COLUMBIA Mo.
The basement of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house at the University of Missouri-Columbia is filled with familiar fraternity icons, from its well-worn pool table to the stacks of “Kill Bill,” “Gladiator,” and other super-violent movies on DVD. The smell of stale beer is unmistakable.
A closer look reveals a different scene altogether: with the soothing sounds of a “Zen Cafe” CD playing in the background, Sig Ep brothers listen raptly as a campus yoga instructor leads them through a series of contortionist poses during an 8 a.m. workout.
Early morning yoga is just one of the changes at the Sig Ep house since the Missouri chapter adopted its “Balanced Man” program in 2006 just a few years after the university punished the chapter for hazing. Fraternity leaders and campus officials declined to release details about that incident.
There are trips to the opera, wine tastings and documentary film screenings. And by eliminating the pledging system a tradition of initiation critics say encourages hazing new members are treated as equals from the start.
“I didn’t really feel like the traditional fraternity life was for me,” said Tony Brown, a sophomore journalism major from Denver who joined the chapter as a second-semester freshman. “I wanted a place I could come into and immediately feel respected.”
For years, fraternity pledges were forced to perform menial tasks, memorize arcane fraternity history and willingly submit to verbal and sometimes physical abuse all to prove their loyalty and devotion to the group.
