REVEALED – Alpha Delta Phi Hazing at Cornell: Surprise! It’s Awful!

by | March 12, 2010 at 7:45 pm

The bros of “literary fraternity” Alpha Delta Phi (yeah, really…) may not be living up to their noble, stated aims. IvyGate has received an exclusive copy of an email sent to this year’s ADPhi pledges, detailing their hazing lineup. We’ve also gotten our hands on an anonymous report of the night’s disgusting, dehumanizing festivities.

The young pledges were:

  • Forced to chug a slurry of dogfood, tabasco sauce, and sour cream;
  • Run relay races, while blackout drunk, through the great halls of the ADPhi manor–filled with flour, beer, and water–while being pelted with dodgeballs;
  • Jog naked laps outside the house in the below-freezing Ithaca winter;
  • Stand outside in a “lineup” for two hours, with only a shirt, jacket, tie and slacks.

Brotherhood and ritual abuse FTW!

ADPhi bros: we hope you successfully vented all of your testosterone/closeted-homoeroticism/self-esteem-issues/meathead aggression on these defenseless freshmen. We don’t want to see exploding sweatpants in the back-row at lecture.

Defenseless freshmen: Remember when Pike–that other frat at your college–poisoned those other defenseless freshmen? Maybe a warning sign…? The experience sure doesn’t sound like, in the words of the ADPhi website, a

process [that] enhances individual self-respect as well as fostering responsibile concern for others within the chapter

I bet hypocrisy tastes even better mixed with dog-food and sour-cream.

Full ADPhi email (fun fact: from a kid I went to high school with!) after the jump:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Alexander Fieldcamp” <aef78@cornell.edu>
Date: Mar 4, 2010 11:42 AM
Subject: LINEUP TONIGHT
To: <alphadeltaphipledges2010@googlegroups.com>

Its that time again boys, with new rules.

Be at the bottom of Alpha Delta Phi Drive at 9:10 PM tonight, and each of us must have:
-1 pack of cigs
-1 lighter
-gum
-2 quarters
-a helmet and a cup (as in the kind lacrosse and hockey players wear)
-shaving cream
-porn (can be magazine or video… extra points if you find Pirates 2 (can be downloaded and burned))
-Dog food
-either a 6-pack of beer or a bottle of liquor/wine (should be something YOU want to drink)
-Protocol attire, but WEAR SNEAKERS

The pledge class as a whole must have these items:
-1 LARGE bottle of tabasco sauce
-2 cases of beer (NOT keystone)
-2 live small goldfish

Figure this shit out ASAP.  Everyone should probably give Shep money to buy the booze.
Guys should also take the bus to Dick’s to get anything sporting-related

-Fieldcamp

And the debrief:

Okay, so….
I can tell you what alpha delta phi did with everything.
They made their pledges chug mixtures of dogfood, tabasco sauce, and sour cream.
They then proceeded to fill the great halls of their manor with flour, beer, and water, and made their pledges run relay races drunk while they pelted them with dodgeballs.
Then, they made them run naked laps outside the house.
(And, of course, there was the line up).

 
152 Comments | |
 
 Print This Post
 
Read more: , , , , , , , , , ,
← Older Comments
  • Jack

    What kind of man would allow himself to be humiliated by other men like this? If any punk had ever tried to treat me like this, I would have (righteously) beaten him to a fucking pulp. No wonder character is in such short supply among college students these days.

    Here’s another inside look at the homoerotic practices that go on in fraternities: http://tinyurl.com/yjxjbv2

  • dionysis

    Hah…. at Northwestern, there used to be a ritual where pledges were locked in a basement for 48 hours forced to listen to a really loud stereo playing “Built This City” by starship on auto-repeat over and over again while eating only canned beans….

    love these stories…. and no, I was never in a frat… just heard a few confessions from the idiots I drove in a cab to detox the next morning after a bit too much of this….

