Party photo flap at CSUS
Sacramento Bee 2/15/07
In the photos, several freshman players are wearing costumes and have sexually suggestive drawings and profanity written in marker on their bodies and clothes.
The photos from facebook.com were published Tuesday on the Web site of the campus newspaper, the State Hornet. The newspaper blurred the players' faces to shield the students "against humiliation," according to an editors' note.
The freshmen hardly seem humiliated. They are posing for the photos at their annual rookie party and laughing as their teammates look on. Some students were photographed falling down and clutching red plastic cups, although it's not clear if alcohol was involved.
"We're looking into it," said campus spokesman Frank Whitlatch. "We're looking into whether the players were acting inappropriately. Athletes we hold to a higher standard."
Campus police at California State University, Sacramento, also have seen the photos but have passed on a criminal investigation.
"No one's come forward to complain of being hazed," said Lt. Daniel Davis. "There's been no victim."
Bob Reno, who runs badjocks.com, posted photos on his Web site last year of hazing by the women's soccer team at Northwestern University. After looking at the Sac State photos Wednesday, he said, "These are not the worst photos I've ever seen."
Northwestern students were shown blindfolded with their hands bound. After a university investigation, several players had to sit out games the following season, the entire team had to perform community service, and the head coach stepped down.
"Five to 10 years ago, if the university caught wind of this, it would have been wink-wink nudge-nudge," Reno said. "If no one got hurt, it was kind of a don't ask, don't tell. As long we don't see pictures, or no one goes to the hospital, no one's going to say anything about it."
The Sacramento State episode falls along the blurry line of what separates seemingly harmless initiation rituals from the hard-core hazing that is gaining the increased attention of school officials, lawmakers and prosecutors.
"If you don't intervene at mild hazing, do you have to wait for someone to die?" asked Susan Lipkins, a psychologist and hazing expert from New York, who looked at the Sacramento State photos.
She suggested school officials find other photos taken by party-goers that weren't published by the student newspaper, to see how far the hijinks went.
At most, six of the 26 players on the women's soccer team were of the legal drinking age in December, when the student newspaper said the party took place.
Efforts to reach the soccer players Wednesday were unsuccessful. The student newspaper quoted Katie Rorabaugh, a freshman player who has since transferred to Azusa Pacific University, as saying the idea of dressing up in costumes and drawing on each other came from the upperclassmen on the team.
"It wasn't forced on us," Rorabaugh told the State Hornet. "I don't really consider it hazing. I didn't find it humiliating."
Lipkins, the psychologist, said separating out the freshmen and drawing lewd pictures and profanity on them crosses the line.
"It is demeaning or degrading whether or not students experience it like that," she said. "They may think it's a lot of fun, that it's the best time of their life. It doesn't mean it's not ... hazing."
The CSUS student-athlete handbook -- which bans hazing -- also states that the consent of a hazing victim is not a defense against the activity.
Several parents of players contacted Wednesday said an investigation was unnecessary.
"It's entirely overblown," said Jeff Rosenbery of Orange County, whose daughter Ashley, a sophomore, plays on the team. "If there's a bunch of girls that care about each other -- that wouldn't do anything to hurt each other -- it's that bunch of girls."
The soccer season ended in November with the team finishing 10-7-4 and the Hornets reaching the Big Sky Tournament championship game for the first time.
CSUS also announced a new head coach on Feb. 2, replacing Katie Poynter with an assistant.
Terry Wanless, the school's athletics director, is not commenting.