Hazing

5 Pages 1287 Words

Is It Innocent Team Bonding Or
The Abuse and Endangerment of An Athlete’s Rights?
Current issues have forced NCAA athletics to deal and confront the dangerous acts of team hazing. On January 14th, the University of Vermont men’s hockey season was forced to a sudden halt. With thirteen games left, the team’s 23 remaining players were read a litany of their sins by the state’s attorney general, William Sorrell. He stated the schools handling of the hazing incident(s) was “conducted loosely while specific evidence was withheld that lead to a slow indecisive investigation,” which resulted in his intervention (Hoover).
Hazing is a long practiced and in many cases long accepted rite of initiation in such cliques as military and college fraternities and athletics. It is a relatively new current issue and needs to be seriously addressed. Last August Alfred (NY) University released a study that included two hundred and twenty four participating institutions that submitted names and addresses of 61,258 student athletes. From the responses, they found that 80% of responding college athletes were subjected to alcohol-related hazing and more than 20% to such other activities. Of the participating institutions, the UVM was not one of them (Hoover). Clearly, UVM and other organizations must be more vigilant. Greater and more effective efforts must be made to know what students are doing, and perhaps more importantly, what and how they are thinking. Team or group bonding experiences that attain the desired results without harassing humiliations and dangers must be developed and promoted.
Across societies and time, people have initiated new members into groups through ceremonies and rituals designed to foster a feeling of belonging. Yet, sometimes those activities cross the line into hazing. Hazing, defined by Alfred University, is “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or en...