Bizarre college hazing rituals must be stopped

Indeed, not a single year has passed without disturbing reports of overboard rituals that the incoming class has to endure. The hazing often includes humiliation, violence and sexual harassment. Every time such reports emerge, authorities vow to investigate and punish the culprits. Yet, when the new academic year begins, nothing much changes.
Let’s look at what has been occurring around Thai campuses lately. After the first semester opened last month, new freshmen at the Maha Sarakham University’s College of Music were required to shave their heads. Many first-year business administration students at Phranakhon Rajabhat University had to go topless during some activities prepared by their seniors. Some were captured in a video that also went viral.
That’s not the end of the upsetting stories. Last week, another video revealed management science students at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University performing something very close to sexual acts during initiation.
What are such things for?
What will students gain from such nonsense activities?
When I was a “frosh” more than two decades ago, I also took part in an initiation that dragged on for months. I was tired of the scolding, verbal abuse and irrational orders for me and my friends to run for kilometres under the scorching sun. I even rolled myself along a hot cement floor to try to comprehend the rituals that my seniors said would create a bond.
Such initiation rituals were conducted under the theme of “SOTUS” – S for seniority, O for order, T for tradition, U for unity and S for spirit.
But what have the initiation activities really brought?
One of my friends dropped out from our university. She said she was not physically fit to take part in the arduous regime of initiation and she did not think there was a reason to put up with the humiliation and punishment that seniors was trying to throw at us.
I complained about the initiation to my adviser and soon, after my seniors found out, I was punished for that.
After bearing all the initiation practices, humiliation and punishment, I reckoned that some kind of bond had materialised.
Yet, even with hindsight, I can tell that my friends and I could have bonded through several other forms of activities. There is no point to using violence, irrationality and punishment.
A share of pain, blame and punishment during the hazing might bring first-year students closer, but not for long. The long-lasting ties need something else. Can love blossom through fear? I am afraid it cannot.
So, year after year, I have been waiting to see some improvement in initiations.
In recent years, there has emerged a longer list of ice-breaking and team-building activities that company employees and executives have taken part in to establish bonding, and learn how cooperation is so meaningful in our lives.
So, I really think university students should get more ideas on how to develop relationships properly.
Creativity and green trends have also been promoted in Thailand during the past decade. So constructive initiation activities like tree-planting at Naresuan University should blossom in place of the humiliating and outrageous activities that older students try to impose on freshmen.
Asst Prof Yutthapoom Suwannavej, assistant president of Phranakhon Rajabhat University, is quick to take action against students responsible for improper initiation ceremonies. Chonnanart Meenanant, assistant president of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, does the same thing.
Luedech Kerdwichai, president of Sunandha Rajabhat University, has also tried to downplay the scandal by suggesting that no girls were involved in the erotic hazing videos.
Transvestite students appeared in those videos and all those involved were being punished, he said.
But the key points here are that no matter what sexual preference one has, one should never be subjected to sexual harassment, and that initiation rituals should stop containing sexual acts, humiliation and violence.
Let’s stop the bizarre and barbaric tradition. It’s time all parties encourage students to look at such rituals with responsibility. Those who organise them must do so for a good purpose, not to make fun of or to wield power over younger students. Those who join them must know their rights and protect them.