Policy vs. tradition: the dilemma of hazing

It was a typical afternoon at Payne Whitney Gymna- sium. Members of the heavyweight crew team were back in their familiar positions in the rowing tanks, sweat dripping off their brows, legs burning, glad that the nightmare of an indefinite suspension was over. The suspension preceded a thorough investigation by the Athletic Department after two freshmen found themselves at Yale University Health Services (YUHS) following a team bowling night.

Yet questions still remain. How did Director of Athletics Tom Beckett arrive at the decision to suspend the team, which was eventually exonerated of hazing allegations? Why was the crew team suspended, while other teams that have engaged in more serious hazing rituals have escaped with relatively minor punishments? And what effect will the suspension have on other athletes who have witnessed the situation from afar? The letter of the law "Good relationships are important in rowing," Captain Scott Proper, ES '01, said. "Bowling night was a way of encouraging that. We didn't even know the names of the freshmen who had made the team. It was a chance for us to get to know each other." On Sat., Dec. 2, the heavyweight team gathered for a few drinks and pizza, then went to the bowling alley. The night, according to Proper, was over by 9:30 p.m. "Guys went their separate ways," he said. "The two freshmen ended up at YUHS an hour and a half after the night ended." The freshmen rowers went out after bowling night and continued to drink.

By Tues., Dec. 5 Beckett had cancelled practice and informed the team they were suspended as a varsity team and that Head Coach Dave Vogel was suspended as a varsity coach. "I was surprised at the severity of it," rower Todd Moen, DC '01, said. "I was scared to death. Beckett said he wasn't sure whether we would be rowing this season." The suspension set off a media craze, with stories in the Yale Daily News and the Herald that were picked up by the Associated Press, local news television stations, and The New York Times. The media did not paint a rosy picture. "It was upsetting," Proper said. "It was embarrassing." Moen feels that the team was convicted in the eyes of the public before the facts had been uncovered. "In some people's minds, we were guilty of hazing before the investigation even started," he said.

According to Beckett, the suspension was handed down because "the facts of the situation were bad enough to call for it." Although Beckett wouldn't divulge specifics, Laura Schned, BK '01, the women's swimming captain, said that he had told the Captains' Council monthly meeting that he had heard the crew team had spiked freshmen's drinks with grain alcohol without their knowledge. The team denied the charges, and Beckett eventually concluded that no such incident had taken place.

Though not guilty of hazing, the team did violate the Athletic Department's policy—and Connecticut state law—regarding underage drinking. But other teams have certainly been guilty of the same infraction. Last term, a varsity recruit had to go to Urgent Care at YUHS after a night at Sigma Epsilon Alpha. Three years ago, a freshman on another varsity team went to Yale-New Haven after initiation, while a recruit for a different team ended up in YUHS for alcohol sickness. Last term, the women's swimming team held its annual initiation and while no one was in danger, a freshman on the team who felt uncomfortable at the initiation expressed her concerns to her freshman counselor, who eventually took the matter to the college Dean. Eventually, Schned explained, the team met with Beckett, who informed them that they had been guilty of hazing and reprimanded them.

"We had a swim team initiation that was voluntary," Schned said. "I later learned that voluntary initiations are considered hazing under Yale law and state law. Some people felt uncomfortable with our initiation and that became apparent to some Administrators." Schned emphasized that no activities were forced upon the freshmen during the initiation. "I understand that what we did is wrong. I understand that there is inherent hazing in voluntary initiation. There really are no individuals on a team, so there is a lot of natural conformity. You want to do what everyone else is doing."