  • dionysis

    Hah…. at Northwestern, there used to be a ritual where pledges were locked in a basement for 48 hours forced to listen to a really loud stereo playing “Built This City” by starship on auto-repeat over and over again while eating only canned beans….

    love these stories…. and no, I was never in a frat… just heard a few confessions from the idiots I drove in a cab to detox the next morning after a bit too much of this….

  • jimbo24

    Ok so let me get this straight, no one was hurt right, ok, so what is the problem here? The pledges were all there voluntarily and could leave at anytime if they didn’t want to participate in something. Should there be a book club or sing along or something to get in. The whole point of initiation is to make it tough and weed out those who don’t really want to be in or committed to the organization. Its still a free country, if people want to participate in stupid stuff and no one is hurt then they have every to do it and everyone else should just butt out.

  • jimbo24

    Ok so let me get this straight, no one was hurt right, ok, so what is the problem here? The pledges were all there voluntarily and could leave at anytime if they didn’t want to participate in something. Should there be a book club or sing along or something to get in. The whole point of initiation is to make it tough and weed out those who don’t really want to be in or committed to the organization. Its still a free country, if people want to participate in stupid stuff and no one is hurt then they have every to do it and everyone else should just butt out.

  • K Mehari

    I don’t get it. No one forced them to be in a Fraternity. They wanted/ volunteered to do it. If they don’t like what is happening, they can quit. IvyGate sounds like an anti-greek publishing.

  • K Mehari

    I don’t get it. No one forced them to be in a Fraternity. They wanted/ volunteered to do it. If they don’t like what is happening, they can quit. IvyGate sounds like an anti-greek publishing.

  • Big Red ’09

    Really!? This is all quite harmless. I was never in the greek system, but I realize that it was an important part of the Cornell social scene (just as much as other student organizations). Every group had their relevance. IvyGate seems to pass off greek life as if it’s something ignoble. Lighten the f*ck up.

  • Big Red ’09

    Really!? This is all quite harmless. I was never in the greek system, but I realize that it was an important part of the Cornell social scene (just as much as other student organizations). Every group had their relevance. IvyGate seems to pass off greek life as if it’s something ignoble. Lighten the f*ck up.

  • D ’07

    WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF TEH CHILDREN. THE CHILDREN!

  • D ’07

    WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF TEH CHILDREN. THE CHILDREN!

  • Taco Bell

    Taco Bell meat is actually a grade below dog food.

  • Taco Bell

    Taco Bell meat is actually a grade below dog food.

  • george

    At least ADP pledges do not have to run in the Grape Race.

  • george

    At least ADP pledges do not have to run in the Grape Race.

  • sapphire

    I am aghast at some of the comments on here. My cousin went through some of these exact same type of hazing activities — they sound extremely familiar — and he DIED. He was not pledging a fraternity, he was hazed by the college lacrosse team he was trying to join. But the activities listed in the article were very close to what he was put through. And since he rarely drank at all prior to that night, the excess of alcohol left him unconscious. His teammates left him in his dorm room and took off to do more drinking. While they were gone, he died of alcohol poisoning. The idea that “no one gets hurt” is a LIE, pure and simple.

  • sapphire

    I am aghast at some of the comments on here. My cousin went through some of these exact same type of hazing activities — they sound extremely familiar — and he DIED. He was not pledging a fraternity, he was hazed by the college lacrosse team he was trying to join. But the activities listed in the article were very close to what he was put through. And since he rarely drank at all prior to that night, the excess of alcohol left him unconscious. His teammates left him in his dorm room and took off to do more drinking. While they were gone, he died of alcohol poisoning. The idea that “no one gets hurt” is a LIE, pure and simple.

  • sapphire

    … and for anyone who may doubt my story, google “Nick Haben hazing” and you’ll get an eyeful. It was tragic, his death should not have happened, and I’m furious that people don’t take hazing more seriously. He was a wonderful young man who made a wrong choice one night … and paid for it with his life.

