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Pledging To Drink?

* Initiation rites involving alcohol not limited to MIT

Most of those drinking seemed to like the ritual, the athlete says, and no one needed medical assistance.

In earlier years, the student adds, the team's initiation also included "ass-chugs," in which new members drank beer poured through the buttocks of other team members.

The men's varsity swimming team also has an initiation ceremony that once involved the heavy consumption of alcohol.

New members of the team compete to be elected "Ironman," a position considered to be of great honor, according to swimmer David O. Schwartz '97-'00.

Until the arrival of the current coach, Schwartz says, teammates would get the Ironman drunk before the workout so that he would be led to vomit once the meet began. The Ironman would also be forced to do shots during the meet.

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Despite changes in the initiation process, the swimming team still requires new members to jump off the high diving board naked, Schwartz says.

Members of many teams say alcohol is a presence at initiation ceremonies, but that there is little pressure to drink.

At a recent women's water polo initiation, according to team member Leslie Bennett '00, players sat in a circle and told stories.

"The water polo initiation involved alcohol, but there was no pressure to drink and everybody was relaxed," Bennett says. "The intent was not to embarrass anyone but rather simply for the upperclassmen to get to know the first-years."

Low Tolerance

Yet representatives of many Harvard organizations-including fraternity and sorority chapters not officially recognized by the college--say drinking is emphatically not a part of their initiation rites.

"Our initiation process has absolutely nothing to do with alcohol," says Ethan G. Drogin '98, president of the Harvard chapter of the residential fraternity Sigma Chi. "We don't force people to drink in our chapter at any time."

Drogin, who is a Crimson executive, says the initiation, which he characterized as "more of a ceremony" to culminate nine weeks of pledgeship, "is a special moment not to be marred by alcohol."

A member of the Phi Iota Alpha fraternity says the organization does not permit brothers to drink while wearing the fraternity's letters.

"Our fraternity is a Latino fraternity; the process is more educational, learning about the culture," he says. "Our processes are totally dry rush."

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