Therein lies part of the problem for the Athletic Department. What constitutes hazing? Do all teams involve some sort of coercion? According to the student-athlete handbook, "Connecticut laws and Yale University regulations expressly prohibit any form of hazing in connection with initiation activities or other team activities...Hazing means any action which recklessly or intentionally endangers the health or safety of a person..." The handbook goes on to say that hazing includes requiring indecent exposure, any activity that produces mental stress, assault, and requiring ingestion of any substance that could harm an individual's health. The definition is sufficiently broad to allow room for interpretation, and Beckett admitted that he has to treat every case individually. "We cannot make a blanket policy because every single case is different," he said. "We have to look at the facts in every case and evaluate it individually." Schned believes a precise definition of hazing is impossible to pin down. "There's a very blurry line between teams hanging out and teams putting pressure on people to do things," she said. Is a blanket policy fair? The fact that the Athletic Department did not react as severely to the swimming team's initiation as it did to the crew team's bowling night rankles several athletes. "How ridiculous is that?" one varsity captain not associated with crew said. "It's blatant hypocrisy." Even Schned wonders whether the hazing policy can be applied fairly or consistently. "I find the whole system spineless," she said. "I feel like if they're going to take a stand, they should just do it and enforce it. Maybe we should have been suspended."

Jeffrey Herzog, DC '01, a coxswain on the heavyweight team, thinks the team deserved to be punished, as do the rest of the rowers with whom the Herald spoke. But he also acknowledges that the suspension could have happened to other teams for other incidents, as well. "You know when you jaywalk you're breaking the law," he explained. "But you do it anyway, because you know no one will write you a ticket. Someday, though, a cop might give you a ticket for it. And you'll say it's unfair, because thousands of people jaywalk every day." In other words, every team—just like most undergraduate organizations on campus—has initiations, parties, or events at which illegal drinking happens. The crew team was caught, though, because of the allegations of spiked drinks, and because, perhaps, they are varsity athletes.

Frank Keefe, Yale's head swimming coach, believes that athletes are sometimes singled out unfairly. "My problem is that all groups on campus are not dealt with equally," he said. "Singing groups and frats are not as closely supervised because they do not have a separate administration. Also, when a member of an athletic team gets into trouble, the whole team is implicated." Beckett admitted that this is often the case. "When one athlete does something that affects the whole team, he needs to understand that if he gets singled out, the whole team will get painted by the same brush," he said. "It's unfair but that's the way the world is." He has no plans to change the current policy.

Schned also expressed concerns. "It's unfair that athletes should be treated differently than other Yalies who go to YUHS," she said. "Just because you were drinking with your teammates doesn't mean special notice should be taken." But as she pointed out, there is a fine line between simply hanging out and putting pressure on teammates, explicit or not—a lesson the crew team will not soon forget.

Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg does not believe varsity teams are treated any differently. "If I found out that [a campus organization] gave a party, and people got sick, and you were serving alcohol irresponsibly, then you would hear from me," she said. "There are other groups other than athletes that have had problems as well." Getting caught at YUHS Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the suspension, however, is the possibility that next time, athletes won't be willing to send teammates who may need attention to YUHS for fear of getting the whole team in trouble. When Beckett was asked how he found out about the two rowers, he said, "It's a small community and you always hear things." YUHS never discloses information about patients that are admitted, but as Beckett said, Yale is a small community, and the grapevine is healthy.

Several varsity athletes have become worried that Beckett will find out if their teammates show up at Urgent Care. As a result, say some, they may hesitate the next time someone doesn't feel too good. "It would make me think twice," one athlete admitted. "If athletes have to go to the hospital, is my team going to be suspended? Am I going to be suspended because I had too much fun and got sick? It definitely raises the question." Many varsity athletes on other teams have been watching the crew situation very carefully. "Other athletes talk about how crappy what happened to the crew team was. It was really unfair, and it makes people concerned about ever going to YUHS, even if they weren't sick from a varsity team function." However, an assistant athletic director defends the Athletic Department's decision by saying that "we're here to make sure that our athletes have the absolute best possible experience they can have and that they are safe. That drives any decision that we make."

All of this only shows that better communication between the athletic department and the varsity teams is necessary. Most of the athletes the Herald talked to believe the policy regarding drinking and hazing is hopelessly vague and inconsistently applied. "If anything, what this incident shows is that there has to be better communication between the athletic department and the athletes themselves," Moen said. Keefe hopes that, at the very least, the suspension will promote positive change in the ways teams choose to forge their relationships off the field. "My challenge to my captains and everyone in the athletic community would be to think up of ways of welcoming freshmen into the group without infringing on their rights," he said. "This should be a positive experience." Graphic by Hyura Choi.

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