“These guys aren’t there to be an asshole to you,” Chris said. “They’re there to get you through the whole process.”

Many students emphasize that initiation activities serve to bring new members together.

“Little things, silly embarrassment is a great way to build community and get close to each other,” said Marissa C. Friedman ’14, a member of CityStep. According to Friedman, new CityStep members are asked to go on scavenger hunts, figure out riddles, and perform “a funny dance” in the Pit in Harvard Square at night.

CityStep co-directors Siva S. Sundaram ’13 and Todd G. Venook ’13 wrote in an email that community-building is “one of our highest priorities” in the process.

But even the “little things” are banned by some clubs.

All three of Harvard’s sororities are held to strict hazing standards by national sorority organizations that sometimes outdo the College’s regulations. While the Office of Student Life recommends scavenger hunts as an alternative to hazing on its website, Kappa Kappa Gamma forbids them explicitly.

But an official of one sorority said that she believes that some of the banned activities might help to build community.

“In some ways I wish my sorority did more hazing-type things,” as long as the activities would not endanger any of the participants, the official said.

Many other groups use their initiations as an opportunity to acquaint new members with the history of the organization.

Crimson Key, which coordinates campus tours and Freshman Week activities, requires new members to complete a scavenger hunt using clues drawn from Harvard’s history. At The Crimson’s Grand Elections ceremony, new staff members are quizzed on the newspaper’s history. Sigma Alpha Epsilon asks each new member to have meals with older members, attend weekly meetings about the chapter’s history, and bond through sports and other activities.

Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67 said that he draws the line at activities that make students feel uneasy. “You might be asked to wear scanty clothes and a strange hat all day or be asked to go sing songs on the steps of Widener. I wouldn’t characterize that as dangerous, but I think it can be demeaning and make you feel uncomfortable in a community where we would hope that you would feel fully at home, safe, understood,” he said.

CRACKING DOWN

In recent years the administration has attempted, with moderate success, to bring hazing to light by cracking down on both recognized and unrecognized student organizations.

Other universities—including Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania—leverage formal university recognition and real estate on campus to discourage social organizations like fraternities and sororities from hazing.

But at Harvard, where many of the offenders are unrecognized organizations, the negotiation process is more complicated.