Dartmouth College is having a year. In January, the college announced that it would ban hard liquor on campus, citing “student misconduct”.
Most recently, the college extended the suspension one of the college’s most prominent fraternities and inspiration behind the movie Animal House, Alpha Delta. Notice I used the word ‘extension’ because the fraternity had been previously suspended for an infraction for God knows what. The reason for the extended suspension? Ass branding, DUH!
If you are unfamiliar with the act of branding, congratulations, you’re not a cow! Branding is the act of pressing a fire-heating branding iron into livestock as a method to identify it’s owner. Alternative methods include pressing the iron into the ass of human pledges as a fraternity ‘ritual’.
A Darthmouth sophomore was poked in the butt with a hot iron during a 2014 initiation rite. If this dude just wore pants, this thing could have been kept in-house, right? Wrong.
The student had to seek medical attention over winter break because the brand became infected.
Darthmouth spokesperson, Justin Anderson said in a statement to Gawker,
“Alpha Delta fraternity has been charged with violating Dartmouth’s standards of conduct in connection with the reported branding of some new members of the fraternity by other members in the fall of 2014.”
I bet he never thought he’s say that sentence. But the Dartmouth President, Phil Hanlon, might have. Hanlon was a Alpha Delta brother when he graduated from Dartmouth in 1977.
But apparently Hanlon has little sentimental feelings for the fraternity as the college has threatened to permanently revoke Alpha Delta’s affiliation from the college.
And you can’t blame them, they are just protecting their brand. Nailed it!