inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on.” </p>
<p>All but two of them, one of whom was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55786214">her mother</a>, belonged to <a href="https://facingtoday.facinghistory.org/suffrage-and-sisterhood-the-origins-and-impact-of-black-sororities">Black sororities</a>. Harris also mentioned her own Black sorority, saying: “Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha.”</p>
<p>Many Americans may have wondered why Harris would invoke sororities on such an occasion. But not me. Like her, I am a proud member of a Black sorority: <a href="https://www.deltasigmatheta.org">Delta Sigma Theta</a>, which I joined as a student at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. If I were in Harris’ shoes, accepting such an unprecedented leadership role, I, too, would have paid homage to my sorority as a way to thank those on whose shoulders I stand.</p>
<p>This shoutout also resonated with me because I have researched the <a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/author/tamara-l-brown/">history of Black sororities and fraternities</a>, including their dedication to combat discrimination and the lifelong family-like bonds they create.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JijFLcbIqMs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kamala Harris speaks at the 2020 Democratic Convention.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The forerunners of Black sororities</h2>
<p>The nation’s four Black sororities have always differed from white sororities in several ways, in part because of their historical roots.</p>
<p>Their origins are tied to the Black women’s clubs and mutual aid societies that first emerged with the <a href="https://suffragistmemorial.org/suffragists-in-washington-d-c/">Colored Women’s Progressive Association</a>, established in 1880.</p>
<p>In 1892, after the author and activist <a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2020/09/21/southern-horrors-lynch-law-in-all-its-phases-oct-5-1892/">Ida B. Wells-Barnett distributed her historic anti-lynching speech</a> as a pamphlet, Black women’s clubs sprang up throughout the U.S. in major metropolitan areas and small cities. </p>
<p>These clubs focused on issues of interest to all American women at the time, including education, health and voting rights. But they also sought to <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/african-american-reformers">combat racism and discrimination</a>.</p>
<h2>A call toward service</h2>
<p>Young Black women who liked the groups’ insistence on equality and racial justice responded by creating Black sororities at their colleges. Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. – Harris’ alma mater – created the first one, <a href="https://aka1908.com/about">Alpha Kappa Alpha</a>, in 1908. Female white students by then had begun to form <a href="https://www.oldest.org/culture/sororities-america/">similar groups on other campuses</a>, many of which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20289">barred Black members</a>.</p>
<p>Five of the <a href="http://www.blackgreek.com/divinenine/">“Divine Nine”</a> Greek organizations Kamala Harris mentioned in her speech are fraternities, created in response to Black men not being included in traditionally white fraternities.</p>
<p>I believe that African American women created their own sororities as communities of resistance that would allow them to survive and achieve in an oppressive society, refute stereotypes, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jctpn">celebrate their own cultures</a> and fight sexism and racism – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0361684315616113">gendered racism</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of young African American women hold a sign that reads #StandWithBennet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-delta-sigma-theta-sorority-inc-attend-the-2019-news-photo/1097603110?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The 6 women Harris saluted</h2>
<p>The historically significant <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/here-are-some-of-the-women-kamala-harris-said-helped-pave-the-way-for-her/ar-BB18cpzq">Black women</a>, aside from her mother, whom Harris thanked in her speech were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-church-terrell">Mary Church Terrell</a>, who founded the <a href="https://www.crusadeforthevote.org/nacw">National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs</a>, the largest federation of local Black women’s clubs. After becoming an honorary Delta Sigma Theta member in 1913, decades after graduating from Oberlin College, Terrell wrote the <a href="https://knowthereign.weebly.com/delta-oath.html">sorority’s oath</a> and <a href="https://www.deltasigmatheta.org/conduct.php">code of conduct</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune">Mary McLeod Bethune</a>, who established what is today <a href="https://cookman.edu/about_BCU/index.html">Bethune-Cookman University</a> in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1904. She also became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta in 1923, a dozen years before founding the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Council-of-Negro-Women">National Council of Negro Women</a>, an umbrella group that brought together representatives from different organizations seeking to improve the lives of Black women and their communities.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer">Fannie Lou Hamer</a>, who co-founded the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/mississippi-freedom-democratic-party-mfdp">Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party</a> in 1964 when the state’s Democratic Party barred Black participation. Her famous words “<a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2019/08/09/im-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-dec-20-1964/">I am sick and tired of being sick and tired</a>” are still a rallying cry for activists today. She was inducted as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/diane-nash-bevel/">Diane Nash</a>, who became a leader and strategist of the student wing of the civil rights movement while attending <a href="https://www.biography.com/activist/diane-nash">Howard and then Fisk University</a>. I have found no evidence, however, that Nash belonged to a Black sorority.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2020/02/20/constance-baker-motley-judiciarys-unsung-rights-hero">Constance Baker Motley</a>, who was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court – winning nine of the 10 cases she argued before the court as an NAACP attorney. She was also the first Black woman to become a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/oct/01/guardianobituaries.usa">federal judge</a>, the first to win a New York state senate seat and the first to represent Manhattan as the borough’s president. <a href="http://akapioneers.aka1908.com/index.php/component/mtree/vocations/law-1/circuit-court-judge-1/1731-motley-constance-baker">Alpha Kappa Alpha</a> made her an honorary member.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm">Shirley Chisolm</a>, who won a House of Representatives seat in 1968. After becoming the first African American woman in Congress, she helped form the <a href="https://cbc.house.gov/about/">Congressional Black Caucus</a>. Her 1972 presidential bid made her the first woman and African American to seek the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/us-politics/shirley-chisolm">nomination from a major political party</a>. She joined <a href="https://weemagine.com/2016/08/28/12-facts-about-the-first-woman-to-run-for-the-democratic-presidential-nomination-hint-its-not-hillary/">Delta Sigma Theta</a> as a Brooklyn College student.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Continuing a tradition</h2>
<p>Even today, the core mission of Black sororities remains civic engagement and racial justice.</p>
<p>All members of sororities and fraternities may donate to social causes or volunteer as part of satisfying school <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-college-towns-could-benefit-more-from-throngs-of-student-volunteers-109862">community service</a> requirements. A <a href="https://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/154170/How-To-Choose-The-Best-Community-Service-FraternitySorority-For-You">few make it their main focus</a>.</p>
<p>But across the board, Black sororities emphasize consequential and sustained community service, while their members are students and also once they’ve graduated from college. This is also true of the <a href="https://www.watchtheyard.com/deltas/joan-mulholland-delta-sigma-theta-white-member/">few white women</a> who have joined Black sororities over the years.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of African American women pose for a photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-sigma-gamma-rho-sorority-inc-attend-2016-martin-news-photo/505579488?adppopup=true">Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like with biological families where members remain in the family no matter what, for Black women, sorority affiliation usually becomes a <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2017/11/17/long-after-college-divine-nine-fraternities-and-sororities-are-a-lifeline-for-black-members/">permanent part of their identity</a> and an enduring source of pride and support. </p>
<p>Many members of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jctpn">Black sororities remain active</a> and engaged for the rest of their lives. They join local chapters, changing their affiliation whenever they move. Through this practice, their bond of sisterhood remains intact.</p>
<p>When I moved to North Texas, for example, local sorority members reached out to me. They helped me acclimate and make connections so that I immediately felt welcome. I also remain engaged with the sorority chapter I joined at Longwood by mentoring students, donating to scholarship funds and through other means. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several African American women dressed in blue walk together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-zeta-phi-beta-sorority-inc-participate-in-the-news-photo/631844242?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As Harris made clear in her speech, she believes she stands on the shoulders of phenomenal women who, years after they blazed trails, taught today’s Black women how to be persistent in creating change that benefits our communities, and how to teach others to follow in our footsteps.</p>
<p>They taught us to <a href="https://womensmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/lifting-as-we-climb-the-story-of-americas-first-black-womens-club/">lift as we climb</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamara L. Brown is affiliated with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. </span></em></p>Members of the nation’s four Black sororities, including Vice President Kamala Harris, commit to lifelong acts of service for their communities.Tamara L. Brown, Executive Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of North TexasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1250982019-10-18T11:20:50Z2019-10-18T11:20:50ZHere’s what’s missing in efforts to curb heavy drinking and hazing on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297403/original/file-20191016-98657-1d0rzde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Colleges throughout the nation are beset with problems of alcohol and hazing on campus. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Greek-Life-Suspensions/020151405c814f858472c7f5c08f2ed8/73/0">AP Photo/Dake Kang</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Maxwell Gruver had been a student at Louisiana State University for only a few weeks in 2017 before he <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_56a5184e-aeb0-11e7-9710-cb2fe0660cfc.html">died of alcohol poisoning</a> in a fraternity house hazing ritual known as “Bible study.” He and other pledges were made to chug 190-proof alcohol called Diesel for not knowing how to recite the Greek alphabet or certain facts about the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.</p>
<p>Phi Delta Theta was ultimately banned from LSU, joining a list of <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_bd5c8456-7c03-11e9-89b6-4fa9a00793e8.html">several other fraternities</a> banned at the school over the past few decades after hazing incidents. These incidents include the 1997 death of <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/education/article_bd5c8456-7c03-11e9-89b6-4fa9a00793e8.html">Ben Wynne</a>, who died after a night of heavy drinking with fraternity brothers on a pledge night.</p>
<p>In October 2019, officials at Ohio University <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/10/10/ohio-university-suspends-fraternities">suspended</a> all 15 fraternities on campus after <a href="https://www.ohio.edu/news/2019/10/ohio-university-statement-regarding-interfraternity-council-organizations">allegations</a> that at least seven of them were involved in hazing.</p>
<p>Hazing and heavy drinking have been taking place at American colleges and universities for decades. Death has been a constant companion. New fraternity members at U.S. colleges and universities have died at an average rate of <a href="http://www.hanknuwer.com/hazing-deaths/">one per year for the past 50 years</a>. Ten have died in the past three years. At least six hazing deaths since 2017 were alcohol-related.</p>
