One year ago this week Penn State sophomore Tim Piazza died at a Beta Theta Pi frat party he downed 18 drinks in 82 minutes as part of a brutal hazing ritual at some point Piazza fell down a flight of stairs and his frat brothers eventually picked him up and put him on
A couch what they didn’t do was call for help until nearly 12 hours later piazzas death led to a scathing grand jury report involuntary manslaughter charges which were eventually dropped in new anti-hazing policies at Penn State but spring rush is now back underway for the first time since piazzas death during
Rush at Penn State would be frat boys really do rush from house to house to get pitched on what each fraternity has to offer what draws you to it the Brotherhood I think I mean there’s always gonna be one yeah there’s always hated parties but I’ve had care more
About the connections in the Brotherhood frats may seem outmoded in the era of snapchat and legal wheat but participation is actually gone up at Penn State over the past 10 years in 2007 2218 students were in fraternities in 2017 there were three thousand two hundred and twenty that said I have an
Undergrad student body of 46,000 why are you Russian I’m looking to meet some of my best friends for the future I know one of the things another kid that gave us a tour on another zone day mentioned was that a bunch of the kids in the house we’re gonna be kids that he’s
Gonna see again on his wedding day and I thought that was something that’s really cool Tim Piazza Steph has rattled fraternities which now has to deal with more oversight from the University and tougher rules including attend a moratorium on partying while fracture recruiting but the tragedy hasn’t diminished
Students desire to pledge during spring rush in 2017 that’s when Piazza died 652 students register to check out a fraternity or sorority during this spring rush 783 students register you got the armband or wristbands let me see him so how does this process work how do you get these
Better like fill out an application online go through a whole course then you take a quiz and then you go and get wristband what’s it what’s in it what’s it like it talks about what you’re going to be doing throughout the entire rush process all the dates and lays out
Pretty much everything for you and make sure you understand talks about hazing what to do if there is hazing how to report it and all everything like that what does it say about hazing it says that you should report any hazing to the IFC immediately the school says quote
Hazing that involves alcohol physical abuse or any behavior that puts a student’s mental or physical health at risk will result in swift permanent revocation of the University recognition for the chapter involved it’s a new zero-tolerance policy do you like you have a good handle on what it is that you’re gonna be required
To do if you decide to go forward yes and all that to keep you comfortable with all of it I understand feel same way um I don’t know if I agree with that what’s up so much because there is things that I’m not comfortable doing and there’s things there’s houses that
I’ve heard do more hazing and I haven’t been going to the houses because I don’t want to do the intense hazing I don’t think it’s worth it I want to find a group of guys that doesn’t force you to do it like what’s the thing you wouldn’t do like excessive drinking anything
That’s gonna put myself in danger pretty much if I was a pledge I wouldn’t show up it’s like hailing outside and then like sixty-five people children junior Nick Lanham is the president of a frat at Penn State if you wanted to talk to him we weren’t allowed to say which one
Tell me what it was like for you when you rushed a friend I went by the house and there was a bunch guys and I talked to them hung out with them and I thought they were really cool if you do any stupid um I think I had to take a
Sumba class it made me take him Zumba class and I wore this bright pink headband and I went in I did all the exercises and the moves it was all just kind of stuff that was to make you kind of look silly but it was all just to
Make you closer to those people and none of it was per se to hurt you unlike perhaps some places did you hear these stories in the news all the time of like you know people swallowing goldfish and people having to crawl on their hands and knees through broken glass there’s
So many fraternities that they just do stuff that I’m like why would you those aren’t your friends why would you do that kind of stuff those aren’t just stories those things did happen at Penn State that’s according to a grand jury investigation opened after the death of
Tim Piazza you’d be happy if you just got stuck eating a goldfish one France initiation included something called the pot where a cup filled with hot sauce catnip cat food urine semen shampoo conditioner alcohol and bread chunks was passed around among pledges they had to drink it what job is the fraternity have
To make sure that people know that’s not gonna happen to them they’re the ones that our behind the veil the university can write as many policies and stuff as they wants and their assumption is that the people within that paternity are gonna follow those rules but really at the end
Of the day it’s the responsibility of the people in that room to make the right decision there’s a strange culture of secrecy around all this stuff go around the back Penn State is eager to say it’s changed but it also requires you to just take their word for it the school won’t put
Officials on camera to talk about frat policy brothers meanwhile are forbidden by their national chapters to talk on camera about their frats hi yo I’m with Vice news we’re doing a story about frat life at Penn State somebody can do okay it feels like everyone is protecting everyone else from scrutiny frat say
They’re different after Piazza here’s gonna have to trust them You
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