BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — The parents of former Bowling Green State University student Stone Foltz have issued a call to action to every university in the country: end all Greek life pledging processes and initiation rituals.
Cory and Shari Foltz know the worst-case outcome of the pledging process firsthand. Stone died at 20 years old following a fraternity hazing incident in March of 2021 in BGSU's since-banned Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, more commonly known as PIKE. Stone consumed alcohol equivalent to 40 shots of liquor at the off-campus initiation ritual and died three days later on March 7, 2021, when he was taken off of life support.
"[In] the pledging process, you find an imbalance of power, and that's where a lot of these deaths and injuries to young men and women are happening," Cory said.
In the year and a half since his death, the Foltz family has been on a media tour talking about the dangers of initiation culture in greek life, saying it encourages dangerous behavior by using the illusion of fellowship to pull kids in. Now, they're calling for the end of the pledge process altogether.
"They call it a brotherhood, they're friends with you, and they suck you in," Shari said. "These pledges don't realize that what they have to do is going to get worse and worse as the pledging process goes on."
But the idea of removing the pledging process is met with some resistance from local universities. Ben Batey, BGSU's Chief Health and Wellness Officer, says the university takes its zero-tolerance policy on hazing seriously, but this proposal is something they would have to consider.
"It's truly that hazing aspect we're trying to eradicate, and that can happen at more than initiation events as well," Batey said. "But at the same time, we're always looking at best practices."
Sammy Spann, the vice president of student affairs and dean of students at the University of Toledo, said he doesn't think the change would have many benefits.
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water," Spann said.
Spann said in his six years working at UT, their Greek life programs have had no serious hazing issues. He said it doesn't come from limiting students' choices, but rather checking in with them and having clear standards and goals.
"That is imperative that we do that," Spann said. "And making sure that we meet regularly with the student leaders from those different organizations and let them know what our expectations are, but also hear what their concerns are."
Batey said after Stone's death, BGSU students themselves have been "really stepping up and speaking out when they see any act of hazing whatsoever."
But for the Foltz family, as long as initiations like the one that killed their son are still allowed, there's always the possibility of the campus culture going sour again. They said it must stop once and for all.
"Be the first Ohio campus to remove the pledge process from your Greek organization. That would be a huge step, for (BGSU) to join us to do that," Cory said.
According to journalist Hank Nuwer's U.S. hazing deaths database, there has been at least one hazing death per year from 1969 to 2021.
As with Stone Foltz, alcohol poisoning is the leading cause of death.