In a surprising transfer, Boston Faculty indefinitely suspended its males’s and girls’s swimming and diving program on Wednesday after directors decided that hazing had occurred.
“The College doesn’t — and won’t — tolerate hazing in any type,” BC stated in an announcement. “Through the suspension, all Swimming and Diving student-athletes will proceed to have entry to educational and medical assets supplied to all Boston Faculty student-athletes.”
Each the BC women and men’s groups positioned twelfth out of 12 groups on the 2023 ACC Championships of their first season underneath former Notre Dame assistant Joe Brinkman. Nonetheless, it was a comparatively profitable season for the Eagles contemplating they don’t provide swimming scholarships as they broke three college and 15 pool information at their rivalry meet in opposition to Boston College in January.
It’s uncommon for faculties to self-suspend total packages for hazing, however it has occurred earlier than. In 2015, Western Kentucky suspended its males’s and girls’s swimming and diving program for 5 years within the wake of a hazing scandal that resulted within the termination of the teaching employees. Finally, the college lower this system.
Brinkman leads a BC teaching employees that included assistant coach Brian Keane, assistant coach Alexander Santana, and diving coach Jack Lewis.
The Eagles have been slated to start out their season Saturday with a Maroon vs. Gold intrasquad meet earlier than formally starting the common ant George Washington on Oct. 7.
BC isn’t providing extra particulars in the meanwhile, however the a part of the college’s hazing coverage is on the market under:
Hazing refers to any exercise anticipated of somebody becoming a member of a bunch (or to take care of full standing in a bunch) that humiliates, degrades, or dangers emotional and/or bodily hurt, whatever the particular person’s willingness to take part. Hazing is a fancy social downside that’s formed by energy dynamics working in a bunch and/or group and inside a selected cultural context.
Hazing actions are usually thought-about to be bodily abusive, hazardous, and/or sexually violating. The particular behaviors or actions inside these classes range extensively amongst members, teams, and settings. Whereas alcohol use is frequent in lots of sorts of hazing, different examples of typical hazing practices embody private servitude; sleep deprivation and restrictions on private hygiene; yelling, swearing, and insulting new members/rookies; being pressured to put on embarrassing or humiliating apparel in public; consumption of vile substances or smearing of such on one’s pores and skin; brandings; bodily beatings; binge consuming and consuming video games; sexual simulation and sexual assault.
For such actions to be thought-about hazing, pressured or mandated participation will not be required. If a brand new member feels that she or he won’t be thought-about a completely collaborating member of the group or feels that they might be ostracized for not collaborating particularly behaviors (for instance, alcohol use), then such implied coercion can be thought-about hazing.
