A tragic death occurred at Florida State University months ago when an undergraduate student drank himself to death. While there appears to be no evidence of hazing directly related to this drinking incident but plenty of evidence of the foolish acts of drunk young people, FSU President John Thrasher and VP of Student Affairs Amy Hecht acted quickly to punish all FSU fraternity and sorority students by banning Greek Life for six months.
Practicing “collective punishment” is a totalitarian tactic, like punishing a neighborhood for an act of one resident. Thrasher and Hecht will be proud to know that these tactics are banned by the Geneva Convention and punishable as war crimes (Article 33, Fourth Geneva Convention). That’s right, it mattered not that 95% of those punished had no affiliation with the fraternity where the death occurred, Thrasher and Hecht suspended all members of all fraternities and sororities at FSU indefinitely, banning their leadership, social, and fellowship activities and depriving them of untold opportunities. The staggering monetary costs of lost event deposits, dues paid for which nothing was rendered, and countless other opportunities lost are incalculable and were taken by FSU from these young adults and will never be recovered.
