FAMU gave a delayed response to eliminating hazing. Especially with the upcoming “Hazing Prevention Week 2012- Rattlers Strike Out Hazing.”

The Famuan

Gina Cherelus

Ciara Cassell, 18, a first year nursing student, does not know how FAMU can stop a deeply rooted culture.

“I think it will be a good effort but I don’t think it will stop because it seems as though it is a tradition,” Cassell said.

Last February, Cornell University faced a similar hazing occurrence. George Desdunes, a 19-year-old biology student, died from alcohol poisoning during a hazing ritual.

Cornell immediately withdrew its recognition of the fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, for no less than five years and demanded the chapter house be vacated three weeks later.

It was not until May 2012 that former FAMU President James Ammons suspended the Marching 100 officially for a year.

Students needed this sooner. Because the university is just now having an “Anti-Hazing Week”, it seems that the matter isn’t taken seriously.

Hoping that the “evil hazing monster” will go away or sitting in seminars is not an active enough approach. That monster is embedded in the history of this university.  We fuel it each time we engage in the act of hazing.

Jeremy Latimore, 22, a philosophy and religion student from Chicago, Ill. feels that hazing depends on the individual.

 “If someone wants to haze, they will haze regardless how often FAMU takes two hours out of our day to lecture about it,” Latimore said. “There is no way to stop it unless you remove our God given right of free will.”

A piece of paper forcing the signee to “pledge” against hazing is not preventative. It is not stopping students from participating in threatening or severe punishment.

Signing these pledges makes denying responsibility OK for FAMU when a band member dies during hazing. What they failed to understand is that hazing is more than just an agreement.

I also understand that students are tired of reading about hazing.

We should not leave this problem solely in the hands of the university administration. It starts and ends with us.

Gina Cherelus is multimedia editor of The Famuan, the Florida A&M University student newspaper.