Fatalities and Injuries

• Up in Flames
• 15 Shots of Brandy Too Many
• Frat Boy Rumble
• Chi Tau Waterworks Stunt Goes Bad
• Even in Utah
• Oven Cleaner?
• Spilled Milk
• Statistics

Up in Flames

May 12, 1996: University of North Carolina’s Phi Gamma Delta house went up in smoke after an all night graduation party, killing five and injuring three others. Authorities say the fire was started by “improper use of smoking materials.” What does that mean exactly?

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15 Shots of Brandy Too Many

January 1994: A 19-year-old Phi University of Nebraska-Lincoln pledge fell off the third floor of the Phi Gamma Delta house after he had been given 15 shots of brandy and whiskey and six cans of beer.

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Frat Boy Rumble

January 16, 2005: At Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio student Brent Jones, age 21, died from a fractured skull and enlarged brain caused from hitting a door frame in an altercation with a fellow Sigma Phi Epsilon brother.

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Chi Tau Waterworks Stunt Goes Bad

Feb 2, 2005: Matthew Carrington, 21, lost his life to a hazing incident involving the consumption of massive quantities of a normally safe substance: water. The incident occurred at California State University in Chico, CA. Carrington was a Chi Tau Fraternity pledge. The ritual included forcing the pledges to drink five gallons of water, pouring ice water on them and then making them stand in front of air conditioning fans, and doing push-ups while answering trivia questions about the fraternity.

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Even in Utah

November 2008: Utah State University, nestled in the beautiful mountains of Logan, Utah is not immune from binge drinking fatalities. 12 members of the Sigma Nu fraternity were charged in connection with the death of Micheal Starks. Starks died after imbibing a lethal amount of alcohol at only 18 years old.

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Oven Cleaner?

University of Delaware student Jeffery V. Furek suffered severe burns on his neck and head when caustic oven cleaner was poured over his scalp in a 1980 hazing rite. In 1987 he pressed charges against the university and frat member Joseph Donchez and Furek was awarded $30,000.

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Spilled Milk

Commuters on a Arizona freeway got quite the unexpected surprise on September 22, 2008. A group of Arizona State University Arizona State fraternity pledges were challenged to drink a gallon of milk in an hour and needless to say they lost. They lost it all over the freeway if you want to get into semantics. They vomited off the side of a footbridge into the traffic below and caused an accident. A passing motorist slammed on the brakes to avoid the upchuck, causing a woman following behind to rear end the stopped car. Luckily only the pledges prides was injured.

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Statistics

2.1 million: The amount of money in damages caused by frat house fires each year in the US. (National Fire Incident Reporting System) (NFIRS)

150: The number of estimated fires occurring in fraternity and sorority houses each year in the US. (NFIRS)

90: The percent of Fraternity members that reported drinking alcohol within the past 30 days, compared to 65 percent of other students, according to a North Carolina University study.

1: Number of reported fraternity house pet deaths. The Tau Kappa Epsilon house of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, lost their beloved house dog, Axel, in an arson fire.

1: Estimated number of deaths caused by hazing each year since 1979, according to Hank Nuwer, author of Broken Pledges.

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Conclusion

These stories and statistics are alarming to say the least and we learn that although students might be able to get into Ivy League schools, they might not be able to avoid blatantly stupid decisions when challenged by the herd mentality. Online Classes anyone? When you earn your degree online nobody is going to force you to drink ridiculous amounts of water and your chances of dying in a house fire are significantly reduced. Think about it.

A recent study by the US Census Bureau reported that 79% of all single mothers work and 23.4% of all single-parent families are living below the poverty level. The discouraging connection between those two statistics is that the majority of parents who are working full or part-time are the same parents who are living below the poverty level.

Online college classes offer solutions, no matter what your family situation may be.

More and more single parents are attending colleges these days. In the last ten years the number of single parents enrolled in college classes has increased from 7% to 13% percent. As more single parents earn their college degrees, they make more money in their current jobs or find higher-paying positions. When you are equipped with sophisticated skills and extensive educational training, suddenly opportunities that seemed out of reach before are suddenly at your fingertips.

There are several reasons why online education is beneficial for families:

• Online classes can be more efficient than campus classes.
• Online classes offer flexibility to families.
• Online education can save you money.
• Parents who complete their education teach their children valuable life lessons.

Online classes can be more efficient than campus classes.

In a typical campus class, sometimes half of the time is spent making announcements or tending to administrative matters. As you take your classes online you can spend extra time on difficult concepts or power through easier assignments at your own pace, all while avoiding the droning voice of a professor or listening to people ask irrelevant questions.

Online classes offer flexibility to families.

Maybe your daughter takes a nap everyday at 1 pm and sleeps for exactly an hour, but the more likely scenario is that your daughter avoids taking naps at all costs and only after sufficient crying and complaining does she fall asleep. For moms taking classes online, they have the option of studying at a different time each day, depending on the day’s different family activities. You can get work done in the early mornings or at nights when the kids are asleep. At brick-and-mortar schools you have to attend the classes when they are offered, which is often in the middle of the day, disrupting family activities.

Online education can save you money.

When taking campus classes, many families spend almost as much money on child care as they do on tuition! Average child care fees for one infant range from $3,803 to $13,480 a year, according to a recent study from the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. When parents take classes online they can use the money that they would have spent on child care to pay for other important household costs.

Parents who complete their education teach their children valuable life lessons.

Going back to school is no small task but when children see their parents do the work necessary to obtain a degree they learn important lessons about perseverance, hard work, and the value of an education. You can preach all day about how important it is to go to school but example is always the most effective teacher. As parents gain more knowledge they are able to share it with their children and help them with homework. Studies show that children of college-educated parents are more likely to attend college as well.

Conclusion

All of these benefits will improve the quality of your life and in turn improve the quality of your family’s life. The lessons you learn through continuing education will have a ripple effect on your children and leave them with a long-lasting impression about the value of a degree.

Rants and Raves?

What do you have to say about this topic? Feel free to leave your rants and raves in the form of a comment below. For more information on how to further your education, please visit mycollegesandcareers.com.