<p>Drinking and hazing on campus have led to <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/07/25/title-ix-lawsuit-alleges-louisiana-state-ignores-fraternity-hazing">lawsuits</a>, <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2019/10/miami-university-fraternity-members-face-criminal-charges-over-hazing-incident.html">criminal charges</a>, and <a href="https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/new-hazing-law-honors-late-fsu-student-takes-effect-tuesday/">stricter hazing laws</a>. However, an analysis of much of the research on these punitive measures shows they have done <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2016-23897-001">little to change the behavior</a> of fraternity men.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297387/original/file-20191016-98640-g68jea.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ten Louisiana State University students face hazing charges in the 2017 death of Maxwell Gruver.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Fraternity-House-Death/444e90a88af7444f9317c94eb70d5ca5/14/0">East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a researcher who has <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=v6nsu3sAAAAJ&hl=en">examined masculinity in college fraternities</a>, I conclude that the reason these efforts have not succeeded is because they fail to deal with the fact that drinking alcohol – and other risky behaviors – are deeply embedded in society’s notions about what it means to be a man.</p>
<h2>Risky rites of passage</h2>
<p>Fraternity initiations provide a rite of passage into manhood for some college men. Some young men engage in risky behaviors such as drinking in excess to prove their manhood and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-007-9233-1">gain acceptance from other men</a>. </p>
<p>Numerous studies have found that commonly-held ideas associated with masculinity, such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953607000846">risk-taking</a>, competition and violence – things sometimes espoused by <a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=2033#.XaZry-dKjjA">fraternities</a> – are linked to worrisome behavior and beliefs. This may also include <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460311001377">getting drunk</a> and <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fmen0000076">the viewing of women as lesser “objects</a>.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859315/the-company-he-keeps/">Historically white college fraternities</a>, which have helped define manhood on campuses for almost two centuries, help shape college drinking culture. Members of fraternities have been found to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220973.1996.11072415">binge drink more than peers who don’t belong to fraternities</a>, and <a href="https://digitalcommons.liu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=post_socanfpub">privileged fraternity men</a> have been found to drink more than their less privileged peers.</p>
<p>This leads me to the conclusion that attacking the problem of drinking necessitates dismantling the idea that drinking is part of what makes one a man. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297382/original/file-20191016-98640-cub14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A fraternity initiation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/fraternity-initiation-93711265">Everett Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fraternally drinking</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-46656-001">own research</a> used a survey to collect data from over 2,500 members of a fraternity with chapters at more than 70 U.S. colleges and universities. I found that members were more likely to drink at fraternity chapters with homophobic cultures.</p>
<p>This finding indicates fraternity men drink at least in part to prove they are not gay, and thus are real men, when they are with peers who want to be identified as heterosexual. Of course, this is just one of many reasons why young men drink.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859315/the-company-he-keeps/">other scholars</a> have found, alcohol use affords fraternity men the chance to engage in behaviors perceived to be feminine, such as showing emotion or developing relationships with other men, without having their manhood called into question. Alcohol use, in my view, provides fraternity men with a way to prove their masculinity and at the same time escape it.</p>
<h2>Rethinking manhood</h2>
<p>What does this mean for those who hope to address problematic behaviors, such as excessive alcohol use on campus?</p>
<p>First, addressing how fraternities view manhood may be an effective way to get individual members to behave more responsibly. Whether dealing with fraternities as a whole or individual members, interventions, such as campaigns to set new social norms, should aim to reduce fear and anxieties that prevent men from being themselves, particularly around their sexual identity. Efforts should be made to challenge what it means to be a fraternity man.</p>
<p>Research indicates that marketing campaigns targeted toward men can change their attitudes and behaviors <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886260518780411?journalCode=jiva">about sexual violence</a>. Like the 2014 <a href="http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org/programs/education-awareness/no-more/psa-campaign/nfl-players-say-no-more">NO MORE campaign</a> against domestic violence and sexual assault that featured prominent NFL players, campus leaders could design campaigns that feature fraternity men denouncing homophobia and misogyny.</p>
<p>Like other programs that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2016/07/18/campus-mens-groups-explore-what-it-means-to-be-a-dude/37419403/">help college men explore manhood</a>, forums could be convened to help fraternity men develop meaningful, deep relationships with one another without alcohol, or having their manhood called into question. These forums may strengthen relationships among fraternity men and reduce their alcohol use.</p>
<p>Since my study shows that drinking and ideas about manhood vary from one fraternity to another, “one size fits all” approaches – such as community-wide fraternity bans and prohibitions – are unlikely to change the behaviors of fraternity men. In my view, it will require <a href="http://alanberkowitz.com/articles/social%20norms%20approach-short.pdf">individual or organization-specific interventions</a>. That, it seems to me, will be more likely to curb problematic alcohol use before another death, injury or sexual assault occurs.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam M. McCready receives funding from Boston College and the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Association. </span></em></p>Colleges and universities have banned fraternities from campus to stave off problem drinking and hazing incidents. But a researcher says those problems are deeper than any campus ban can solve.Adam M. McCready, Visiting Assistant Professor, Higher Education & Student Affairs, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/857052017-10-17T01:15:05Z2017-10-17T01:15:05ZWhy hazing continues to be a rite of passage for some<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190209/original/file-20171013-3511-l8ga83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why does hazing happen?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Mechoneo.jpg">Roberto Herrera via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This fall has seen <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hazing-in-america/ten-arrested-lsu-phi-delta-theta-fraternity-hazing-death-n809806">another tragic death</a> due to hazing. Maxwell Gruver, an 18-year-old Phi Delta Theta pledge at Louisiana State University, died hours after participating in a mock quiz designed to get pledges disturbingly drunk – fast. Charges have been <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/11/health/lsu-student-hazing-death/index.html">brought</a> against 10 fraternity members – one with a negligent homicide charge.</p>
<p>Gruver participated in the facetiously named <a href="http://www.arklatexhomepage.com/news/local-news/bible-study-drinking-game-might-be-linked-to-lsu-fraternity-death/827048547">“Bible Study” quiz</a>, taking a snort of 190-proof alcohol each time he gave a wrong answer to questions about Phi Delta Theta’s history – a drinking game associated with prior fraternity deaths at several universities. </p>
<p>It is true that fraternities, bands and team sports provide a welcoming atmosphere for students who value the support and mentorship of older peers. They contribute to school spirit, provide <a href="https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2920/Cory_wsu_0251E_10175.pdf?sequence=1">student leaders</a> and produce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2015.0046">loyal, generous alumni</a>. However, as I’ve often seen in the 40 years since publishing my first research on <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=21116">hazing in collegiate groups</a>, this bonding process can exact a price. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.hanknuwer.com/books/">Data</a> I’ve collected for my latest book,
<a href="http://hazingprevention.org/new-research-finds-increase-in-the-number-of-years-hazing-deaths-have-been-experienced-in-the-u-s/">“Hazing: Destroying Young Lives,”</a> demonstrate that since 1954, with the exclusion of the year 1958, there has been <a href="https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/10/daily-chart-8">at least one hazing death per year in U.S. colleges and secondary schools.</a> Two deaths occurred prior to 1930 in elementary schools. The vast majority, however, have been in fraternities. </p>
<p>So why does hazing happen in the first place? And how can these unintentional homicides be prevented?</p>
<h2>Hazing in the past</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jonah Neuman arrives at Centre County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing on charges regarding the death of Timothy Piazza in a fraternity hazing incident at Pennsylvania State University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Chris Knight</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before Gruver’s death, the most recent incident to hit national news was the death of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/penn-state-death-timothy-piazza.html">19-year-old Timothy Piazza</a>. Piazza died after a drunken fall from internal trauma during a pledging event sponsored by the Beta Theta Pi chapter of Penn State. Initially, 18 Beta Theta Pi brothers <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4486166/Penn-State-students-charged-fraternit-pledge-death.html">were charged for manslaugher</a>, but charges against four were dropped by a judge in the case.</p>
<p>Soon after Piazza’s death, Penn State threw Beta Theta Pi off campus and boarded up its building. Among the university’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/21/after-timothy-piazza-penn-state-crack-down-fraternity-sorority-hazing-drinking-eric-barron-column/584222001/">new rules</a>, listed by President Eric J. Barron in an article in USA Today, trained professionals with graduate degrees will monitor house activities and pledging has been slashed to only six weeks. Penn State also <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/penn-state-proposes-safety-reforms-pledges-death/story?id=47788744">transferred governance</a> from student to university oversight.</p>
<p>Other recommendations to curtail hazing include banning single-sex fraternities, <a href="https://deanofstudents.umich.edu/article/hazing-policies">clear-cut and enforced university sanctions</a> (including expulsions) and <a href="https://hazing.cornell.edu/incidents/violations/index.cfm">mandatory posting of hazing infractions online</a> – a practice now employed by a handful of schools.</p>
<p>For its part, Louisiana State University is no stranger to the hard-drinking culture of fraternity hazers. In fact, it was exactly two decades ago that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/28/us/students-help-bury-a-fraternity-pledge-and-a-tale-of-heavy-drinking-emerges.html">Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge Ben Wynne died from alcohol poisoning</a> in an initiation similar to Gruver’s. Now LSU is figuring out how to respond to this latest tragedy. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/us/lsu-hazing-arrests.html?_r=0**">fraternity itself is shut down</a> and the university’s president has convened a task force to study Greek life. Under the law in Louisiana, any student convicted of hazing must be expelled. </p>
<h2>Why does hazing occur?</h2>
<p>Due to the secrecy of modern initiations, few scholars have published legitimate hazing surveys. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh.2012.012">most commonly cited study</a> was conducted by education researchers at the University of Maine in 2011. In a survey of 11,482 undergraduate students from 53 colleges and universities, the researchers found that <a href="http://www.stophazing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hazing_in_view_web1.pdf#page=2">55 percent of all students</a> involved in collegiate groups witnessed or experienced hazing. </p>
<p>Moreover, the study indicated that only 5 percent of the hazings were <a href="http://www.stophazing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hazing_in_view_web1.pdf#page=26">reported to college or law enforcement authorities</a>.</p>
