By Brittney Le

AsAmNews Intern

It’s something that usually goes under the radar – college students are told by those who haze them not to talk about it. But what’s hazing, and what’s the damage to the student? What does hazing mean for Asian Americans?

Hazing involves forcing students who are trying to join organizations into doing embarrassing, strenuous, and/or dangerous activities. It can result in serious injury, mental health reverberations, and even fatality in some cases.

Lianne Kowiak is a speaker for HazingPrevention.Org, an organization started in 2007 dedicated to empowering people to prevent hazing. She goes to college campuses to share the story of her son’s tragic death as a result of hazing in college. AsAmNews interviewed Kowiak, in light of the recent fatal tragedy that has received national attention involving a Penn State student and the fraternity he was pledging.

“If I can touch one or ten or one hundred people when I speak at their event and share Harrison’s story, it is time well spent so another family, parent, or mother does not endure the pain me and my family have suffered,” Kowiak told AsAmNews. “It takes many individuals/groups such as universities and parents and national and local fraternity and sorority chapters to work cross functionally. Being on the board of HazingPrevention.Org has enabled me to network and dive deeper into finding solutions with experienced professionals who have a common interest in raising awareness about hazing prevention and ultimately to stop hazing.”

Kowiak’s son Harrison died following a hazing incident in 2008 at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, where the young man had received an academic and golf scholarship. Harrison Kowiak and another pledge were driven out to a field where they were to retrieve socks as part of a mission. However, along the way, the two were shoved and tackled by fraternity members, to the point where Kowiak could no longer stand. The fraternity brothers did not immediately call 911 – Kowiak passed away from blunt trauma to the head.

While Lianne Kowiak knows that she can’t turn back time, she works tirelessly to help prevent what happened to her son from happening again by sharing the details of Harrison’s demise. She has managed to influence many college students, recounting how she is often approached after speaking by those who acknowledge and take to heart her important words, many of them fraternity members who reassure her that they will never let anything similar happen at their fraternities.

Hazing has not received the attention it so desperately needs, as many college students are forced into dangerous situations, without consequences on the end of the perpetrators; however, people are finally starting to take a second glance after the Penn State incident. Penn State sophomore Timothy Piazza passed away after falling while intoxicated, as a result of a hazing ritual involving forced alcohol consumption, by Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Some of the fraternity members are now facing criminal charges, including involuntary manslaughter and hazing. Already in 2017, Loyola University, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Arizona have suspended fraternities after hazing allegations.

“We encourage criminal charges,” Judson Horras, president and CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, said in response to the Penn State incident. “We think the state laws on hazing need to and should be enforced fully to combat hazing.” He believes there needs to be a change in campus culture involving alcohol, and that fraternities ought to be leading that change.

Kowiak asked some important questions that these institutions of higher education and the Greek system need to be answering: “Do the national headquarters and university know what is going on behind ‘closed doors’? What is drawing students to join a fraternity or sorority? Should a student not be able to join a fraternity or sorority until sophomore or junior year? Should alcohol be banned at universities?” she questioned. “I am not the hazing or higher education expert. I am a mother who lost her son to a senseless act. I did not see my son graduate from college, get his first job, marry, have children…all the life moments we want for our children. It’s time to do the right thing and take action and hold people accountable for their actions or lack of action when hazing occurs.”

Several fraternities and sororities have also been involved in recent incidents of racism, belittling people of color and/or their cultures. At a 2015 party at UCLA thrown by Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority, white students at the “Kanye Western”-themed party were accused of appropriating from black culture, playing on stereotypes through their costumes. Many media outlets claimed the students were even wearing blackface, but the fraternity insisted that wasn’t the case. It didn’t change the fact that many of the attendees showed up in gold chains, padded bottoms, and wore other offensive attire.

In 2015, members of University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were caught on video chanting to a song, with lyrics “There will never be a ni**** at SAE,” followed by “You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me,” as a reference to lynching.

“This is unacceptable. Whether it is the LGBT, women, disabled, or obese groups of people for example, no one should be singled out and targeted,” Kowiak answered, when asked about the targeting of people of color used by some fraternities. “There is no hierarchy and no one is better than someone else.”

Asian American cultural fraternities and sororities especially suffer from hazing. As these organizations are not policed by the same large national councils like other Greek fraternities and sororities are, hazing is even more likely to occur, sometimes to an even harsher extent.

Chun Hsien Deng passed away in 2013 while pledging at the Asian American fraternity Pi Delta Psi at Baruch College. Authorities said he was knocked out after being blindfolded, forced to wear a sand-filled backpack and tackled by other fraternity members as he tried to cross a frozen yard in an activity called “running the gauntlet,” the same type of activity that resulted in Harrison Kowiak’s death. The run was to signify the “glass ceiling,” representing the plight of Asian Americans.

Deng fell unconscious and the fraternity brothers delayed seeking medical aid. Four Asian American men, members of Pi Delta Psi, who had been charged with murder pleaded guilty to reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter and hindering apprehension.

Kowiak believes part of the issue is a matter of accountability, which is clearly lacking in the system. “The local chapter is not self-policing and the national fraternity isn’t policing the local chapter and the university needs to police them more,” she told AsAmNews. “ALL fraternities and sororities need to be held accountable for their actions. No one should turn a blind eye. Hazing is not fun and games and pranks. Each chapter needs to have checks and balances in place.”

“For example, alumni from the fraternity or sorority need to be present at all social events and document where the event will be held,” Kowiak explained. “Communication is paramount from the local chapter to the national headquarters and the University. The university also needs to communicate with the parents and the parents need to communicate to their son or daughter.”

The Kowiak family started the Harrison Kowiak Scholarship in honor of their son; instead of charging a speaker’s fee, Kowiak instead requests donations be made to this scholarship. “This is the first year my family is awarding two recipients to receive the Harrison Kowiak Scholarship,” she said. “They will focus their graduate work on hazing prevention. I will not profit off of my son’s death and ask for a speaker’s fee when I speak at the university or event on behalf of the athletic or fraternity or sorority group. Any donation they wish to give goes towards the scholarship and this is key to paying it forward in our efforts to fight and stop hazing NOW.” The scholarship will pay to fund two attendees for the 2017 Novak Institute for Hazing Prevention to help them continue to implement hazing prevention at the universities where they work. Learn more about the Harrison Kowiak Scholarship, its recipients for 2017, and/or donate to the scholarship here.

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