
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140475
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: EMORY                                LENGTH: Medium

EMORY AND HENRY BANS PLEDGE WEEK BECAUSE OF HAZING

In a unanimous vote, officials at Emory and and Henry College banned pledge week, when fraternities and sororities traditionally ask new recruits to perform a variety of sometimes embarrassing or unpleasant tasks.

Dean of Students William Malloy moved to ban the practice Wednesday at a meeting of faculty and administrators. The idea will go before the school's board of trustees.

`It's time to give it up; all of it," Malloy wrote in a letter to the campus newspaper.

Malloy said school officials had tried to work with the campus' seven fraternities and six sororities over the past six years to end the pledge week tradition.

Hazing has been banned on campus for several years and Greek social organizations are barred from physically or mentally abusing new members.

"We have offered [students] written material on the subject and had speakers come in to talk to them, but the problem continued, so we took steps to eliminate the hazing," Malloy said. "Every fraternity and sorority on the Emory and Henry campus, with the exception of one sorority, has participated in hazing of one form or another."

Malloy said new Greek pledges had been locked out of their dorm rooms overnight and deprived of sleep for as long as 72 hours, Malloy said. Also, recently pledges were blindfolded and led down nearby railroad tracks, he said.

Malloy said the administration isn't trying to force fraternities and sororities off campus.

"We simply cannot continue to put students' lives in jeopardy and the college in a position of liability for these events," he said. "But if we have any evidence of hazing activities next fall, we will pull the charter of the organization and they will cease to exist."

"I'm very shocked I didn't even know they intended to vote on it," said Rhonda Smith, president of the Alpha Beta Chi sorority, one of the largest Greek organizations on campus.

"I knew they were pretty upset about some of the things that took place last week [during a pledge week], but I didn't think they would do this," Smith said.

She said in past years, the administration has given Greek organizations a list of things it considered hazing. And she admitted most Greek groups had engaged in some of those activities. But Smith said no organization required its pledges to do anything "dangerous or demoralizing."

"It's a very important week if you are in a sorority or fraternity," she said. "It is an integral part of learning about the new pledges and letting them learn about you."

by CNB