<p>Anthropologist <a href="http://www.aldocimino.com/">Aldo Cimino</a> proposes an <a href="http://www.aldocimino.com/cimino_2011.pdf">evolutionary theory for the act of hazing</a>. He explains that veteran members of a group often wish to ensure that initiates don’t enter the organization with a free pass; the hazing rituals are a demonstration of worthiness through a series of challenges.</p>
<p>A second popular theory comes from sociologist <a href="http://faculty.ithaca.edu/ssweet/">Stephen Sweet</a>, who explains the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234678996_Understanding_Fraternity_Hazing_Insights_from_Symbolic_Interactionist_Theory">symbolic significance</a> of hazing. At this crucial time in a young man’s life, he writes, hazing rituals and totems – such as pledge pins, paddles and even shared bottles of liquor – can all carry symbolic weight, linking pledges in their social interaction with each other. </p>
<p>My own theory is that fraternities exhibit <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/Greek-Letters-Dont-Justify/8090">cult-like behavior</a>, sometimes with one or more “pledge educators” who restrict movements, isolate pledges from the campus community or even forbid them to speak or shower. I coined the term “<a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=21116">Greekthink</a>” – a play on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/000271627340700115">Groupthink</a> – to explain why hazers exhibit negligent and dangerous behaviors, act as if members and pledges were invincible, value group practices above individual human rights and deny when abuse occurs.</p>
<p>And in most cases, the hazing is a never-ending cycle of <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825605000254">reciprocity</a>; what was done to them, they now do unto others.</p>
<h2>The wrong rites of passage</h2>
<p>Indeed, though most hazing involves alcohol consumption, requirements often include more direct physical harm. College students have died from accidents during <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-sues-after-california-fraternity-pledge-died-on-hazing-hike/">drop-offs in remote locations</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/20/us/fatal-beating-fuels-concern-about-hazing-on-campuses.html">beatings</a>, <a href="http://cjonline.com/stories/020704/pag_fratbros.shtml#.WWfBkRPyvdc">drownings</a> and even <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/22/archives/student-is-killed-in-fraternity-initiation-rite-not-being-initiated.html">gunshot wounds</a> – all alleged hazing incidents. </p>
<p>Often, defense lawyers try to convince the court that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/15/fraternity-pledge-hazing-death/3584501/">victims perform the tests willingly</a> and, therefore, are as much participants as the hazers themselves. </p>
<p>Penn State student Piazza’s ordeal, uncharacteristically, was documented on video, showing that soon into the initiation, he seemed unable to make willing choices.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a 2006 hazing trial, Marcus Jones alleges a fraternity member beat him with a cane while at Florida A&M University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser, Pool</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Until the late 1980s, courts tended to regard even deaths as <a href="http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1923/05/06/page/2/article/kenyon-youths-hazing-death-on-track-recalled">unfortunate</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/20/archives/new-jersey-pages-7-students-cleared-in-death-during-hazing-face.html">accidents</a>, resulting in little or no jail time for perpetrators. </p>
<p>In the last 30 years, however, <a href="http://hazingprevention.org/home/hazing/statelaws/">laws against hazing in 44 states</a> have ruled that deaths and injuries should be regarded as crimes – not accidents.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article115652918.html">hazing death</a>, for example, at Florida A&M in 2011 resulted in a 77-month sentence for hazing and manslaughter – although the conviction is under appeal in 2017. Louisiana is one of the states that has these laws on the books. It is, however, <a href="http://legis.la.gov/Legis/Law.aspx?d=79979">one of the weakest state hazing laws in the country</a>, imposing in most instances a fine of only US$10 to $100 and a month or less of jail time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Florida A&M marching band escorts the casket of band member Robert Champion, who died after a band hazing incident in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/David Goldman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can stop hazing?</h2>
<p>Although these expulsions and <a href="http://www.chicoer.com/article/zz/20051028/NEWS/510289874">convictions</a> are intended as a deterrent as well as punishment, serious hazing cases such as Gruver’s death continue to plague universities.</p>
<p>Penn State is not the only one to introduce new initiatives. Harvard, for instance, is a considering <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/09/29/harvard-panel-steps-back-from-ban-social-clubs/Ijy3GF4id8foxXCcO5daQI/story.html">a ban on all fraternities</a>. But many activists, including parents of Rider University’s <a href="http://newjersey.news12.com/story/34879510/rider-university-student-dies-after-excessive-drinking">Gary DeVercelly Jr.,</a> who died in 2007, are now looking to federal law to make a difference.</p>
<p>In June 2017 a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2926">bipartisan law</a> was introduced to the House that requires colleges to report all instances of criminal hazing and to provide all students with an educational program on hazing. </p>
<p>Penn State is all for it. President Barron has <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/21/after-timothy-piazza-penn-state-crack-down-fraternity-sorority-hazing-drinking-eric-barron-column/584222001/">publicly stated</a> the university’s support for both the federal legislation and stricter state legislation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The family of Armando Villa, who died in a Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity hazing incident at California State University, Northridge in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>Following Gruver’s death, LSU President F. King Alexander said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Maxwell Gruver’s family will mourn his loss for the rest of their lives, and several other students are now facing serious consequences – all due to a series of poor decisions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, he continued, underscoring the “devastating” consequences of hazing, “We will..reevaluate the policies and procedures that educate and govern our Greek community.” </p>
<p>Grief-stricken parents, like the Gruvers and <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/15/us/penn-state-fraternity-piazza-family-interview/index.html">the Piazzas</a>, are not the only ones to hope that their family tragedies may serve as clarion calls for change. </p>
<p>In fact, I believe it is possible to bring change. Prior to the late 1920s, deaths due to hazings of college freshmen by sophomores surpassed deaths by fraternity hazing. A nationwide movement by students resulted in a near-end to these dangerous nonfraternity hazings. There has been only <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/19/archives/6-students-are-suspended-in-college-hazing-death.html">one single death</a> since 1928. </p>
<p>Activists for groups such as <a href="http://hazingprevention.org/">HazingPrevention.org</a>, many of them fraternity members themselves, hope a similar paradigm shift can occur today. </p>
<p>And perhaps in 2018 we will be able to see the first year without a hazing death in the United States since 1961.</p>
<p><em>This piece incorporates material from an article on hazing <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wrongs-of-passage-in-fraternity-hazing-80948">first published on Aug. 28, 2017</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hank Nuwer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Another student has died due to hazing. Research shows that there has been at least one such death in the US since 1954 (with 1958 the only exception). So why does hazing happen in the first place?Hank Nuwer, Professor of Journalism, Franklin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809482017-08-29T01:26:39Z2017-08-29T01:26:39ZThe wrongs of passage in fraternity hazing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183636/original/file-20170828-1628-1p4c8fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the movie 'Goat,' a fraternity puts pledges through gruesome and dangerous rituals.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Killer Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 40 years since publishing my first research on <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=21116">hazing in collegiate groups</a>, I’ve often been reminded of the adage that every good thing is accompanied by trouble. </p>
<p>On the one hand, fraternities, bands and team sports provide a welcoming atmosphere for students who value the support and mentorship of older peers. They contribute to school spirit, often have members in <a href="https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2920/Cory_wsu_0251E_10175.pdf?sequence=1">student government</a> and produce <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2015.0046">loyal, generous alumni</a> after graduation. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the bonding process sometimes exacts a price. Hazing has claimed the life of at least one initiate (and often more than one) <a href="http://www.hanknuwer.com/hazing-deaths/">every year since 1969</a> – the vast majority in fraternities.</p>
<p>The most recent incident to hit national news was the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/us/penn-state-death-timothy-piazza.html">death of 19-year-old Timothy Piazza</a>, who died from internal trauma during a pledging event sponsored by the Beta Theta Pi chapter of Penn State. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178153/original/file-20170713-5760-10a3933.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jonah Neuman arrives at Centre County Courthouse for a preliminary hearing on charges regarding the death of Timothy Piazza in a fraternity hazing incident at Pennsylvania State University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Chris Knight</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eighteen Beta Theta Pi brothers are <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4486166/Penn-State-students-charged-fraternit-pledge-death.html">facing charges</a> related to Piazza’s death, after allegedly forcing him to drink alcohol, waiting 12 hours before calling 911 and tampering with evidence. </p>
<p>Prosecutors at the preliminary court hearing in Pennsylvania <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/12/us/penn-state-hearing-video-timothy-piazza/index.html">displayed video footage</a> of senior chapter members prodding, photographing and ignoring the injured pledge. Jim Piazza, the victim’s father, spoke out in a <a href="http://www.today.com/news/family-timothy-piazza-victim-penn-state-frat-tragedy-they-treated-t111532">“Today” show</a> interview: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…what happened throughout the night was just careless disregard for human life. They basically treated our son as roadkill and a rag doll.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Penn State responds to the Piazza case</h2>
<p>Soon after Piazza’s death, Penn State threw Beta Theta Pi off campus and boarded up its house. University President Eric J. Barron responded to the events in a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/21/after-timothy-piazza-penn-state-crack-down-fraternity-sorority-hazing-drinking-eric-barron-column/584222001/">recent article in USA Today</a>, where he also described Penn State’s <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/08/penn_state_greek_letter_rush_r.html">strict new rules for fraternities and sororities</a>.</p>
<p>Among the new rules: Fraternity recruitment is now restricted to upperclassmen who have at least a 2.5 GPA, trained professionals with graduate degrees will now monitor house activities and pledging has been slashed to only six weeks.</p>
<p>Penn State also <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/penn-state-proposes-safety-reforms-pledges-death/story?id=47788744">transferred governance</a> from student to university oversight – a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/23/greek-councils-administrators-clash-over-how-sanction-fraternities">controversial move</a> that gives the university more control over regulating Greek life on campus, but also potentially opens the school to greater liability.</p>
<p>The question remains: On campuses across the country, why does hazing happen in the first place? And why do incidents spiral into unintentional homicides?</p>
<h2>Why does hazing occur?</h2>
<p>Hazing in educational settings has been around virtually since education existed. In the fourth century, St. Augustine lamented the riotous “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2376053">eversores</a>” (translated variously from the Latin as “smashers” or “destroyers”) who preyed on new students at his school in Carthage. </p>
