Dartmouth Says Ski Team Can’t Dye Their Hair Green Because That’s Hazing
But does dyeing your hair green count as hazing if you want to do it and no one is forcing you to do it? Sounds like Dartmouth is overreacting here.
Joseph Asch of Dartblog has the story.
Dyed Green Hair Is Hazing? No Way.
A thoughtful piece in The D on Monday by Nordic ski team member Karina Packer ’15 asks whether the Dean’s office was correct in disallowing freshman members of the team from dying their hair pink and green — as team members have traditionally done — on the ground that this action constitutes hazing.
Why don’t we try to answer the question with a little rigor. Here is the College’s official definition of hazing:
Karina says that this year’s new team members want to dye their hair, as previous members of the team have done. However, we can’t really take her word that the young skiers are not being coerced. It’s tough to prove a negative.
Comments
I would think that membership on the ski team can’t be revoked from someone who doesn’t dye his or her hair. It may be that someone doesn’t *want* to color their hair and complained, but really… at some point you’re talking about “team building” activities such as “wear-a-Hawaiian-shirt Fridays”.
I’m not a “team builder” sort and generally there are consequences in the work place to refusing to go along with those annoying “optional” activities, but it’s not HAZING.