  • sapphire

    … and for anyone who may doubt my story, google “Nick Haben hazing” and you’ll get an eyeful. It was tragic, his death should not have happened, and I’m furious that people don’t take hazing more seriously. He was a wonderful young man who made a wrong choice one night … and paid for it with his life.

  • Interested Eyes

    I read the first 10 or so replies to this and then stopped…just wanted to point a few things out and they might have been covered already…I don’t have the time to go through all the replies.

    People, if the need and want is strong enough, will do all kinds of stupid shit to win over their peers in pursuit of being excepted.

    Degrading ones self in ways they normally would not act and doing things they would shake theirs heads at in any other case.
    Most see this as harmless fun and just “Go with it”. Unfortunately for some they take it too far and try to “really impress” those they wish to join and doing it far above the rest. This, tragically, is how over the last few decades students have died or were seriously injured.

    Hazing is all fun and games…

    Till someone dies or gets really fucked up. Being a responsible chapter and caring for the well being of your future active classes should be taken a little more seriously then just getting them naked drunk and eating dog food.

    What kind of men do you want in your house…dudes barfing up dog food naked in the back yard…pass.

    There is a limit to what you should and should not do…try and find the line, you would have to put a little more thought into it than this. It was crossed here (if this is actually true).

    BOG

  • Interested Eyes

    I read the first 10 or so replies to this and then stopped…just wanted to point a few things out and they might have been covered already…I don’t have the time to go through all the replies.

    People, if the need and want is strong enough, will do all kinds of stupid shit to win over their peers in pursuit of being excepted.

    Degrading ones self in ways they normally would not act and doing things they would shake theirs heads at in any other case.
    Most see this as harmless fun and just “Go with it”. Unfortunately for some they take it too far and try to “really impress” those they wish to join and doing it far above the rest. This, tragically, is how over the last few decades students have died or were seriously injured.

    Hazing is all fun and games…

    Till someone dies or gets really fucked up. Being a responsible chapter and caring for the well being of your future active classes should be taken a little more seriously then just getting them naked drunk and eating dog food.

    What kind of men do you want in your house…dudes barfing up dog food naked in the back yard…pass.

    There is a limit to what you should and should not do…try and find the line, you would have to put a little more thought into it than this. It was crossed here (if this is actually true).

    BOG

  • Biff

    very Junior Varsity way to get caught. I would expect an Ivy League student to have more common sense and know better than to issue a directive in writing. The future of corporate!

  • Biff

    very Junior Varsity way to get caught. I would expect an Ivy League student to have more common sense and know better than to issue a directive in writing. The future of corporate!

  • laxfrat

    Nothing about pledging is mandatory. No one is “making” anyone do these things. Every pledge is welcome to quit whenever he wants but in doing so they forfeit the honor and privilege of being able to say they went through hardships and suffered with their pledge brothers just as every single brother before them had. For those of you that feel this is a disgusting and cruel act, you have every right to feel that way but do not impose your rules on an institution that has existed since 1832. The boys that have a problem with the pledge process probably feel a sense of entitlement and think “this is too hard, but I should be be able to be the the frat regardless”. The Alpha Delta Phi fraternity has produced world leaders in politics, industry, religion, academics, and not to mention the military. I myself am an Alpha Delta Phi and am an officer in the military. I took to heart the motto of “Brothers in Arms” and yeah, I had a good time doing some stupid frat stuff and messed with pledges just as brothers messed with me. It was humbling and I learned a lot about myself. So suck it up and get through it, or just quit. The kid that jacked this up ruined everything for the alumni, the current brothers, and his pledge class who was going to endure and eventually be able to call themselves brothers. Now they are a blemish on a proud heritage.