<p>Due to the “closed door” secrecy of modern initiations, legitimate hazing surveys by scholars have been few. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh.2012.012">most commonly cited study</a> was conducted by education researchers at the University of Maine in 2011. In a survey of 11,482 undergraduate students from 53 colleges and universities, the researchers found that <a href="http://www.stophazing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hazing_in_view_web1.pdf#page=2">55 percent of all students</a> involved in collegiate groups witnessed or experienced hazing. </p>
<p>Moreover, the study indicated that only 5 percent of the hazings were <a href="http://www.stophazing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/hazing_in_view_web1.pdf#page=26">reported to college or law enforcement authorities</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178162/original/file-20170713-19126-ahrsjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hazing is not a new phenomenon. Ancient philosopher St. Augustine recounted what would now be called hazing while he was teaching in Carthage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anthropologist <a href="http://www.aldocimino.com/">Aldo Cimino</a> proposes an <a href="http://www.aldocimino.com/cimino_2011.pdf">evolutionary theory for the act of hazing</a>. He explains that veteran members of a group often wish to ensure that initiates don’t enter the organization with a free pass; the hazing rituals are a demonstration of worthiness through a series of challenges.</p>
<p>A second popular theory comes from sociologist <a href="http://faculty.ithaca.edu/ssweet/">Stephen Sweet</a>, who explains the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234678996_Understanding_Fraternity_Hazing_Insights_from_Symbolic_Interactionist_Theory">symbolic significance</a> of hazing. At this crucial time in a young man’s life, hazing rituals and totems – such as pledge pins, paddles and even shared bottles of liquor – can all carry symbolic weight, linking pledges in their social interaction with each other. </p>
<p>My own theory is that fraternities exhibit <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/Greek-Letters-Dont-Justify/8090">cult-like behavior</a>, sometimes with one or more “pledge educators” who restrict movements, isolate pledges from the campus community or even forbid them to speak or shower. I coined the term “<a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=21116">Greekthink</a>” (a play on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/000271627340700115">Groupthink</a>) that might explain why hazers exhibit negligent and dangerous behaviors, act as if members and pledges were invincible, value group practices above individual human rights and deny when abuse occurs.</p>
<p>And in most cases, the hazing is a never-ending cycle of <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825605000254">reciprocity</a>; what was done to them, they now do unto others.</p>
<h2>The wrong rites of passage</h2>
<p>Timothy Piazza’s hazing ritual involved consuming large amounts of alcohol in a chapter pledging requirement called “<a href="http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/05/they_call_it_the_gauntlet_what.html">the gauntlet</a>.” Michael Deng, a freshman at Baruch College in New York City, experienced a gauntlet of his own. He suffered a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kin-baruch-student-killed-hazing-sues-fraternity-pi-delta-psi-n347416">fatal blow to the head</a> when he (and other pledges) were allegedly blindfolded and made to carry heavy backpacks while Pi Delta Psi members charged and tackled him.</p>
<p>Indeed, though most hazing involves alcohol consumption, requirements often include more direct physical harm. Collegians have died from accidents during <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-sues-after-california-fraternity-pledge-died-on-hazing-hike/">drop-offs in remote locations</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/20/us/fatal-beating-fuels-concern-about-hazing-on-campuses.html">beatings</a>, <a href="http://cjonline.com/stories/020704/pag_fratbros.shtml#.WWfBkRPyvdc">drownings</a> and even <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/22/archives/student-is-killed-in-fraternity-initiation-rite-not-being-initiated.html">gunshot wounds</a> – all in alleged hazing incidents. </p>
<p>Often, defense lawyers try to convince the court that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/15/fraternity-pledge-hazing-death/3584501/">victims perform the tests willingly</a> and, therefore, are as much participants as the hazers themselves. Piazza’s ordeal, uncharacteristically, was documented on video, showing that soon into the initiation, he seemed unable to make willing choices.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178174/original/file-20170713-11780-7iz2a5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a 2006 hazing trial, Marcus Jones alleges a fraternity member beat him with a cane while at Florida A&M University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser, Pool</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to the <a href="http://www.hanknuwer.com/hazing-deaths/">more than 200 collegiate club or team deaths</a> reported in the U.S. since the first hazing death occurred at <a href="http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19810320.2.18">Cornell in 1873</a>, hazing is associated with <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/ajem.2002.32649">numerous claimed occurrences</a> of post-traumatic stress, hospitalizations for injuries, paralysis and scarring. </p>
<p>Until the late 1980s, courts tended to regard even deaths as <a href="http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1923/05/06/page/2/article/kenyon-youths-hazing-death-on-track-recalled">unfortunate</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/20/archives/new-jersey-pages-7-students-cleared-in-death-during-hazing-face.html">accidents</a>, resulting in little or no jail time for perpetrators. </p>
<p>In the last 30 years, however, <a href="http://hazingprevention.org/home/hazing/statelaws/">laws against hazing in 44 states</a> have ruled that deaths and injuries should be regarded as crimes – not accidents. A <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article115652918.html">marching band hazing death</a> at Florida A & M in 2011 resulted in a 77-month sentence for hazing and manslaughter for one participant (who, in 2017, is appealing the conviction). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178165/original/file-20170713-20094-r4xa07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Florida A&M marching band escorts the casket of band member Robert Champion, who died after a band hazing incident in 2011. Twelve members of the band were charged in relation to the death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/David Goldman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can stop hazing?</h2>
<p>On August 28, American University <a href="http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/dc/18-american-university-students-expelled-for-hazing-violence/468530630">expelled 18 members</a> of the underground fraternity chapter Epsilon Iota for various infractions, including hazing.</p>
<p>Although these expulsions – and felony convictions like those of hazers at <a href="http://www.chicoer.com/article/zz/20051028/NEWS/510289874">Chico State</a> – are intended as a deterrent as well as punishment, serious hazing cases at the college level continue to plague universities. </p>
<p>Timothy Piazza’s parents acknowledged that Penn State’s reform efforts are “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/timothy-piazza-penn-state-hazing-death-parents-respond-to-greek-life-reform/">a good start</a>,” but <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/do-penn-state-s-reforms-after-hazing-death-timothy-piazza-n767746">critics question</a> if these initiatives – and those by other universities – will be enough.</p>
<p>Activists, including the parents of deceased Rider University pledge <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2007/03/30/rider-university-freshman-dies-after-excessive-drinking-at-fraternity-house.html">Gary DeVercelly Jr.</a>, hope that <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2926">proposed federal legislation</a> may prove more effective. A bipartisan law introduced in June 2017 would require colleges to report all instances of criminal hazing and to provide all students with an educational program on hazing. </p>
<p>Penn State is all for it. President Barron <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/21/after-timothy-piazza-penn-state-crack-down-fraternity-sorority-hazing-drinking-eric-barron-column/584222001/">publicly stated</a> the university’s support for both the federal legislation and stricter state legislation. <a href="http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/penn-state-provost-joins-lawmakers-and-others-to-support-federal-hazing-legislation,1473012/">Provost Nick Jones</a> stressed that the proposed law would help ensure “the safety and well-being of students.” </p>
<p>Other recommendations to curtail hazing include banning single-sex fraternities (a move now <a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify/2017/07/12/harvard-proposes-banning-sororities-fraternities">recommended by Harvard University</a>), <a href="https://deanofstudents.umich.edu/article/hazing-policies">clear-cut and enforced university sanctions</a> (including expulsions) and <a href="https://hazing.cornell.edu/incidents/violations/index.cfm">mandatory posting of hazing infractions online</a> – a practice now employed by a handful of schools.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/178172/original/file-20170713-28500-dlod1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The family of Armando Villa, who died in a Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity hazing incident at California State University, Northridge in 2014, wear anti-hazing shirts at a news conference.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>Like so many parents who have lost a child to hazing, the Piazzas say they hope Timothy’s death will serve as a clarion call to end hazing rituals.</p>
<p>While there have been clarion calls before, I believe this time there may be hope. Prior to the late 1920s, deaths due to freshman-sophomore class hazings surpassed deaths by fraternity hazing. A nationwide movement by students resulted in a near-end to these dangerous nonfraternity hazings, with only <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/19/archives/6-students-are-suspended-in-college-hazing-death.html">a single death</a> since 1928. </p>
<p>Activists for groups such as <a href="http://hazingprevention.org/">HazingPrevention.org</a>, many of them fraternity members themselves, hope a similar paradigm shift can occur today. </p>
<p>For now, the start of a new school year is upon us, and with it comes the start of pledging. 1968 was the last year without a hazing death in the United States. Will new restrictions on campuses be enough to protect all of our students? Or will 2019-2020 become the 50th year in a row that we must mourn?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hank Nuwer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the fall term underway and an ongoing case over the death of a Penn State pledge in February, colleges are trying once again to figure out why hazing happens and what should be done to stop it.Hank Nuwer, Professor of Journalism, Franklin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635762016-10-02T23:06:50Z2016-10-02T23:06:50ZWhat it means to be black in the American educational system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139951/original/image-20160930-6248-1p8gjs6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do black Americans experience in the school system?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/masshighered/26681994970/in/photolist-GDNcw3-GDNchA-G9yU64-H4YTuk-G9tuSb-H4YT4R-H4YSfX-H4YRZX-G9yQai-H4YRLR-H4YRBn-H4YRxz-G9yNB8-G9tsgQ-GVDCaf-GDNaCo-GVDBqu-GVDAJu-GVDAj1-GDN8Su-GDN8FY-GDN8jf-GDN89f-GDN81u-GDN7i7-GDN6Xs-GDN6Ko-GDN6BC-GXUXbi-H4YRhp-GXUXuz-p9A9tY-diw1rt-divZYd-9W79Te-nqTT24-pUtPu7-nHcmr7-diwDmJ-divVWE-divWEr-nH6x8D-divYhW-nqTMq3-pUBowr-diwMKs-pUAzXx-pffwup-qbVxQv-pSHhyz">masshighered</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people still think that racism is no longer a problem in America. After the election of President Obama, academic <a href="http://english.columbia.edu/people/profile/442">John McWhorter</a> argued that
racism in America is, for all intents and purposes, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/30/end-of-racism-oped-cx_jm_1230mcwhorter.html">dead</a>. The prominent conservative scholar and African-American economist <a href="http://www.tsowell.com/">Thomas Sowell</a> has argued that “<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427160/racism-america-history">racism isn’t dead, but it is on life support</a>.” Harvard professors <a href="http://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/william-julius-wilson">William Julius Wilson</a> and <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/home">Roland Fryer</a> too <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w16256#fromrss">have argued</a> about the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489466">declining significance</a> of race and discrimination.</p>
