I enjoyed my time in my fraternity, but I drank too much and am frankly amazed no one got seriously hurt. We had one guy who had a real drinking problem, and one night at a party he was sitting on the stair rail and fell over. Somehow he caught himself on the rail one floor down. Had he not, he might be a quadrapalegic today, or worse.
After that happened, a bunch of us sat him down and in no uncertain terms told him to control his drinking. He changed for a while but the party culture made it pretty hard for anyone to go on the wagon. A few brothers did at various times.
We hazed in ways that did not involve alcohol (OK, I was forced to drink a shot). It was actually somewhat constructive hazing, if there is such a thing. Mostly stuff about trust.
All that said, I would not want my son to live the alcohol-related experiences I had at NU. I remember waking up buck naked in my girlfriend's room in the middle of floor. She was naked on the bed, and her roommate was clothed laying in her bed. That was weird. I have very little recollection, unfortunately, of what happened after she and I left the Rock that night well oiled. I guess we had fun.
Somehow I survived four years at NU.
