6. Hot and cold
At Binghamton University in 2012, sorority pledges told the school they were forced to take freezing cold showers together while reciting the Greek alphabet and being fed vomit-inducing pills by their sisters. To counteract that, they were then made to hold hot hookah coals in their hands. The school shut down the Greek system after these allegations, only to reinstate it later after a new set of guidelines had been enforced.
5. Water torture
If you thought water was the key to life and can therefore do no harm, think again. Chi Tau fraternity pledges from California State University, Chico were forced to drink 5 gallons of water while simultaneously being drenched in ice water and having fans blow cold air on them. They were also forced to do strenuous exercise and not allowed to use the bathroom. One pledge eventually passed out from hypothermia and later died from swelling of the brain caused by water intoxication. Water intoxication — by far the most horribly ironic way to die in college.
4. Gross with a capital “G”
Dartmouth again! Wow, I’m really glad I didn’t even think about attending this college. Frat pledges in 2012 had to swim in a kiddie pool filled with human feces, semen and rotten food. If that wasn’t enough, they then were made to eat vomit omelets, chug vinegar and drink beer that had been poured through the butt cheeks of other pledges (creative). I also know from an anonymous source that they had to drink from a chalice filled with an unknown mix of alcohol, rotten food and condiments. When one pledge puked, they had to puke into the chalice and keep passing it on. It’s funny to think that some of these guys are probably doctors now.
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3. One sip from death
Another Dartmouth winner, this time in the sorority column. This one’s so bad it should be told in the victim’s own words. A 2009 Dartmouth grad wrote this account of her Kappa Kappa Gamma hazing for Huffington Post:
“We were guided into the back seat of a car and one of our future sisters commanded us to chug the alcoholic punch that had been pre-prepared for each of us in individual 64-ounce water bottles. Simultaneously, I was handed numerous vodka shots from the older sister sitting in the front seat.
“After what couldn’t have been more than a fifteen-minute drive, I was told to get out of the car. I did — but then I lost all consciousness…I woke up the following morning in the Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
I had bruises and cuts all over my body, two of my teeth were broken and I was intubated and restrained. The doctor informed me that I had entered the hospital with a .399 blood alcohol content. I soon learned that a .4 BAC is coma and death. I was literally one sip of alcohol away from dying.”
2. The toxic brew
One of the most recent and equally horrifying hazing cases made headlines in 2016 because it sounds like something right out of a movie. In February 2016, Bradley Doyley, a 21-year-old Buffalo State College student, died after being rushed to Buffalo General Medical Center when he “fell ill.” As the story came out little by little, authorities learned that Doyley was made to drink a “toxic brew” while pledging to the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, rumored to be detergent or even sewer water. “If these allegations are true, I feel strongly that these kids should stand trial. They took away a life,” Michael Myers, Doyley’s high school basketball coach, said.
1. An old classic
Sometimes the simplest thing is the most horrible. In 1959 at the University of Southern California, the brothers of Kappa Sigma forced their pledges to swallow pieces of liver the size of club sandwiches without chewing. One pledge named Richard Swanson choked and died two hours later.
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