<p>However, as we wind down the final months of Obama’s presidency, the declining significance of race and discrimination narratives seem to be at odds with the lived realities for African-Americans. President Obama himself has faced <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/30/politics/why-black-america-may-be-relieved-to-see-obama-go/">racist treatment,</a> such as the <a href="http://politic365.com/2012/01/27/the-10-worst-moments-of-disrespect-towards-president-obama/#">birther controversy and a member of Congress saying “you lie.”</a> And then, one incident after another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men">has highlighted</a> the painful reality that black men are disproportionately likely to die at the hands of the police in comparison to any other demographic group.</p>
<p>Sadly, racism and discrimination are facts of life for many black Americans. As an African-American scholar who studies the experiences of black college students, I am especially interested in this issue. My research has found that black college students <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2013.00029.x/abstract">report higher levels of stress</a> related to racial discrimination than other racial or ethnic groups. The unfortunate reality is that black Americans experience subtle and overt discrimination from preschool all the way to college.</p>
<h2>Here’s what studies show</h2>
<p>The results of a <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">recent survey</a> by the Pew Research Center underscore this point. The survey found that black Americans with some college experience are more likely to say that they have experienced discrimination compared to blacks who did not report having any college experience. </p>
<p>Additional survey results <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">revealed several differences</a> between blacks with college experience versus blacks without college experience. For example, in the past 12 months, 55 percent of people with some college experience reported people had acted suspicious of them, compared to 38 percent of those with no college experience. </p>
<p>Similarly, 52 percent of people with some college experience reported people had acted as if they thought the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">individual wasn’t smart</a>, compared to 37 percent of people with no college experience. </p>
<p>So, what are the race-related struggles experienced by African-American students throughout their schooling?</p>
<h2>Story of Tyrone</h2>
<p>Let’s consider the case of Tyrone. Tyrone is a four-year-old black male raised in a two-parent household. Like most four-year-olds, Tyrone is intellectually curious, and has a vivid imagination. He loves books, loves to color and paint, and also loves physical activities such as running, jumping and playing games with his friends. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s the early school experience of black kids?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138148640/stock-photo-elementary-pupils-counting-with-teacher-in-classroom.html?src=8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-1-85">Teacher image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Behaviorally, Tyrone is also similar to many four-year-olds in that he often likes to talk more than listen, and he can be temperamental. He can engage in hitting, kicking and spitting behaviors when he is angry. </p>
<p>One day Tyrone was playing a game with a friend and he lost. Tyrone got angry and threw the ball at his friend. A teacher witnessed that and immediately confronted Tyrone about his behavior. </p>
<p>Angry about being confronted, Tyrone started to walk away. The teacher grabbed his arm. Tyrone reacted by pushing the teacher away. The teacher sent Tyrone to the principal’s office. After consultation with the principal, Tyrone was deemed to be a danger to students and staff. </p>
<p>He was consequently suspended.</p>
<h2>Early years of schooling</h2>
<p>On the surface this looks like a simple case of meting out the appropriate punishment for perceived serious student misbehavior. There does not appear to be anything explicitly racial about the interaction.</p>
<p>However, consider the fact that there have been many instances of white students engaging in the same behavior, none of which ever result in suspension. This is the racialized reality black students experience every day in American schools. </p>
<p>Black boys are <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">almost three times</a> as likely to be suspended than white boys, and black girls are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/education/14suspend.html">four times as likely</a> to be suspended than white girls. Black students’ (mis)behavior is <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150914-kevin-cokley-lets-end-racial-disparity-in-school-discipline.ece">more often criminalized</a> compared to other students.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black boys are three times more likely to be suspended than white kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138148646/stock-photo-elementary-pupils-in-classroom-working-with-teacher.html?src=pd-same_model-138148640-8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-3">Children image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While black kids make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they represent <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-inequality-starts-early-in-preschool-61896">48 percent of students</a> receiving one or more suspensions. Getting suspended matters because it is correlated with being referred to law enforcement and arrested. <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">Black students account for</a> 27 percent of students who are referred to law enforcement and 31 percent of students who are arrested, while they only make up 18 percent of enrolled students. As a general rule, black students do not often receive the benefit of the doubt when they engage in bad or questionable behavior. </p>
<h2>School experience</h2>
<p>When Tyrone entered fourth grade, teachers noticed a change in his demeanor. His enthusiasm for school and learning had diminished considerably. He no longer eagerly raised his hand to answer questions. He no longer appeared to love books and listening to stories. He appeared to have little joy participating in class activities. His teachers characterized Tyrone as “unmotivated,” “apathetic,” having “learning difficulties” and “a bad attitude.”</p>
<p>Educators and researchers have referred to this phenomenon as “<a href="http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500FailingBlkBoys.html">the fourth grade failure syndrome</a>” for black boys. Early childhood educator <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442207448/Early-Childhood-Education-History-Theory-and-Practice-Second-edition">Harry Morgan</a> suggested that this phenomenon occurred during this time because the classroom environment changes between the third and fourth grade from a socially interactive style to a <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ220389">more individualistic, competitive style.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By fourth grade, a child’s enthusiasm can diminish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-128729594/stock-photo-a-sister-are-helping-her-little-brother-with-his-home-work.html?src=8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-1-83">Boy image via www.shutterstock,com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This change in style is counter to the more communal and cooperative cultural learning environment which, according to research, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-01954-005">black students tend to prefer</a>. The fourth grade failure syndrome refers to a bias in schools (e.g., cultural insensitivity, disproportionately harsh discipline, lowered teacher expectations, tracking black students into special education or remedial classes) that has the cumulative effect of diminishing black students’ (especially boys’) enthusiasm and motivation for school.</p>
<p>By high school Tyrone no longer identified with school. His sense of pride and self-esteem increasingly came from his popularity and his athletic abilities rather than his intelligence. <a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/steele">Psychologist Claude Steele</a> has referred to this as “academic disidentification,” a phenomenon where a student’s self-esteem is disconnected from how they perform in school. </p>
<p>Tyrone is not alone. According to one study based on national data from almost 25,000 students black males were the only students that showed <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1997-43826-014">significant disidentification</a> throughout the 12th grade. My <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41343015?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">research</a> too has confirmed this, although I did not find evidence among black females, white males or white females. </p>
<h2>What’s the college experience?</h2>
<p>While the narrative of more black men being in prison than in college has been thoroughly <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/02/more_black_men_in_jail_than_college_myth_rose_from_questionable_report/">debunked</a> by <a href="http://www.journalnegroed.org/ivorytoldson.html">psychologist Ivory Toldson</a>, it is still the case that black men are <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2015/11/a-snapshot-of-the-gender-gap-in-african-american-enrollments-in-higher-education/">underrepresented</a> in college. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 887,000 black women enrolled in college compared to 618,000 black men. </p>
<p>Owing in large part to the emphasis of education by his family, Tyrone is fortunate enough to be accepted to college. Excited and nervous about being away from home, Tyrone looks forward to starting his college experience. </p>
<p>Like <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/how-the-kids-do-it-now-partying/360367/">many college students</a>, Tyrone likes to go to parties thrown by Greek organizations, and he frequently attends parties thrown by black fraternities. While attending one party, Tyrone and his friends became upset when campus police broke up the party because of complaints of loud music and threaten to arrest the attendees. </p>
<p>Tyrone has partied with white friends and knows firsthand that their parties often involve <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/">drugs and reckless behavior</a>, yet, as my students tell me, police almost never break up their parties. As it turns out, white fraternities are frequently the perpetrators of <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2015/03/15/timeline-list-of-recent-sorority-and-fraternity-racist-incidents/">racist incidents</a>, which cause Tyrone and other black students to engage in campus protests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/college-fraternity-holds-racist-mlk-day-party-article-1.1586776">For example</a>, in 2014, Tau Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity at Arizona State University, was suspended for having a racist Martin Luther King Jr. party at which they drank from watermelon cups, held their crotches, wore bandannas and formed gang signs with their hands. </p>
<h2>Resilience</h2>
<p>To add insult to injury, Tyrone and other black students read opinion pieces in the student paper complaining how affirmative action discriminates against white students and allows less qualified “minority” students on campus. </p>
<p>Tyrone finds refuge in black studies classes, where he learns about theories such as “critical race theory” and terms such as “institutional racism,” “white privilege” and “hegemony.” Exposure to these classes provides Tyrone with the vocabulary and critical analytical tools to better understand the challenges facing black people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interest among black students in obtaining a degree remains high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chandlerchristian/14065260817/in/photolist-nqTWL8-nH6EeT-nH6Dhc-nqTUqL-nH6rYR-nqU4SJ-nHmCxj-8F9wcY-nKaVQp-nHcgfW-nqU8fn-nqU3US-nHorZx-nqTT24-nHcmr7-nHcqzY-nH6x8D-nqTMq3-nqTHzN-nqUefD-nHcm3m-nqTKEk-nqTR2m-nqTLAh-nKaNwM-nFkTpj-nKaVtH-nqTHeC-nH6sax-nFkLNo-nHmHJ1-nqU91R-nKb1G8-nHckGS-nqU9rd">chandlerchristian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it is not surprising that college-educated blacks like Tyrone <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/incidents/">are more likely</a> to report experiencing discrimination in college than blacks with no college experience in college environments where racist incidents and racial microagressions are frequently reported. In spite of the desire among many for America to be colorblind, at every level of education black students experience disproportionate amounts of discrimination. </p>
<p>In many ways my research on African-American students reflects my own experiences as a black male negotiating the challenges of being in predominantly white academic environments. The silver lining to this story is that black students are incredibly resilient and there are positive things to report. </p>
<p>In 2016, for example, enrollment at historically black colleges and universities <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2016/09/more-good-news-on-enrollments-at-historically-black-universities/">has increased</a>. It is difficult to know if this increase is related to the negative experiences of discrimination black students often experience on predominantly white campuses, but it does suggest that interest among black students in obtaining a college education remains high. According to 2016 data reported in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, black women now have the highest graduation rate of any demographic group at the University of Georgia. </p>