    • manusmultaecorunum

      I agree with you brother. I, too , am a Alpha Delt and these pledging activities are seriously harmless compared to what other fraternities do to their pledges. My chapter, at Florida State doesn’t do things like this but as a chapter founder, these activities, are things college kids do to themselves and their roommates for fun anyways. Don’t inflate mild shenanigans as hazing and “dehumanizing.” This article is bogus and a waste of complaints. We, as a literary society, do, in fact, actually practice what we preach, as a whole. I am proud to be an Alpha Delt. Greek life has many benefits and anyone who doesn’t see that, obviously has focused on just the outlying cases that gives Greek Life a bad name. Oh, and BTW, thank you for your service brother. Xaipe.

    • ADPhi

      I am an Alpha Delt at Michigan, and this is not what our organization stands for. This kind of stuff is inhumane and we are better than this as an organization. It is shameful to think that this sort of behavior is accepted.

  • laxfrat

    Nothing about pledging is mandatory. No one is “making” anyone do these things. Every pledge is welcome to quit whenever he wants but in doing so they forfeit the honor and privilege of being able to say they went through hardships and suffered with their pledge brothers just as every single brother before them had. For those of you that feel this is a disgusting and cruel act, you have every right to feel that way but do not impose your rules on an institution that has existed since 1832. The boys that have a problem with the pledge process probably feel a sense of entitlement and think “this is too hard, but I should be be able to be the the frat regardless”. The Alpha Delta Phi fraternity has produced world leaders in politics, industry, religion, academics, and not to mention the military. I myself am an Alpha Delta Phi and am an officer in the military. I took to heart the motto of “Brothers in Arms” and yeah, I had a good time doing some stupid frat stuff and messed with pledges just as brothers messed with me. It was humbling and I learned a lot about myself. So suck it up and get through it, or just quit. The kid that jacked this up ruined everything for the alumni, the current brothers, and his pledge class who was going to endure and eventually be able to call themselves brothers. Now they are a blemish on a proud heritage.

  • Dartmouth Man

    Thank you, sapphire. I’m sorry about your cousin.
    Pledging can be fun, but it can also easily devolve into dangerous activity. Certain lines cannot be crossed, and in this case it sounds as if they were.

  • Dartmouth Man

    Thank you, sapphire. I’m sorry about your cousin.
    Pledging can be fun, but it can also easily devolve into dangerous activity. Certain lines cannot be crossed, and in this case it sounds as if they were.

  • Lobster Crab

    hey laxfrat, child slavery is an even older institution than ADP, should we not impose our rules on that institution as well?

    Shitting all over some 18 year-olds just because someone else shit all over your 18 year-old self does not make a tradition. The “no one is making them” argument is so horribly flawed it is ridiculous. It’s not against any rules to be fat, and many people truly want to just eat whatever, but the inherit pressure from society (particularly toward women) make them become anorexic. But they usually don’t die, and no one explicitly said they HAD to be thin, so it’s OK to apply a ridiculous body image norm, right?

  • Lobster Crab

    hey laxfrat, child slavery is an even older institution than ADP, should we not impose our rules on that institution as well?

    Shitting all over some 18 year-olds just because someone else shit all over your 18 year-old self does not make a tradition. The “no one is making them” argument is so horribly flawed it is ridiculous. It’s not against any rules to be fat, and many people truly want to just eat whatever, but the inherit pressure from society (particularly toward women) make them become anorexic. But they usually don’t die, and no one explicitly said they HAD to be thin, so it’s OK to apply a ridiculous body image norm, right?

  • drizL

    I don’t know who the bigger losers are: The brothers with the retarded hazing ideas, or the pledges that wanted to join that frat filled with dbags?

  • drizL

    I don’t know who the bigger losers are: The brothers with the retarded hazing ideas, or the pledges that wanted to join that frat filled with dbags?

  • @dartmouth

    I agree with you on the frat stuff, but you might want to be careful with all the bitter Yale-hate. Your staggering inferiority complex is showing.

  • @dartmouth

    I agree with you on the frat stuff, but you might want to be careful with all the bitter Yale-hate. Your staggering inferiority complex is showing.

