[cowsie]

Well, this topic might go towards to Current Events thread but it's not current anymore since this was since 2005 and it's about college student life. I was just wondering what your viewpoints are after watching this video. I was just speechless after watching this.




Click here to watch a 30 minute video on the story on Jack.
http://www.stophazing.org/nuwer/july08column.htm

Deep in the Heart of Pain: Dan O'Rourke's The Pledge

By Hank Nuwer


A new tradition of fighting hazing through documentary making has emerged again.

Phanta (Jack) PhoummarathThe trend started with "Unless a Death Occurs," a Public Television project out of Plattsburgh, New York, in which fraternity members involved in the water torture death of pledge Walter Dean Jennings agreed to go on film in exchange for reduced or no jail time.

Then there was Hazed, the in-production documentary sponsored by the Gordie Foundation, whose release is said to be imminent in 2008.

Now, in this column, the family of deceased pledge Phanta (Jack) Phoummarath has taken public video documents from Jack's Lambda Phi Epsilon deadly initiation and commissioned filmmaker Dan O'Rourke to tell the story in the accompanying video The Pledge. It I every bit as powerful and educational as "Unless a Death Occurs."

Hard hitting and sad, the film leaves the viewer with a sense of the waste of an incredible human being, but it also leaves no doubt that Phoummarath's faith in the brothers of Lambda Phi Epsilon was horrifically misplaced.

The message is clear. A pattern of heavy drinking in alcohol initiations can and will kill you.

Here is the link to the video. A special thanks to filmmaker O'Rourke for permission to use.

Purpose of the video is to expose the awareness of alcohol on college students. I was wondering if anyone ever experience their alcohol limit in college life. I know peer pressure also plays a role on this but i'm just asking for like opinions and stuff.

[binjoo]

That's really sad and unfortunate. Aside from hazing, I know lots of people who end up consuming alcohol to fit in with groups. They start doing it because everyone else is, and then once they see how alcohol makes everything seem more fun and everyone nicer, they keep doing it for the "good" atmosphere.

I've never experience anything near that, but I did have a roommate who got alcohol poisoning twice. She's lucky that she didn't die the first, or second, time.

[lovejoo]

It's their choice to drink or do whatever people make them do or not.
They have a right to say "no, I don't want to do it."

[THEmerryJANE]

It's not an uncommon pledge. I've heard of more sick things than that in order to get into a fraternity.

[your4everB]

Yea the fraternity's kinda to blame but not entirely. But I hate how these stuff gets blown out of proportion. Seriously a lot more messed up stuff happens in other processes. I hate how media always portrays the bad as worse but they never show how greeks really help out the community. Plus those guys became brothers by that day. he had rights to say no

[xbomi]

this gives lamda's a bad name.
i actually know some- but members of a different branch.
but, there are other frats that have done worse.

[knickstorm]

that same frat.....i work here in bing, they had drunk driving incident, coming back from cornell university i think last year.......and a brother died.

[your4everB]

i'm sorry but I totally despise the word frat. (seeing it has come up twice already) It's a stereotype of what the media portrays Greek life as. I did the same before I went to college, not knowing the difference. But as a part of Greek life now, I find it a huge disrespect as to what each fraternity or sorority stands for.

As for certain incidents, I don't feel that it's right to blame the fraternity for it's actions. The fault falls to the individuals. They have their own code to live by as we have rules and laws. But in the end, it's a bunch of words that keeps an individual in line. Just because certain people stand to do things on their own that leads to unforeseen circumstances, doesn't mean that it was the fraternity's fault. I'm sure they don't purposely tell their actives nationwide to drive drunk or cause neophytes to receive alcohol poisoning. It's just an unfortunate event led on by negligence of certain individuals. Yes, Binghamton had a Lambda die from drunk driving. But do you know how many Lambdas are on dean's list? Why is it that everyone merit bad things that happen circumstantially but no one thinks about the positive effects of fraternity life? People have grown from being a shy kid back home, to being an active voice on their campus, and maybe even a future leader of our world.

As a Pi, separating any personal differences I have with any Lambda, I believe that we, any Asian-interest fraternity or sorority, have a common goal of creating a better community and future for Asians. And although each group have their own belief in how to achieve this, I firmly stand by the point that any outsider influenced by the media's common view of what we stand for needs to be educated in how we are trying to make life better, and not intentionally causing harm to people that believe in us.

[flyaway]

yeah I've heard about this before. it's pretty ridiculous.
i've been to lambda installs here and even before i heard about this i cringed when the new class had to finish the bottles of alcohol given to them because it's "the tradition." seriously i was close to puking just watching them and i felt really anxious just by watching.
i wish people would learn from this...sigh

[sweetddalki]

I heard about this a long time ago. It's really sad that organizations don't follow the law and stick to activities that aren't hazing. I know plenty of Lambdas and their pledge process is pretty ridiculous but they haven't gotten caught on my campus. I feel sorry for the pledges and this is an example as to why, all they want it the brotherhood but there's so much more they're not bargaining for. The alcohol abuse doesn't stop just at pledging... it becomes a lifestyle for them... enough said.

[your4everB]

I feel sorry for the pledges and this is an example as to why, all they want it the brotherhood but there's so much more they're not bargaining for. The alcohol abuse doesn't stop just at pledging... it becomes a lifestyle for them... enough said.

Not everyone pledges because of brotherhood. There are people that are in it for the party,having the recognition, because all their friends are doing it. Processes are meant to be difficult to weed out the weak. It's not a club you can just come and goal. You have to put your blood sweat and tears into. There's also good times and bonds that are formed. It makes you grow and be stronger than what you started out as. When you cross, you look back at pledging and laugh, at least everyone i've known so far done that.

Second, alcohol abuse isn't a lifestyle because they are in a fraternity. That's their own choice. I know some bros that don't drink, and no one will force or think any less of them. It's not something the fraternity forces on you. It's either you want to or not. In the end the choice still falls on you

[sweetddalki]

Not everyone pledges because of brotherhood. There are people that are in it for the party,having the recognition, because all their friends are doing it. Processes are meant to be difficult to weed out the weak. It's not a club you can just come and goal. You have to put your blood sweat and tears into. There's also good times and bonds that are formed. It makes you grow and be stronger than what you started out as. When you cross, you look back at pledging and laugh, at least everyone i've known so far done that.

Second, alcohol abuse isn't a lifestyle because they are in a fraternity. That's their own choice. I know some bros that don't drink, and no one will force or think any less of them. It's not something the fraternity forces on you. It's either you want to or not. In the end the choice still falls on you

I never said EVERY fraternity and I never said ALL pledges. I feel sorry for the ones I know or have known PERSONALLY. The ones I've known just wanted the brotherhood and a good alumni base for after graduation.

[-Rose-]

I was actually a student at that campus when it happened. It was definitely a hard hit on the morale of all the students there, Greek or not. I personally was never involved in any part of Greek life, but I had friends who were. I always thought that the media might have placed too much blame on the actual frat. From what I heard, the alcohol overdose happened at his "crossing" party, basically meaning that they were basically apst the point of hazing him to initiate him into the frat. Of course there was pressure on him to drink a lot at that party, but at the same time he could've been more responsible and said "no". =/ I'm not condoning underage drinking or anything-it's wrong, and the frat should take some responsibility for it. But at the same time he wasn't completely innocent-he volunteered to join the frat, and he could have not drank so much that night.

[she-smiles]

the things you would do to get into a fraternity....