Editorial: Increased fines won’t stop hazing tradition

Despite how much proponents of recently passed hazing
legislation may pat themselves on the back this election season,
Matt’s Law is not going to do anything about hazing at
American colleges ““ except make it possible for victims and
their families to sue for more money than before.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1454 on Friday, a
California measure that officially puts hazing in the state’s
penal code as a felony and allows nonstudents and organizations,
such as fraternity chapters, to be sued, rather than only
individuals.

The measure, known as “Matt’s Law,” bears the
name of Matt Carrington, a student at California State University,
Chico who died in February 2005 of heart failure from water
intoxication as the result of hazing at a fraternity
initiation.

Carrington’s death is a tragedy, and no university or any
other institution should condone the humiliation and abuse that
constitute hazing.

In a written statement, Schwarzenegger said that “harsher
penalties for hazing will protect students and help deter the
senseless acts that have led to far too many injuries and deaths on
our campuses.”

While hazing is a serious problem in the Greek system and among
athletic teams on many college campuses, passing emotionally
charged legislation and focusing on punishment rather than
prevention is not going to turn higher education around.

Criminal research has shown time and time again that the threat
of bigger and better punishment simply does not work as a
deterrent, but that is all California has come up with to try to
stop hazing.

Allowing victims and their families to sue organizations that
“condoned” hazing rather than just the individuals who
perpetrated it will probably allow for heftier settlements in civil
cases.

But when a college student is thinking about whether it’s
a good idea to hose down the pledges with ice water, the finances
of a student group are probably not what’s on his mind.

There are plenty of restrictions against hazing at the
university level, which have mostly just pushed the activity under
the radar. To those who feel the threat of university sanctions,
such as expulsion, was not enough of a deterrent, making hazing a
felony is not exactly likely to dissuade them either.

Last year had several high-profile hazing scandals in college
sports. Members of Duke’s lacrosse team were accused of
raping an exotic dancer during a team party. Photos of
Northwestern’s women’s soccer team members hazing
freshmen made their way onto the Internet.

People know the consequences of their actions. You never hear
the perpetrators in hazing scandals claiming they didn’t know
that binge drinking was dangerous or that they could be charged for
furnishing alcohol to minors. You never hear those who have been
charged claiming they didn’t know they could be suspended for
taking pornographic pictures of freshmen.

Hazers know what they’re getting into. They’ve heard
the horror stories, even seen them firsthand or been victims
themselves. One of the defendants in the Carrington case at Chico
had complained to local authorities about hazing only a year
earlier.

Putting the possibility of a bigger fine on the table
isn’t going to solve anything. Our collegiate hazing problem
goes a lot deeper than that.

Unsigned editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Bruin Editorial Board.