University of Virginia Library

During the past week some
dozen students in my English 5 and
10 classes have informed me that
they have been unable to attend
classes or complete assignments
because they were participating in
their fraternity's Hell Week. This
disturbs me for two reasons: first, it
seems unnecessary inconvenience
to the faculty to expect it to
modify its curriculum to accommodate
fraternity hazing. Second, this
series of incidents directly gives the
lie to the recent sanctimonious
announcements that U.Va. fraternities
do not permit Hell Weeks and
excessive hazing. The hypocrisy in
the situation is patent, and galling.

This is not the complaint of an
anti fraternity radical. I was a
member of a fraternity when I was
an undergraduate, and I went
through what these men are going
through not. There were two
differences: first, I knew better
than to expect to be excused from
class work because of the hazing
nonsense; second, no one pretended
that there were no Hell Weeks.

It seems to me that your
practices are badly out of line with
your stated policy. Which do you
propose to change?

James B. Carothers

— ed.