Fraternity experiences unsatisfactory
by Randy Johnson, Reporter

    The hazing practices of fraternities have been going on for years, but the general public may not know what actually goes on behind closed doors.

    Most people have probably heard the rumors about Hell Week, the last segment of pledgeship before initiation.

    Hell Week puts the pledge through a torturous week of pain and stress to see if he has what it takes to become a part of that particular fraternity.

    I pledged Phi Delt at the University of North Texas in spring 1999. Over the course of the semester, I was told that Phi Delt did not haze, but time and time again, these promises turned out to be false.

    I was subjected to line-ups, constant screaming in my face, eggs cracked over my head and threats of violence, but nothing could have prepared me for my final three days of pledgeship.

    Through the semester, our pledge class lost over 10 members, and when our Hell Week finally rolled around, membership had dwindled down to just two: my friend Brian and me.

    We were given a list the week before of items we needed to buy for Hell Week.

    Thinking nothing of it, we went out and purchased the following: one case of beer in bottles, a box of tacks and fishhooks, one carton of cigarettes, Gold Bond powder, two jars of salsa, three cartons of eggs and two pairs of women’s panties.

    We showed up at the house on Thursday night after finals with the items we had bought earlier that day. We went to the back door as we were told and knocked once. The door opened, and we were greeted by the entire Phi Delt chapter.

    During the next three days, we cleaned the fraternity house from top to bottom. We were locked in a broom closet for hours on end. We were not allowed to eat or sleep the entire time we were there. As if that were not enough, we were forced to wear women’s underwear and plastic trash bags.

    During the day, we usually cleaned the house, but when night came, we were brought out of the closet and lined up.

    We were yelled at and degraded. These moments were especially scary to me because it was usually around 3 a.m., and all the guys had just returned from the bars.

    The first two nights they cracked eggs over our heads, but on night three, the actives decided to hurl beer bottles at the top of the wall above us and let the shattered glass fall on us.

    At the end of the night the t-shirt I was wearing was soaked in blood. But by that point, I could not have cared less.

    I had not eaten in three days; I was being held captive in a closet; I was wearing women’s underwear, and I smelled like a rancid dumpster.

    The hate I felt for these guys was growing at a rapid pace, and all I could think about was getting that pin to spite them.

    In the final stage of the night, I was forced to stand on a stool with a pillowcase over my head. The actives handed me a handful of tacks and fishhooks, then asked me to drop them on the floor below me.

    Needless to say, I did as told without thinking twice.

    Then, they asked me if I wanted to be a Phi Delt badly enough to step off of the stool onto the tacks and fish hooks below me. I told them I did and slowly stepped down from the stool.

To my surprise, however, I did not feel any fishhooks, all that lay below me was a pillow.

    The next day Brian and I were initiated, and my pledgeship was finally over. I spent another year and a half as an active and served as president the last two semesters I was there.

    In the end I realized that all the thoughts I had were not my own, and all the people I surrounded myself with were not my friends. They hung around only because they were members of an elite club that said they had to.

    Fraternity members hold themselves up as if they are kings of society, more on track than anyone else. In reality, they are nothing more than a group of people who have no idea what they really want or need.

    They give false purpose to those who have yet to find their own identity and a state of mind to those too weak to think for themselves.