<p>For every positive outcome for students like Tyrone, there are unfortunately also too many negative outcomes for other similar students. The educational experiences of Tyrone and all black students matters should be of concern to everyone.</p>
<p>While education is not a cure all for experiences with racism and discrimination, education can equip us with the tools to better understand, analyze and ultimately find solutions to the tragic incidents we are seeing too frequently involving police killings of black people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin O'Neal Cokley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What are the race-related struggles that African-American students experience throughout their school years? Here’s the story of Tyrone.Kevin O'Neal Cokley, Professor of Educational Psychology and African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/607482016-06-09T01:52:38Z2016-06-09T01:52:38ZCampuses aren’t safe. Are universities doing enough?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125801/original/image-20160608-3509-omrtb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What risks do students face on campus?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolframburner/4556758640/in/photolist-7WEzA9-mp3CzV-8QMbRx-9C7LFP-mp4Luw-oyuWTM-bM5HQT-mp3Cq6-edGUon-mp2YxK-byb1QQ-kvgmR7-fzxfNy-eefZ2p-mp4KBQ-mp4LUu-mp2XXr-qGD5Xy-mp4Kxw-owx9WU-nN8PsL-mp3CR6-nN8PE9-mp4KwE-mp3Cup-offxnR-bM5Hq4-rBmdz5-ouHnvA-owxagG-GcVgmE-GwgxqM-GcVfWG-owKeog-GcVge5-Gwgxu4-GcVg19-oyuWKF-Gwgxm8-Gwgxfg-rkjh3t-rn5uEw-oyuWCg-rnbTnn-rnbT84-rBmcFb-DruBuh-ptMZBB-D4qe9n-DzAqsS">Wolfram Burner</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2015, a young woman was sexually assaulted while unconscious behind a dumpster on the campus of Stanford University. The victim was visiting campus to attend a fraternity party. </p>
<p>Last week, the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/what-makes-the-stanford-sex-offender-brock-turner-s-six-month-jail-sentence-so-unusual-a7068511.html">perpetrator</a>, Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation. The lenient sentencing of the star athlete has provoked <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/stanford-university-sexual-assault-case-prompts-backlash-1465343570">public outrage</a> – on the Stanford campus and nationwide. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/07/these-colleges-have-the-most-reports-of-rape/">An analysis published June 7 by The Washington Post</a> shows that nearly 100 colleges and universities reported at least 10 cases of rape on their campuses in 2014. </p>
<p>Scholars writing for The Conversation have been pointing to the enormous risks students face on campus. They have raised questions about whether universities are doing enough to protect students.</p>
<h2>Students at risk</h2>
<p>Over 20 percent of all women students surveyed <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-schools-dont-tell-you-about-campus-sexual-assault-57163">experienced unwanted sexual contact</a> while attending college in 2015, wrote Georgia State University Professor of Law <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-a-curcio-218023">Andrea A. Curcio</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The most vulnerable time is the first two months of the freshman year. In fact, to symbolize the danger, the first few months of the fall freshman semester are now commonly called the sexual assault “red zone.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125800/original/image-20160608-3506-18d3vie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A public awareness campaign regarding sexual assault on campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolframburner/17275646986/in/photolist-sjAcYw-8MQtpd-pSvPBR-76eXZ5-ptR7uB-BE9Yj-ny2MqB-smHSfb-86Qk8o-8MPATS-9BPw5H-oPtLp2-dvBVYj-byb211-nox8c3-nCqdTC-8MLmMk-bM5Hsg-byb2hf-7WBjVD-bM5HZX-8LXnRq-noxhgx-7WEyTN-notKka-8MPMDw-7WEypC-8MQnHU-byb2b5-nQf51c-byb1Sf-rDxizX-7WEzA9-ny4hBi-krHXQN-ny3QbW-nSiX3g-Hfxes-nQtrvJ-nQf4XB-bM5HQT-9C7LFP-edGUon-byb1QQ-bFHFx-8MQDX5-8MLU8X-8MPw4A-8MPkTS-eefZ2p">Wolfram Burner</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sarah-cook-143689">Sarah Cook</a>, professor and associate dean at Georgia State University, wrote about President Obama’s efforts in 2014 at convening a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-assault-on-campuses-what-to-do-33773">She pointed out</a> how the 2013 Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE Act), which “requires colleges to report more crimes” in their annual Clery Act reports, could have led to the “upsurge” in campus investigations.</p>
<p>Scholars also pointed out how like most other problems, campus assault does not exist in isolation. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/leah-daigle-254433">Leah Daigle</a>, associate professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University, noted that it is, above all, the party culture on campuses that puts students at risk. </p>
<p><a href="http://theconversation.com/are-some-students-more-at-risk-of-assault-on-campuses-59726">About 65 percent of</a> college students consume alcohol and just under half engage in binge drinking. Her research looks at which students are most vulnerable.</p>
<h2>Lack of information</h2>
<p>Knowing that students are at risk, are universities and colleges doing enough? </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/elizabeth-englander-142574">Elizabeth Englander</a>, professor of psychology at Bridgewater State University and director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC), <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-rape-on-campus-remains-a-hidden-crime-44644">observed,</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Only one-third or fewer of the websites had any information that might be useful to a victim of sexual assault, such as a hotline number, the importance of preserving evidence or how to report sexual assault to police.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To make campuses safer, Georgia State’s Curcio <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-schools-dont-tell-you-about-campus-sexual-assault-57163">emphasized</a> that studies should be conducted that examine the locations where sexual assaults were more likely to occur. </p>
<p>And, as Englander <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-rape-on-campus-remains-a-hidden-crime-44644">said</a>, schools need to make sure everyone has access to quality information. However, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>only <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-rape-on-campus-remains-a-hidden-crime-44644">15 percent</a> of university websites offered any information about how to file an anonymous report.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60748/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A recent analysis found nearly 100 colleges and universities reported at least 10 cases of campus rapes in 2014. Research shows 20 percent of women students experienced unwanted sexual contact.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/571632016-04-06T09:46:07Z2016-04-06T09:46:07ZWhat schools don’t tell you about campus sexual assault<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117557/original/image-20160405-28970-1yg3ju1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Safety issues on dorms are often not discussed.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatelive/4947132601/in/photolist-8xamaF-adWxu2-8Bzf8L-7e4b5b-8wmqxn-6PTBXG-8DkW2n-g7Eabs-8rGpj-8tHcsV-4Wgyem-8w41yV-3bm2Xo-7hgije-5afFS9-58CiXg-4yoSdK-5fdbWY-8Dp7Am-8Dm1KB-b5fHh-659Zq-8Dp78W-p5PAzV-8DkYAD-8Bz9oC-5Tt3mD-oNko46-8Dp6nG-5K47YE-bnDRdA-oyAsB1-8x6qR8-8DkXnx-5afLCb-8DkYwM-8Dm3FH-8Bw4bR-5afNDA-cYMuW7-8DkYPc-65a1D-5abuM6-6rL3bB-8Dp7ZC-8Dp8tN-5afCah-6FXLE-8Dpc5Y-2F2Y8">Penn State</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout the summer before my daughter left for college, I repeatedly warned her: never put a glass down at a party; use the buddy system when going to parties; and never go upstairs at a fraternity party.</p>
<p>Instead, what I should have told her is: the place you are most likely to be assaulted is in your dorm; you are most vulnerable the first weeks of the semester; and your attacker is most likely to be a friend or acquaintance.</p>
<p>In the past couple of years, much has been written about the high rate of sexual assaults on college campuses. What no one seems to be talking about is that most assaults occur in the dorms.</p>
<h2>Vulnerable freshman year</h2>
<p>A 2015 study found over 20 percent of all women surveyed <a href="https://www.aau.edu/uploadedFiles/AAU_Publications/AAU_Reports/Sexual_Assault_Campus_Survey/Report%20on%20the%20AAU%20Campus%20Climate%20Survey%20on%20Sexual%20Assault%20and%20Sexual%20Misconduct.pdf">experienced unwanted sexual contact</a> while attending college. This confirmed earlier findings from a survey conducted between 2005 to 2007, in which <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221153.pdf">one in five women</a> reported being sexually assaulted since entering college. </p>
<p>The most vulnerable time is the <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ccsvsftr.pdf">first two months</a> of the freshman year. In fact, to symbolize the danger, the first few months of the fall freshman semester are now commonly called the <a href="http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/424768/original/2008.kimble.uws.pdf">sexual assault “red zone.”</a></p>
<p>Most likely an attacker will be a friend or acquaintance. A study conducted by the <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/182369.pdf">National Institute of Justice</a>, the research wing of the U.S. Department of Justice, found that 90 percent of college sexual assault victims knew their assailant.</p>
<p>The majority of assaults happen when one or both parties have <a href="http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/media/Journal/118-Abbey.pdf">consumed alcohol</a>. Parents and students usually associate alcohol use with parties, and particularly fraternity parties. Rarely is the connection made about what happens when a student returns to the dorm after those parties. </p>
<h2>Schools’ legal reporting obligation</h2>
<p>Colleges and universities that receive federal funding (which is virtually all schools) are required under the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/1092">Clery Act</a> to compile and publish an annual report <a href="http://clerycenter.org/summary-jeanne-clery-act">on the nature, date, time and place</a> of crimes occurring on and off campus. On-campus crime reports must indicate whether the crime occurred in on-campus residential housing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117526/original/image-20160405-29010-wk2zol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is likely that campuses underreport sexual assault victims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wolframburner/8676416641/in/photolist-edGUon-bM5Hq4-rn5uEw-rBmcFb-DzAqsS-D4qe9n-rQWZAK-rQXpS9-s8pkgK-DBUEWT-xxq1jz-mp3CzV-7WEzA9-8QMbRx-9C7LFP-mp4Luw-bM5HQT-mp3Cq6-mp2YxK-kvgmR7-byb1QQ-fzxfNy-mp4KBQ-mp2XXr-eefZ2p-mp4LUu-mp4Kxw-qGD5Xy-owx9WU-nN8PsL-nN8PE9-mp3CR6-mp4KwE-mp3Cup-offxnR-rBmdz5-ouHnvA-owxagG-owKeog-oyuWKF-rkjh3t-oyuWCg-rnbTnn-rnbT84-DruBuh-ptMZBB-DaMTgs-DaMZdN-CEoL2w-8RbWea">Wolfram Burner</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rapes and “fondlings” are among the crimes that must be reported. Fondlings are <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/handbook.pdf">defined</a> as forcible and/or nonconsensual touching for sexual gratification. Nonconsensual situations include those in which the victim is incapacitated and thus unable to consent.</p>
<p>It is quite likely that the Clery Act reports significantly <a href="http://www.aauw.org/article/clery-act-data-analysis/">underrepresent</a> the number of campus sexual assaults. As the table below shows, in 2014, the <a href="http://ope.ed.gov/security/Index.aspx">combined total Clery Act</a> reports from <em>all</em> U.S. colleges and universities was 4,971 reported rapes and 2,521 reported fondlings. </p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/aemoq/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="256"></iframe>
<p>Even if the data underreport the total number of sexual assaults, what they do show is <em>where</em> assaults happen. </p>
<h2>Where campus sexual assaults happen</h2>
<p>Here’s what national <a href="http://ope.ed.gov/security/Index.aspx">Clery Act data</a> show:</p>
<p>In 2014, 3,658 out of 4,971 (74 percent) of <em>all</em> reported rapes and 1,236 out of 2,521 (49 percent) of <em>all</em> reported fondlings occurred in on-campus residential housing. When looking only at <em>on-campus</em> occurrences, as opposed to the total of on- and off-campus occurrences, the percentages are even higher. Approximately 82 percent of all reported <em>on-campus</em> rapes (3,658 out of 4,464) and 53 percent of all reported <em>on-campus</em> fondlings (1,236 out of 2,330) occurred in campus housing.</p>
<p>These data are consistent with Clery Act reports <a href="http://ope.ed.gov/security/Index.aspx">from earlier years</a>, which also show the majority of sexual assaults occurring in campus residential housing.</p>
<p><a href="https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/handbook.pdf">On-campus residential housing</a> includes dorms, other student residences and fraternity and sorority houses owned or controlled by the university or located on university property. Under the Clery Act, schools do not need to distinguish between fraternity houses and dorms when reporting where sexual assaults happened. </p>