  • @sapphire

    Your cousin, an admittedly inexperienced drinker, made a choice. It turned out very poorly. At any given time, he could have decided that popularity on the team (nobody gets turned away for not participating in initiation) wasn’t worth it. Tragic, but he’s accountable.

  • @sapphire

    Your cousin, an admittedly inexperienced drinker, made a choice. It turned out very poorly. At any given time, he could have decided that popularity on the team (nobody gets turned away for not participating in initiation) wasn’t worth it. Tragic, but he’s accountable.

  • Dartmouth Man

    @@sapphire
    “Your cousin, an admittedly inexperienced drinker, made a choice. It turned out very poorly. At any given time, he could have decided that popularity on the team (nobody gets turned away for not participating in initiation) wasn’t worth it. Tragic, but he’s accountable.”
    -I cannot believe you have the gall to say this.

  • Dartmouth Man

    @@sapphire
    “Your cousin, an admittedly inexperienced drinker, made a choice. It turned out very poorly. At any given time, he could have decided that popularity on the team (nobody gets turned away for not participating in initiation) wasn’t worth it. Tragic, but he’s accountable.”
    -I cannot believe you have the gall to say this.

  • Dartmouth Man

    @@sapphire
    “Your cousin, an admittedly inexperienced drinker, made a choice. It turned out very poorly. At any given time, he could have decided that popularity on the team (nobody gets turned away for not participating in initiation) wasn’t worth it. Tragic, but he’s accountable.”
    -I cannot believe you have the gall to say this.

  • D ’11

    Regardless of what the merits of a fraternity pledge term may or may not be, or whether or not it is truly “voluntary,” this simply isn’t a remarkable pledge term. None of what is listed in this article is even worth commenting on, let alone writing an article about with such fervor about how they’ve been caught forcing pledges to participate in “disgusting, dehumanizing activities.” Please. No matter your opinion on if a pledge term is justifiable, these tasks are absolute jokes. They are NOTHING compared to what goes on at many big state schools or at Dartmouth. Eating tabasco sauce and dog food? Gross, but sounds like something your 8th grade buddies might dare you to do in the cafeteria so you look cool and funny.
    Maybe you think all pledge activities that are even borderline gross or difficult should qualify as hazing, because they are arguably “forced,” or at least enough peer pressure is involved that the pledges don’t really they feel they have a choice. Even so, this shit is weaksauce. You wanna interrogate the fraternity system because of hazing? Then bring something that isn’t a certified softball.

  • D ’11

    Regardless of what the merits of a fraternity pledge term may or may not be, or whether or not it is truly “voluntary,” this simply isn’t a remarkable pledge term. None of what is listed in this article is even worth commenting on, let alone writing an article about with such fervor about how they’ve been caught forcing pledges to participate in “disgusting, dehumanizing activities.” Please. No matter your opinion on if a pledge term is justifiable, these tasks are absolute jokes. They are NOTHING compared to what goes on at many big state schools or at Dartmouth. Eating tabasco sauce and dog food? Gross, but sounds like something your 8th grade buddies might dare you to do in the cafeteria so you look cool and funny.
    Maybe you think all pledge activities that are even borderline gross or difficult should qualify as hazing, because they are arguably “forced,” or at least enough peer pressure is involved that the pledges don’t really they feel they have a choice. Even so, this shit is weaksauce. You wanna interrogate the fraternity system because of hazing? Then bring something that isn’t a certified softball.

  • D’10

    This isn’t “softball” shit compared to Dartmouth hazing; it’s basically exactly the same. Everyone eats some gross shit, drinks some shit. The only difference is the physical aspect. From my experience, most of our processes are much more psychological.

  • D’10

    This isn’t “softball” shit compared to Dartmouth hazing; it’s basically exactly the same. Everyone eats some gross shit, drinks some shit. The only difference is the physical aspect. From my experience, most of our processes are much more psychological.

  • D’10

    This isn’t “softball” shit compared to Dartmouth hazing; it’s basically exactly the same. Everyone eats some gross shit, drinks some shit. The only difference is the physical aspect. From my experience, most of our processes are much more psychological.

