Too Serious To Ignore

"THE BEST TIME you'll ever have throwing up." That's what Pi Eta President Joseph Ippolito '84 promised at the all-male social club's only punch party before last week's initiation, which sent 10 participants to the hospital for excessive drinking and associated injuries.

That the Pi officers allowed the ritual to get so out of hand is in keeping with the club's reputation and should be carefully considered before the club is allowed to reopen. The incident raises serious questions about the Pi and the secret initiation cermonies of many final clubs.

The intiation itself consisted of about 40 men in their undershorts in the small cement-floored Pi basement being fed shots of whiskey and vodka as well as the notorious beer bong, which shoots a large volume of the hops straight into the indulger's stomach. Initiates never had a chance: the first casualties arrived at University Health Services (UHS) less than two hours after the festivities began. Members dispensing penalty shots for various imagined transgressions quickly got the initiates roaring drunk. Spilled beer and vomit made walking hazardous. One participatant lost his front teeth falling on the slick floor. So many people passed out or were otherwise incapacitated that the initiation's traditional streaking of a nearby women's college was canceled.

The initiation was wrong in spirit and also dangerous. Ippolito and other members' comments that the incident was not serious were irresponsible. One fourth of the initiates visited UHS last Tuesday. Five were forced to stay overnight for observation because, said one doctor, they had drunk enough that they could have died. The judgement of staging such an initiation in the first place is questionable, but the officers were certainly negligent in not sensing the seriousness of the situation and stopping it sooner.

Their additional explanation that this year's initiation got out of hand because of the number of initiates is also unacceptable. If the lure of the Pi is that strong, officers are obliged to have enough people there to keep people from getting hurt. Long time Pi members have wondered why they are being looked at so closely this time. Last week's initiation wasn't that different from other years, they say, adding that any initiates who drank too much or got hit in the mouth during an exuberant pig pile brought it on themselves. While one member went so far as to say, "The idea of the initiation isn't to get everybody drunk," the pressure was certainly there. From Ippolito's promise to the legends of other wild initiations, participants must have showed up at the clubhouse on Mt. Auburn St. expecting to sleep through their first class the next day. When sober members are repeatedly pressing glasses of whiskey or garden hoses of beer for immediate consumption, it must be difficult to decline.

When the Ad Board looks at the Pi initiation today, it must do so in the context of what the club has become. Leaving aside the question of the overall worth of a male social club, the Pi has become a place where heavy drinking and overall crude behavior are admired. Members' comments that last week's incident was only the standard initiation a little bit out of control are evidence of this destructive mindset--one the College should not condone. The annual streak, for instance, is only indicative of the club's grossly unenlightened attitude which officially brands all women who set foot in the building "pigs."

If the Pi is to be allowed to reopen, initiation must be completely overhauled and other club activities must be scrutinized. If it reopens it should be under probation with the University carefully monitoring its activities.

The Ad Board should also not limit its investigation to the club that got caught last week. Rumors of similar events at other finals club initiations abound, and the events of last week make it seem possible that a humiliating initiation could soon become a tragedy. The worst thing the Ad Board could do would be to treat the Pi as an isolated group or simply make an example of it; at the next initiation at any club, anyone drinking too much would be in double jeopardy. For the sake of tradition, that club's officers couldn't afford to take him to UHS. The possibility of an inebriated or injured person in need of medical attention being left in an alumni chair because the club couldn't risk the publicity is not one the University can allow. The Ad Board should take a long hard look at the Pi and the system within which it operates, and set a firm policy before it is too late.