Every year there are rookie initiations that happen to sports teams and some of them are in good spirits and funny such as going out in public with dresses on but sometimes these initiations onto a varsity team go too far. When the Carleton University women’s varsity soccer team was suspended for two games due to an alcohol induced hazing incident the university was strict and fair with its punishment.
Rookie parties should be about celebrating the new team mates and team bonding. It is not about initiation through humiliation due to peer pressure. It is embarrassing to Carleton to have a varsity team acting irresponsibly. It appears that the team member was peer pressured into binge drinking.
History has shown us that this can be lethal. For example in 1990, at Western Illinois University a rookie of the varsity lacrosse team died in a dormitory after being carried back to the residences following a drinking initiation in a wooded area near the campus.
Good on the University for taking a zero tolerance approach for this irresponsible activity. Beyond being dangerous and morally irresponsible, this type of behaviours goes against the clear outlined academic code that all players have to read and sign to be able to represent Carleton in varsity and competitive teams. It is terrible for the players who now have to carry this burden with them after university.
These varsity players are idolized and are respected by every other student in the university and when they behave in a way such as the varsity women’s soccer team then why bother caring about varsity sports. Carleton’s reputation has been tarnished enough over the past few years and this does not help it.
These people are supposed to be stand out representatives from our university when they play other teams across the country, but now they have a cloud over their heads and the storm does not look like it will pass anytime soon.