To become a member of the fraternity, the young men had to be put through the typical grueling process of rushing. One main aspect in this process that all fraternity's and sororities deal with and what inner chapter relations and university supervisors fear is the act of hazing. When questioning Stoecklein about his experiences as a pledge and hazing he said, “Hazing is obviously against the Inter Fraternity Council Rules, but everyone that I rushed with knew what they were getting into, including the potential of some sort of hazing, but it did not bother us.” He went saying that everything was controlled and there was never a “no mercy” environment in the rushing process despite what all of OU thought.
In the unwritten rules of brotherhood, pledges have to earn there spot in a fraternity and work towards getting the benefits that actives obtain. After a brotherhood party during rush, several pledges were too intoxicated and suffered minor injuries from stumbling on their way home. When word got out to police officials and reached across all media outlets, the men of Delta Tau Delta were viewed as “evil.” Robbie described why Delt was kicked off campus, “We got caught hazing and the school had a zero tolerance hazing policy. There is really nothing else than that. The dean, president, and everyone else were embarrassed because the media caught hold of the story. Once they were embarrassed there was no possibility we would get cleared of what we did. Zero.”
Top right image: Robbie and fellow brothers at their Christmas in November social, happily presenting their pride and displaying the Delta Tau Delta symbol.
Becoming a Member
Rules of Brotherhood