<p>However, a <a href="http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/ogr/lawenforce/analysis-of-college-campus-rape-and-sexual-assault-reports-2000-2011-finalcombined.pdf">10-year study</a> looked at rapes and sexual assaults between 2001 and 2011 occurring on Massachusetts’ college and university campuses – including dorms, apartments and fraternity houses. The study found that 81 percent of all reported rapes and assaults occurred in the dorms, 9 percent occurred in houses or apartments and only 4 percent occurred in fraternity houses.</p>
<h2>“See-no-evil” approach is risky</h2>
<p>Why does knowing where assaults occur matter? </p>
<p><a href="http://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2028&context=gsulr">As my scholarship suggests</a>, part of the sexual assault education process involves debunking myths and stereotypes.</p>
<p>Exposing the myth that most sexual assaults happen in fraternity housing, as well as educating students about the dangers of dorm-based assaults, raises awareness and allows students to take appropriate precautions.</p>
<p>Paying attention to the fact that most assaults occur in the dorms also allows targeted prevention measures. At the very minimum, given how many assaults occur early in the fall semester, parent and student summer orientation programs should include education about dorm-based assaults and appropriate preventative measures.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117528/original/image-20160405-29010-tlnbpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why the ‘see-no-evil’ approach does not work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/allyaubryphotography/2443089993/in/photolist-4HTtxg-4op42H-hS1L4u-Qtwet-cVfgP9-7W5zZU-cVfunS-8wnWZC-cVffzY-56dRWh-ajRgr9-cVftg5-cVftKA-cVg54Q-cVfBUb-cVfzZG-cVfqRQ-eUgQKc-cVg9uj-cVfyUu-6FxZMt-cVfha5-81JzpW-cVfDfh-cVfgYs-cVfDxo-cVfAEG-cVfsoQ-cVfjTC-cVg75G-ajRiuw-rYPT4F-cVgbdJ-cVfguw-cVfN7s-cVfsdw-ajPcac-aQZm5r-cVfqzs-cVftTo-cVfp6Y-cVfYZh-cVfzRh-cVfivU-cVg1yC-cVg7B3-o3vHKJ-cVfjxs-cVg5No-cVfrdf">Ally Aubry</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Schools may be reluctant to acknowledge and discuss where assaults are happening because they don’t want to frighten either parents or students. But the “see no evil” approach comes with significant risk of potentially preventable harm and liability.</p>
<p>Recently, parents of a young woman allegedly assaulted in her dorm filed a <a href="http://www.brownandcurry.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Petition-File-stamped.pdf">class action lawsuit</a> against the University of Kansas (KU). </p>
<p>The suit alleges KU violated the <a href="http://www.ksrevisor.org/statutes/chapters/ch50/050_006_0023.html">Kansas Consumer Protection Act</a> when it solicited students through representations of its residence halls as “safe and secure” despite its knowledge that numerous students had sexually assaulted other students in its dorms. </p>
<p>The student herself filed a Title IX <a href="https://issuu.com/tcj5/docs/lawsuit_documents?e=15618686/34323417">lawsuit</a> against KU. Title IX protects against gender based discrimination with regard to educational opportunities. Her lawsuit rests mainly upon allegations about KU’s conduct after the assault report. However, it also alleges KU is liable for its failure to take reasonable steps to make the dorm safer in light of the data it had about dorm-based assaults.</p>
<p>Other <a href="http://www.stetson.edu/law/academics/highered/home/media/2002/Preventative_Law_on_Campus.pdf">lawsuits have been filed</a> against colleges, alleging failure to warn of and protect students from the reasonably foreseeable danger of sexual assaults occurring in college dorm.</p>
<p>While colleges likely will <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/14/parents-sue-kansas-university-over-alleged-dorm-rapes.html">refute allegations of wrongdoing, as KU has done</a> in the suits against it, these suits lead to undesirable publicity and expenditure of university resources on litigation defense. </p>
<h2>Preventing sexual assault</h2>
<p>When colleges fail to examine where assaults happen, they expose themselves to litigation. More importantly, they miss critical opportunities to explore solutions to the widespread campus sexual assault problem.</p>
<p>Schools should look closely at their own sexual assault reports and consider targeted solutions if there are particular dorms with a high incidence of assaults.</p>
<p>Studies should be conducted at the national level to examine overall patterns. Those studies should examine questions such as whether sexual assaults are more likely to occur in certain types of dorms, such as athlete dorms or even coed dorms. Studies should also look at whether it makes a difference if dorms are coed by floor, by hall or by room. </p>
<p>Using and building upon campus sexual assault location data brings the issue of where campus assaults occur into the open. It also adds an important component to the education and prevention discussion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea A. Curcio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Students are going back to their campuses, and ought to be aware of the danger.Andrea A. Curcio, Professor of Law, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/388182015-03-26T10:29:30Z2015-03-26T10:29:30ZShades of segregated past in today’s campus troubles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75702/original/image-20150323-17709-iqq6uf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of today's campus troubles have their roots in a racial past of American universities </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml">Book image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Demands to rename <a href="http://www.sciway.net/sc-photos/pickens-county/tillman-hall.html">Tillman Hall at Clemson University</a>, the circulation of a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/08/frat-racist-sae-oklahoma_n_6828212.html">video</a> showing a racist chant at the University of Oklahoma and the discovery of a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/21/3637251/fraternity-suspended-notebook-detailing-rape-lynching/">fraternity pledge book</a> discussing lynching at North Carolina State University demonstrate how persistent racial issues are on college campuses. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tillman-Reconstruction-Supremacy-Morrison-Southern/dp/0807825301/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1427037879">Benjamin Tillman</a> was a post-Civil War politician, racial demagogue and participant in racial violence, who was critical to Clemson University’s founding in the late-nineteenth century. </p>
<p>Tillman was not the only one. The University of North Carolina trustees are considering a request this week to <a href="http://abc11.com/education/students-demanding-rename-of-unc-building-named-for-kkk-leader/501011/">rename Saunders Hall</a>. The building was named in 1922 for William Saunders, a leader of the North Carolina Ku Klux Klan. </p>
<p>Buildings named after participants in racial violence and songs celebrating the segregation as well as the lynching of black people are not merely offensive. They recall the violence used to maintain all-white institutions for much of this country’s history.</p>
<p>In fact, colleges and universities historically have supported hierarchies of race and other forms of difference from their founding in the colonial era through the civil rights struggles of the late-20th century.</p>
<p>As a co-founder and director of the <a href="http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2010/02/transforming-community-project-creates-agents-of-change.html#.VQOV4kivLvk">Transforming Community Project</a>, I used the history of race at Emory University to help members of the university community understand the meaning of equity for the institution today. </p>
<p>In 2011, I co-organized, “Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies,” the first <a href="http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2011/01/slavery-and-the-university-focus-of-emory-conference.html#.VQOViEivLvk">conference</a> on the history of slavery and racial discrimination at institutions of higher education. Scholars and administrators from across the United States shared the troubled past of slavery and segregation of a majority of colleges and universities. </p>
<h2>American universities were connected to slave trade</h2>
<p>Today many see the goals of higher education institutions as providing access to all seeking upward economic, political and social mobility, regardless of race, class, gender and religion. But it was not always so. </p>
<p>Colleges and universities built curricula and performed research that supported the enslavement of Africans.
Money from <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/09/17/223420533/how-slavery-shaped-americas-oldest-and-most-elite-colleges">the African slave trade and slavery</a> financed institutions of higher education.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75703/original/image-20150323-17696-esium4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many American colleges used or owned slave labor in the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml">Hand image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many college campuses used or owned enslaved blacks, who erected and maintained the buildings and grounds, and served the faculty, students and administrators. At many schools, students, faculty and administrators brought their slaves with them to campus. </p>
<p>One might imagine that this was true only in the South. But the most prestigious educational institutions in the North – <a href="http://www.harvardandslavery.com/">Harvard</a>, <a href="http://registrar.princeton.edu/course-offerings/course_details.xml?courseid=012214&term=1142">Princeton</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/23/opinion/23mon3.html?_r=0">Brown</a>, and others – were intimately connected to the slave trade and slavery.</p>
<p>Most students, who came to these schools from all over the United States, were supporters of slavery, and some were wealthy slave owners themselves.</p>
<h2>Scholars believed in racial inferiority</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ebony-Ivy-Troubled-Americas-Universities/dp/1608194027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427307593&sr=1-1&keywords=craig+wilder">University scholars</a> of the time argued that the racial inferiority of people of African descent justified their enslavement; and that enslavement would bring blacks closer to Christian salvation. </p>
<p>Faculty and students also argued for the centrality of slavery to the nation’s economic success. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ebony-Ivy-Troubled-Americas-Universities/dp/1596916818/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1427308580">Coursework</a> in history, religion and other subjects supported the moral and political correctness of slavery. </p>
<p>The influence of college graduates reached beyond North America into slave-holding societies in the Caribbean and South America. Graduates took up positions among the slave-holding elite as plantation owners and politicians. Others became ministers or educators who upheld slavery through preaching and teaching. </p>
<p>Those who spoke against slavery on college campuses were few, and faculty spoke out against slavery at the threat of losing their jobs. In the United States before the Civil War, only anti-slavery colleges such as <a href="http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Oberlin_College">Oberlin College in Ohio</a> were consistent in their opposition to slavery and racism. </p>
<p>Following the Civil War, historically white colleges North and South diverged only slightly in their willingness to admit non-white students. These schools also limited or prevented the enrollment of other groups, such as non-Protestant Christians or Jews. </p>
<h2>Quota systems were used by universities in the north</h2>
<p>In the south, legal segregation prevented black students from attending colleges and universities. In northern schools, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Student-Diversity-Big-Three-Princeton/dp/1412814618/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_6">quota systems</a> limited the number of blacks who could attend.</p>
<p>In both North and South, schools limited the enrollment of non-Protestant Christians, such as Catholics; and Jews, among other groups. These practices reinforced racial and religious hierarchies until the late-twentieth century. </p>
<p>The threat or use of violence was central to maintaining racial and religious segregation in all parts of society. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75704/original/image-20150323-17699-b50in1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ku Klux Klan members were also active on American college campuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml">Ku Klux Klan image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1924, Ku Klux Klan members (including the city’s mayor and police chief) <a href="http://catholicgators.org/our-founder">kidnapped and castrated a Catholic priest</a> serving the small group of Catholic students there. They believed that the priest was converting Protestant students to Catholicism. </p>
<p>When Tillman supported the founding of Clemson University in 1889, he had already established himself as in favor of upholding racial segregation by violence. There was no question that the university would be for whites only.</p>
