Despite public outcry over recurring hazing incidents, a new study suggests the practice of humiliating rookies in the name of tradition and team-building is still prevalent among Atlantic Canada university sports teams.
University of New Brunswick grad student Ryan Hamilton interviewed more than 300 students in seven universities over the last four years for his research on hazing.
He found nearly all athletes had been involved in hazing either as a victim or an instigator, and alcohol was involved in 65 per cent of the cases.
The report hits close to home for Carleton, who in the fall of 2010 had to suspend the Ravens women’s soccer team for two games because of a hazing incident.
The initiation involved heavy drinking and resulted in a first-year student being sent to the hospital.
Ebony Griffin, a third-year journalism student who used to play on the Carleton women’s soccer team, was one of the rookies present at the party and a victim of the hazing. She said in a Facebook message hazing does the exact opposite of making the rookies feel like a part of the team. Instead, it creates hierarchies and relationships based on distrust.
“It only [creates] a childish group of girls focused on drama and gossip rather than the sport,” she said.
The women’s incident grabbed media attention across Canada, putting hazing on the hot seat of athletic departments in hundreds of universities. However, knowing the consequences isn’t stopping athletes in Atlantic Canada and presumably a few in Ontario.
“We need to do a better job of educating our athletes on what hazing is and why it is inappropriate,” said Carleton’s director of recreation and athletics Jennifer Brenning.
Athletes in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) must take a mandatory online anti-doping course, and Brenning said there should be a similar educational program for hazing that outlines what it is, why it’s inappropriate, and what the consequences are.
Third-year women’s soccer player Diane Jodoin, who was one of the players involved in last year’s hazing incident, said she agrees with Brenning.
“Now I understand what was so wrong with it,” Jodoin said. “I realize you can’t treat a human being like that but before I didn’t really think what we were doing was hazing.”
Unfortunately, tradition is the excuse of most hazing incidents. If an older player has had it happen to them with no consequences, then they don’t see the problem with putting the rookies through the exact same thing.
“If it’s happened to someone else, [then] it’s the trickle-down affect,” said Ravens men’s hockey assistant coach Shaun Van Allen.
Van Allen played in the NHL for 12 years and said he never experienced any hazing. Instead, new players were introduced in a comfortable and fun team dinner.
“The first-year guys would take the veterans out for a meal and the guys wouldn’t take advantage of it,” Van Allen said. “It’s a team bonding thing where everyone comes together and has a good time.”
Brenning, Jodoin and Van Allen all agree the only way to stop hazing is to educate athletes on the subject and find an appropriate manner of team bonding where the rookies feel accepted as a part of the team.