  • A D PHI ’till I die

    LOL that’s pretty good. Chapman Adelpho chapter represent!

    Samuel Eells would be proud to see so many naked pledges…

  • Peninsular

    Someone didn’t get a bid, fucking GDIs trying to ruin everyone’s traditions. How do you expect an organization to shape there soon to be active members into the kind of men that chapter wants without letting them instill the values of that particular house? That stuff sounded fun anyways, pussies. Smarten up.

    It’s not hazing, its brotherhood.

  • Nobidforyou

    This had to be written by a GEED….because you can always make things sound worse than it is. Obviously the kid who leaked this email had something against the fraternity….maybe his story of how it happened was a little exaggerated. I heard that the nudity was optional but would get them time off their pledgeship….I used to eat weird concoctions of food in middle school with my friends at the lunch table…harmless. Dogfood is high in protein and isn’t any worse than the beef in TacoBell tacos…don’t make a martyr out of a wuss. As one of the founders of my chapter at FSU, I wouldn’t be afraid to do any of this along side of any of my brothers, and I usually do. It has nothing to do with “homoeroticism” or “meathead tendencies”….this stuff is harmless. If you get poisoned by hot sauce, sour cream, and low- grade meat…then don’t eat at TacoBell and leave the Greek system alone….

  • sechazing

    thats pussy shit, thats an easy meeting in the SEC fraternity way. minus the snow of course, we just have to wear blazers in the 105 degree heat. when i was a pledge we had to sprint up and down a mountain in the blue ridge area for 7 hours in blazers and pants..it is a private organization and if I want to go through that I can, fucking aging liberal hippie douchebags

  • cute chirts

    Spoiler alert! Cornell frats haze?  blanchir les dents

  • Looshk

    Quite frankly if people are going to be led like sheep and do things that are clearly dangerous and stupid then that is their own business…
    If you want to feel closer to your peers go on a fucking team building weekend!
    The amount of brutality involved in some of the rituals is shocking and disgusting and not only would it make me never want to be apart of any of these communities but also it would make me never want to be around anyone who has.
    Why?
    Because these people are capable of humiliating, degrading and even in some cases of hazing KILLING another human being and feel no shame for doing so. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be around someone like that?

    Personally I feel sorry for those who’ve died due to the idiocy of these people and for the poor ’2 live goldfish’ and the cruel fate they had to endure, if you don’t have enough respect for yourself and you want to be treated like crap by your fellow human beings then go ahead but I’d rather defenseless creatures without a voice be left out of the mindless stupidity.

  • Frogger

    Wow! You guys at IvyGate are really a pathetic bunch of little shits. I stumbled on your site while randomly surfing the internet and I have to say, you are one of the whiniest bunches of losers I have found in quite a while.

    I’m almost seventy years old, never attended Cornell and never belonged to a fraternity but I have been around long enough to know a bit about what fraternity life is like.

    You seem to forget or perhaps ignore the fact that pledges undergo hazing on a voluntary basis. No one is forced to pledge Alpha Delta Phi or any other fraternity. You also ignore the fact that while the hazing incidents to which you referred may be embarrassing as I guess they are intended to be, they are neither harmful nor dangerous.

    Eating a live goldfish. Oh the horror! Heck, I once ate a live Witchety Grub while visiting Australia. While I’ve never eaten dog food, my feelings are, if it’s good enough for our destitute elderly it’s good enough for Alpha Delta Phi pledges.

    After reading your hack, hatchet job I did a little research on the fraternity. Their alumni list includes two presidents of the United States, Supreme Court Justices and United States Senators among others. Not too shabby for a bunch of young men who according to your way of thinking are nothing less than reprobates.

    It might behoove you to be more like the Alpha Delts and less snarky. Do that and you might even get a life someday instead of taking potshots at people who are obviously having a lot more fun than any of you are.

← Older Comments