Update - here is a link to a PDF file detailing the hazing
Sanding a wood table for hours on end and imitating sexual acts on a banana were part of long list of alleged hazing activities at the Zeta Psi fraternity, according to documents recently released by the UW.The fraternity was sanctioned this spring by the University and a fraternity governance board for hazing incoming members, known as pledges.But documents released Tuesday suggest this to be the worst case of hazing brought to light at the UW since Delta Kappa Epsilon found itself in a wrongful death lawsuit seven years ago.Based on interviews with three former members who went through the fraternity's initiation process, the University compiled a list of events alleged to have occurred within the fraternity during 2003 and 2004.The members, two sophomores and a junior, were evicted from the house after they reported hazing to University officials in early November."I don't know of anything to compare it to, but as far as most people's understanding, it was pretty severe," said sophomore Kyle Thompson, one of the former members who reported the hazing. "It's beyond anything qualified as normal."
Some of the activities described by the three former members include:
* Older Zeta Psi fraternity members tore apart the kitchen and defecated and urinated on the porch where the pledges slept. The pledges could not go to sleep until the kitchen and sleeping porch were cleaned.
* The fraternity organized several "sneaks" throughout autumn quarter of 2003. In one such "sneak," members would spit tobacco juice and dump cigarette ash on the floor. The pledges lowered themselves to a push-up position and held steady for 30 seconds to a minute. In another "sneak," the members sprayed Ajax cleaner in bathrooms around the house. The pledges were forced on their hands and scrubbed with a steel wool pad for up to five hours.
* Pledges also went through a "Big Sis" initiation in autumn of 2004. For the initiation, sorority members from various houses were invited to the house. Pledges were taken downstairs, blindfolded and coerced to drink alcohol. Some pledges drank an entire fifth of alcohol. While blindfolded, the pledges put a banana between a person's legs and sucked on the banana. Chocolate syrup and honey were poured onto the stomach of a pledge and another pledge was forced to lick it off.
In Washington State, hazing is a crime.Members of the fraternity have not denied that many of the activities described by the former members occurred, but they dispute that it was hazing.John Sheppard, the fraternity's alumni advisery board president between 2000 and 2004, was reached yesterday but declined to comment.The fraternity's current alumni president, Rob Carlisle, did not return a phone call yesterday.Mark Gwaltney, former president of the fraternity's alumni advisery board, said he was shocked when fraternity members told him about the activities. He said he approached current alumni board members, but was rebuked and members threatened to pull his membership.Gwaltney reported hazing to the UW Nov. 9 of last year, and the three whistleblowers followed suit."[The fraternity] pushed the envelope to the edge," said Gwaltney, a 1980 graduate. "It's the good grace of God that no one died."The documents released by the UW through public records laws also detail "Work Week" -- the brutish four days that 16 pledges endured before the fraternity's initiation in January 2004.Between Wednesday, Jan. 7 and the following Friday night, pledges slept for an estimated five hours. The pledges were confined to sleep in a small weight room. While still in their clothes, shoes and wearing knee pads, the pledges had to sleep on top of one another because the room was so small.
During "Work Week," breakfast was a piece of toast with ketchup. At lunch, the pledges had one minute to eat as many tacos as possible.A severe part of the week was "Idiot Central." For this assignment, the large wood tables from the dining room were taken apart and the pledges were given a wood block with sandpaper. The sandpaper was held by hand to the wood block and the pledges had to sand the table. The sanding lasted so long that some pledges got blisters that were later covered with duct tape.After dinner Friday night, each pledge was taken into the kitchen and hosed off with the dishwashing sprayer. Then the pledges were sent outside soaking wet to wait in the winter night. The pledges couldn't come in until each pledge finished the process.
Throughout Friday and Saturday, the pledges were periodically relieved of their cleaning duties only to be taken to "Hell." When taken to Hell -- the fraternity's darkened laundry room -- the pledges were forced to do wall sits while holding out one-gallon jugs of water in each hand.The following Wednesday, the pledges each wrote a heartfelt letter to a fraternity member. The next night, the older members read the letter in front of the chapter. The letters, however, were altered so the pledge appeared gay. The chapter would yell, "We don't initiate fags!"Zeta Psi is on suspension by the UW and the Interfraternity Council until Sept. 27. The sanctions will limit the fraternity's ability to recruit new members, ban them from Greek-sponsored events, and force them to revamp their pledge program.
