“I felt degraded, dehumanized, disrespected,” said junior student, Julian Alvarez.
Alvarez was pledging to Omega Delta Phi, a multicultural, social fraternity.
On initiation night, Alvarez claims he and his pledge brothers were blind folded and dropped off at a remote site without phones. It was a traumatizing event that reminded him of his childhood.
“It brought me back to an experience I had with my biological mother. She had done the same thing,” said Alvarez. “She put a blindfold around me, threw me in the back of a car just like they did and just drove around. I had no idea where I was going.”
The hazing didn’t stop there. Alvarez says he was harassed by frat members at school and work. “They would actually cuss at me,” Alvarez said.
The verbal attacks made him feel inferior and three weeks in, he had enough and decided to drop out.
“I hated being part of the organization. I hated myself, I hated allowing people to tell me what to do and push over me and basically walk all over me just for the sake of getting some Greek letters on a T-shirt,” Alvarez said.
