As part of National Hazing Prevention Week (NHPW), all students involved with Greek life on campus were encouraged to attend “A Conversation About Hazing,” a seminar hosted by Tracy Maxwell on Sept. 25. Maxwell founded HazingPrevention.org and is a representative of Campuspeak.com. She spoke to educate and enlighten the student body about the damaging effects of hazing, including those that may not even be recognized as harmful.
Valerie Olijar, the president of the Theta Chi chapter of the Order of Omega at Longwood University, was first to the stage to welcome the upcoming speaker.
The Order of Omega is a Greek Honor society established to recognize leadership and exceptional work within collegiate Greek life.
As the topic of hazing is a serious one, Maxwell’s prewritten introduction lightened the atmosphere in Jarman Auditorium. Her introduction, available on Campuspeak.com, included background information about her work to prevent hazing but also random facts about her as an individual.
“She is here today to have a conversation with us about a topic that is often shrouded in secrecy,” Olijar said in the closing of Maxwell’s introduction. She further added, “Her goal is for you to think and feel about hazing in a new way and feel empowered to do something about it …”
Maxwell proceeded to inform the audience of her own experiences with hazing. As the founder of a website like HazingPrevention.org, she admitted to being frequently asked if she was personally hazed.
“People always ask me about how I was hazed [or] what happened to me,” Maxwell said before pausing. “I was never hazed.”
Being involved in numero and going on to join a sorority in college, Maxwell never encountered the negative side of hazing. She then explained what it is that fuels her passion for this subject.
Drawing back to an experience in the sixth grade, Maxwell elaborated on her school-sanctioned initiation into the Beta Club in middle school. This was her first glimpse into the issue of hazing.
Even though she was forced to wear a strange outfit that included an onion hanging from her neck, Maxwell remembers the experience fondly.
“It was hazing,” she said. “However, far from being scarred by this experience or having it be a negative thing for me, I loved it,” she admitted.
“I got to stand out as someone special, someone who got picked to be a part of a prestigious organization.”
Maxwell stressed that this is often how hazing continues to be a tradition in so many organizations. She stated that she has found that some people actually want to be hazed in order to feel closer to the group. These people are the ones who often voice their positive opinions about the subject, allowing hazing to go on.
But because of this, the negative and harmful views of hazing remain “shrouded in secrecy.” Bringing light to the subject is what Maxwell believes will keep harm to a minimum.
Involving the audience of sorority and fraternity members, along with other interested students, Maxwell began a conversation.
She asked them to take five minutes to discuss with their brothers and sisters the specific examples of hazing they have heard about, witnessed or experienced that caused discomfort.
Students shared these stories with Maxwell and their peers in a discussion setting. Shocking and grotesque, these experiences were met with gasps and whispers.
She urged the audience to use caution when faced with rumors or stories about hazing.
“When I go to colleges, I always ask students to share things that they’ve heard,” Maxwell said. “And it’s hard to know if that’s one of those urban legends that’s not true or if there’s someone who really does that. Most rumors have some basis in fact, so at some point, something like that may have happened. And that rumor circulates forever.”
Each of the five examples that were brought up were about fraternities. No one shared examples about sororities. Maxwell addressed this as an incorrect stereotype and said that hazing is widespread.
According to Maxwell, hazing happens in all kinds of organizations and is not limited to just Greek life, or specifically fraternities. Workplaces, the military and middle schools have all faced the issue of hazing as well.
Closing with stories of young men and women she has met through her job, Maxwell used audience involvement and her own experiences to provide students with more information about what exactly hazing is and how it affects individuals.
and organizations as a whole.
