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College fraternities may be rooted as part of college culture and part of the college experience to many. However, fraternities have been in the news for incidents regarding racism and sexual violence.

Now, the most recent incident has occurred at Cal State Northridge. The school has shut down all pledge activity after one of the fraternities, Pi Kappa Alpha, is being investigated for a possible hazing incident. This comes months after a CSUN student, Armando Villa, died after dehydration on a mandatory hike for the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

In a letter sent to all sorority presidents by the vice president of student affairs, William Watkins, it states that, “all pledge activities immediately cease and desist. All pledging must immediately stop for all fraternities and sororities.”

Now, fraternities are a part of the college culture and should continue to move on. But these hazing activities must be put to a stop. Is it necessary for someone attending a university, trying to get a degree and make something with their life, to have to lose their life just to join some kind of club?

Sexual assaults have also plagued fraternities. In an article by Jessica Valenti from The Guardian, she states, “numerous studies have found that men who join fraternities are three times more likely to rape, that women in sororities are 74 percent more likely to experience rape than other college women, and that one on five women will be sexually assaulted in four years away at school.”

Why should women have to deal with sexual predators just to become a pledge?

Sororities should not be banned entirely, but the activities pledges have to commit should. It doesn’t make sense for innocent people to lose their lives, or to be a victim of something that will scar them for the rest of their lives. Many schools have zero tolerance on hazing and don’t allow it at all. But more must be done, obviously.

 

 

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