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Ohio State study shows social smokers at same risk as daily tobacco users

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Mom sues Children and Youth over alleged sexual abuse of daughters

Does this sound like a good idea to you?Put a few dozen immature 18- to 22-year-olds in the same house together &#8212; all day, every day.Allow them great freedom with little, if any, supervision or oversight.And grant them easy, unlimited access to alcohol of all varieties. (Not to mention whatever illegal substances some may be able to procure.)It certainly seems like a recipe for disaster, and something most level-headed folks would not sign off on.Yet, such situations have not only been allowed to exist at places of higher learning, they&#8217;ve been institutionalized.They call them fraternities, and a Penn State frat was recently the site of one of those inevitable disasters we mentioned above.It makes us wonder what legitimate purpose these groups &#8212; with their origins in the late 1700s &#8212; have today.You&#8217;ve probably heard about the sad case of Tim Piazza, 19, of Lebanon, New Jersey.By all accounts, Tim was a bright young man who came from a solid family. He no doubt went to Penn State seeking an education that would have helped propel him to a productive life.But Tim never came home from Penn State, or specifically the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, where he was a pledge.Prosecutors say he died due to the biological abuse suffered during an alcohol-fueled hazing ceremony that pledges had to endure. And when it was clear Piazza needed help after stumbling and falling and remaining unconscious for hours, the frat brothers allegedly let the situation linger until it became fatal.Now, 18 frat members, including two from Scranton, and the now-shuttered fraternity itself have been charged in Piazza&#8217;s February death. Hearings for those accused took center stage again last week, with a detective saying security video depicting the last hours of a dangerously intoxicated Piazza may have intentionally been erased.In addition, none other than the head trainer for Penn State football is involved in the case.Tim Bream, 58, was a live-in adviser at the fraternity house. The Daily Collegian says Bream is a Beta Theta Pi alum and former head trainer for the Chicago Bears.We know what you&#8217;re thinking. Why was this almost retirement-age guy living in a frat house? A judge wants to know, too. Bream &#8212; still not charged with a crime &#8212; must appear for a hearing Aug. 30.The whole sordid mess illustrates how far the modern-day fraternity has strayed from the original concept.The first fraternities were formed by knowledge-starved students. They &#8220;wanted to learn about a greater variety of topics than were offered in the classroom&#8221; and &#8220;explore other academic venues in more detail than time allotted for with their professors,&#8221; states an online history of Greek life.How much of that goes on at fraternities today? We would argue they serve next to no academic purpose, though they sometimes perform important community work.And while frats and sororities have always had social aspects, how did that morph into requiring potential new members to survive an extended evening of binge drinking?These organizations have outlived any usefulness they might have once had, and exist today as only relics where kids such as Piazza end up hurt or worse.We believe universities far and wide need to seriously consider their permanent removal.&#8220;Abolition is the only answer,&#8221; argued a professor and campus-life author in a recent Time magazine column. &#8220;All social fraternities &#8212; alongside the sycophantic sorority life that they exploit &#8212; must go. They must go permanently and forever, at Penn State and everywhere else.&#8221;It&#8217;s becoming difficult to argue a downside to that viewpoint.&#8212; Times Leader<style>
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<div class="neCaption">This October 2014 photo provided by Patrick Carns shows Timothy Piazza, center, with parents Evelyn Piazza and James Piazza. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/web1_PSUDeath.cmyk_.jpg</photo0><caption0>This October 2014 photo provided by Patrick Carns shows Timothy Piazza, center, with parents Evelyn Piazza and James Piazza. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

OUR VIEW: Time to mull abolishing fraternities