Each year the Greek organizations on campus come together to observe Hazing Prevention Week. The goal of this annual event is to raise awareness of the dangers of hazing, as well as promote a safe Greek environment.

According to HazingPrevention.org, hazing is “any action taken or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and/or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not.” 

Many injuries and deaths have occurred because of hazing. Creighton takes a strict stance against hazing on campus, implementing a Zero Tolerance Policy. The state of Nebraska has also recognized these acts as serious crimes, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000.

The Intrafraternity Council and PanHellenic Council, in collaboration with the Greek Standards Board, funded and planned the events for the week. Nursing junior Elisabeth Dupont and Arts & Sciences sophomore John Luebbe are the executive members of the Greek Standards Board and led a team of Greek men and women in organizing and executing Hazing Prevention Week.

This year’s theme is “Hazing is Not a Game.” Ironically, many fun games were played throughout the week, Luebbe said. The events began Tuesday night with a short movie titled “Enough is Enough,” which documented the negative effects and dangers of hazing. 

Tonight there will be a game night in the Harper Center to underscore this year’s theme. Each Greek chapter on campus signs up a team and participates in a Family Feud game that creates friendly competition among the different organizations. The winning team gets to take home a basket of Creighton apparel and a box of doughnuts. There are treats for the losers and bystanders as well, Luebbe said, as they will be serving pizza and drinks and handing out raffle tickets for gift cards, coupons to local favorite restaurants and discounts to the bookstore.

There is also a prize for the chapter that has the highest attendance throughout the week — a cookie cake to share with the entire chapter. Dupont said that having many prizes offers an incentive for Greek men and women to come out to the events, be active participants and show support for an important cause. 

“We are also going to give a prize to the person who tags our twitter

@GSB_CreightonU and uses the hashtag #jaysdonthaze and gives us fun, creative photos telling us why they don’t haze their members,” Dupont said.

Luebbe, Dupont and the rest of the Greek Standards Board want to stress that Greek life is a special, positive aspect of college life. 

“It is hard to have a positive and meaningful influence on our surroundings if we are internally demeaning and humiliating members of our own,”

Dupont said. 

Luebbe added that it only takes one instance of hazing to destroy Greek life for everyone else on campus. 

“The reputation of every Greek life community can be tainted by only one chapter’s decision to haze its members,” Luebbe said. 

Dupont and Luebbe also want to extinguish a common misconception: that Hazing Prevention Week is only for members of Greek organizations. That is simply not true, they say, as hazing has also appeared in many other communities such as sports teams, social groups and even musical bands. Therefore the Greek Standards Board encourages all students — not just Greeks — to come to the events and learn about the importance of this subject.

“It is important for the Greek community to set a good example,”

Dupont said.

She added that the actions performed in hazing practices contradict the Jesuit values, which the university hopes would apply to everyone at Creighton, not just Greeks.

“When hazing occurs, these values are not being upheld. All in all, we are not representing Creighton and all it stands for,” Dupont said.

Family Feud Night will be held tonight in Harper 3023 at 6 p.m. The Greek Standards Board encourages all students to attend, participate in the fun and enjoy snacks with their peers.