<h2>Court cases and funding threats forced desegregation</h2>
<p>State schools established for whites maintained racially exclusionary practices towards blacks until forced to integrate by Supreme Court rulings <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1949/1949/1949_44">Sweatt v. Painter</a> in 1950 and <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/1950-1959/1952/1952_1/">Brown v. Board of Education</a> in 1954.</p>
<p>Pressure from national professional organizations who threatened to withhold accreditation, as well as from the federal government and foundations who threatened to withhold grant funding from segregated institutions, forced most <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Desegregating-Private-Higher-Education-South/dp/0807154474/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=">private institutions to desegregate in the early 1960s. </a></p>
<p>However, it was not until the 1970s that segregation for non-whites and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Student-Diversity-Big-Three-Princeton/dp/1412814618/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_6">quotas</a> for non-Christian students in universities were completely abolished. </p>
<p>Southern institutions fought desegregation through a series of law suits. And the first African Americans students to attend these schools suffered acute harassment. </p>
<p>At <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2240973">the University of Texas</a> for instance, in 1950, the Supreme Court ruling in Sweatt v. Painter forced the law school to admit <a href="http://ddce.utexas.edu/sweattsymposium/2013/03/15/legacy-of-heman-sweatt/">Heman Sweatt</a>, its first black student. </p>
<p>During Sweatt’s first semester on campus, someone burned a cross at the law school and inscribed KKK (Ku Klux Klan) on the steps of the law building. Most faculty members and students at the law school did not support Sweatt. He ended up leaving after two years without a law degree. </p>
<p>In 1954, as part of its continuing resistance to desegregation, the University of Texas named a new dorm for <a href="http://deadconfederates.com/2010/07/12/william-stewart-simkins-the-klan-and-the-law-school/">William Stewart Simkins</a>, one of the law school’s first professors. </p>
<p>Simkins, a native of the same South Carolina county as Benjamin Tillman, was also a founder of the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/k.html">Florida Ku Klux Klan</a>. Both Simkins and Tillman boasted of using violence to enforce racial segregation. </p>
<p>Honoring Simkins in 1954 symbolically reinforced the school’s commitment to segregation. Similar actions occurred throughout the south and included the reclamation of the Confederate flag by southerners and lynching of civil rights activists as part of a “<a href="http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=25349">massive resistance</a>” to desegregation. </p>
<h2>Significant progress on campuses</h2>
<p>The events occurring on campuses today echo these troubled times, and reveal the continuing unease that some have with diverse campuses. But significant progress has been made in the 65 years since Heman Sweatt attempted his law degree at University of Texas. </p>
<p>The vast majority of higher education institutions recognize that serving a diverse campus community is of intrinsic value to the educational enterprise and to the nation at large. </p>
<p>As a result, many schools are struggling to align their campuses with these changes by renaming buildings and limiting racist behavior. </p>
<p>In 2010, the University of Texas <a href="https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsi12">renamed</a> Simkins Hall to Creekside. At the University of Oklahoma, following the circulation of a video in which members of the local chapter of <a href="http://www.sae.net/page.aspx?pid=756">Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE)</a>, the only national fraternity founded in the South, sing of excluding from their fraternity, and hanging, “niggers,” the national fraternity leadership <a href="http://www.sae.net/home/pages/news/news---media-statements---fraternity-leadership-closes-chapter-at-university-of-oklahoma">closed the chapter</a>. </p>
<p>The Pi Kappa Phi chapter at North Carolina State has been suspended as university and national fraternity officials investigate <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pi-kappa-phi-nc-state-notebook">the pledge book</a> that contains references to lynching and rape.</p>
<p>The landscape of US higher education today would be completely unrecognizable to Benjamin Tillman and William Stewart Simkins. </p>
<p>This is a profound achievement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie M. Harris received funding from the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogues Initiative, 2007-2011. She is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center.</span></em></p>At the root of today’s racial troubles on campuses is the past, when most American universities were intimately connected to slave trade and slavery. Harvard, Princeton, Brown were no exception.Leslie M Harris, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, Emory UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/388212015-03-17T09:47:58Z2015-03-17T09:47:58ZView from Oklahoma: Race exists, although some may not see it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74960/original/image-20150316-9190-6ejbt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Racism exists and not much may have changed in the past 30 years. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-228969190/stock-photo-black-and-white.html">Hands image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members <a href="http://abc7chicago.com/news/university-of-oklahoma-fraternity-shut-down-for-racist-chant/550549/">chanting racist slogans</a> — including the explicit advocacy of lynching — arrived on the campus of University of Oklahoma, accompanied by satellite trucks from media outlets from across the nation, I met this news from within a particular set of personal and professional experiences. </p>
<p>I have been teaching African-American history at the University of Oklahoma (OU) since the fall of 1994. As a professional historian, I have spent the last several years trying to understand this nation’s desegregation experience from 1954 to 1980. </p>
<p>As someone born in 1960 who attended undergraduate and graduate school from 1979 to 1992, I have also experienced racism in my own world. </p>
<p>In sum, I must say that, measured by the kind of college experience students are likely to have today, very little has changed for the better in the thirty-six years since I went to college. </p>
<h2>Citizenship carries contradictory meanings</h2>
<p>At the University of California, Davis (UCD), where I lived on a “multi-ethnic” dorm floor, during my undergraduate years I learned my first lessons in the reality that my world is not “the world”: I had a Chicano room mate who was stopped by police, as he walked from our dorm to a nearby mall. </p>
<p>And, in another incident, I realized how inappropriate my enthusiasm was over a Chicano colleague’s decision to become a citizen. It suggested that I thought he was now “improved”.</p>
<p>It was painful for me to learn that, for many people (including native born Americans), citizenship is freighted with many tensions and contradictory meanings. It was a very good lesson for me. </p>
<p>It changed my world-view. </p>
<p>I have no doubt, if I looked back at my lecture notes from that time, a wise professor of mine might well have said that. But, through this experience, it registered with me in a more lasting way. </p>
<h2>In grad school my tutorials were from graffiti</h2>
<p>At University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where I earned my graduate degrees, I took many intensive seminars. But my daily tutorials came from reading the racist graffiti written inside the stalls of the public bathrooms located in the University Research Library and in the Powell Library. </p>
<p>From my student days, I also remember quite vividly public controversies over white frat parties being centered around anti-immigrant themes, or the decision of an African-American student group to publish its own edition of the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-03-21/news/we-13622_1_jewish-student-union/2">“Protocols of Zion”</a> as a fundraiser. </p>
<h2>In my office hours, I learned about another side to OU</h2>
<p>Now as a teacher, in my office hours, and in my other contacts with African-American students outside of class, I have been told about a side of the city of Norman, Oklahoma, that I do not otherwise directly experience. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/74962/original/image-20150316-9201-3lqnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Campuses have been experiencing racial tensions consistently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/vasta/116380041/in/photolist-5rPRo-6voQ7g-nvyPib-H5nLV-bhtJr-bhtJt-bhtJu-6uf2QW-gAVSr-bhrBn-9nxK8T-8yWmNW-8yWmRN-8yTgKt-8yTgGn-8yWmMw-8yWmPG-8yTgEc-8yTgCB-8yTgEZ-8yWmUE-bhrBs-8yTgJx-bhrBk-pMyyJ6-pMxgXy-bhrBp-8yWmL1-bhrBt-bhrBq-bhtJq-bhtJm-7AHyTg-7AHyPP-hQXv9v-hQXQJc-hQXBDp-58r7jf-99K725-6HAENQ-bvavRn-bxsk7Z-bTpYxc-4yZvLu-5BZgne-7YiKLg-9krKU-9G5MFz-8xjnHF-bhtJp">Sameer Vasta/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>When I walk to school every morning I receive (and sometimes accept) very kind offers of rides to campus (I walk with fore-arm crutches) and I acknowledge shouts of encouragement. </p>
<p>But in the last year alone, I have heard from Latino students of racial harassment while walking not far from where I live. The administration was alerted and some important campus public events took place in which these events were frankly discussed. </p>
<p>A different world, indeed.</p>
<p>From these converging experiences, I encounter last week’s events strongly convinced that they must, at some point, bring the national conversation back to the central issue: we are a <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/08/01/the-rise-of-residential-segregation-by-income/">very rigidly segregated society</a>, by race. </p>
<p>I believe there is a class polarization going on, following the pull of an unspoken desire, especially of whites, to live among people like themselves. </p>
<h2>Universities face a consistent presence of racial tensions</h2>
<p>Because formal and informal efforts to desegregate American culture have directly touched the lives of a relatively small number of people, colleges and universities must live with this unfinished business whether they choose to or not. </p>
<p>As economist <a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2011/04/27/q-charles-clotfelter#.VQbhHWTF8mU">Charles Clotfelter</a> noted in an <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7768.html">important study </a>a decade ago, we live in a paradoxical society that is certainly not “post racial”: residential segregation between neighborhoods (including the schools they support) is increasing. At the same time interracial contact is greater, especially in higher education. </p>
<p>Thus, over the last generation, there has been a consistent presence of racial tensions which, with the smallest accelerant, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/us/colorblind-notion-aside-colleges-grapple-with-racial-tension.html?_r=0;%20https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/02/11/racist_remarks_anger_students_faculty_administrators_at_university_of_alabama">break out into the open</a>. </p>
<h2>Student athletes have been taking on a special role</h2>
<p>In this context, student athletes have been playing a key role. We often hear in the news about the education that student athletes do not get as they work towards enriching their University’s commercial brand by winning for us, on national television. </p>
<p>But student athletes play a far greater role. Their strong words of protest carry a special weight. In the present moment, the <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/ou-student-athletes-issue-statement-calling-for-more-investigation-of-sae-racist-incident-155956456.html">words and conduct</a> of African-American athletes at OU should remind us of African-Americans serving in the US military: they are essential to these institutions and their mission. </p>
<h2>The way forward is through humility</h2>
<p>We all have work to do here. We have been called upon to confront again a very old fact: the very different lives we lead as we inhabit shared spaces but do not really know each others’ burdens and potentials. </p>
<p>We need to take a fresh look at our university community with a renewed commitment to accountability, transparency and due process. If we make this as a firm commitment, with the understanding that it is not a temporary emergency measure intended to make some of us feel better, OU’s good name will be just fine. </p>
<p>We need to move forward with a quiet humility, but one that is infused with determination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38821/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Keppel has received funding from the Research Council at the University of Oklahoma, the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others.</span></em></p>Racial tensions on college campuses may not be much different for today’s students from what they were even 36 years ago, argues associate professor of history at University of Oklahoma.Ben Keppel, Associate Professor of History, University of OklahomaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.