Michigan is already part of the Big Ten, but yesterday afternoon it became part of another group of colleges and universities: the "Dirty Dozen."
Photos depicting two different Michigan club varsity lacrosse hazing initiations (taken in 2003 and 2004) were posted on the website Badjocks.com, along with 11 other sets of photos featuring hazing initiations and rituals from different schools across the country.
The pictures of the Michigan lacrosse team were originally posted on Webshots.com. Even though many of the shots portray players harmlessly standing around, a few of them do reveal events typical of hazing - such as the shaving of heads and excessive consumption of alcohol. In one of the photos, a player with a shaved head and writing on his body appears to be throwing up into a cooking pan.
The team refused to comment when contacted by the Daily.
According to the University's official hazing policy drafted in June 1982, the University "condemns hazing practices as requirements for membership, advancement, or continued good standing in organizations." The document goes on to say that hazing includes, among other things, "degradation (and) humiliation" and "forced consumption of any liquid or solid" with or without the consent of the individual.
Associate Athletic Director Bruce Madej said that the University knew of the photos soon after the time they were taken, and that the team was disciplined at the time. But in accordance with the athletic department's policy, the extent to which the team was punished was not released.
This isn't the lacrosse team's first brush with the University.
Madej said that before current head coach John Paul was hired, the team, along with the men's crew team, started what became the infamous "naked mile" run. But Madej was quick to point out that since Paul has been coach, both teams have been at the forefront of helping the University change that kind of culture.
The website that brought these photos to light on Wednesday is a sports blog dedicated to finding stories of impropriety connected to the sporting world.
The idea for the site came back in 2000 when the site's creator, Bob Reno, noticed a lot of sports talk radio stations discussing the bad things athletes did off the field.
The site now reports stories from many different levels of sports, from the little leagues all the way up to the professional ranks. But its focus on college hazing has developed over the last six to eight months, according to Reno.
"We noticed that more and more of these pictures were posted online, like on Webshots.com," Reno said. "I work with a hazing expert (Dr. Susan Lipkins), and she has really educated me on the dangers of hazing and the prevalence of it . so once I started coming across those pictures and I shared them with her, that's when we started doing more posting of the pictures."
The publicity of this "dirty dozen" began on Monday when Reno first posted photos of the Northwestern women's soccer team taking part in a type of hazing initiation. The pictures show new team members blind-folded with their hands tied behind their back, and players forced to exercise and pose in sexually suggestive positions.
Northwestern's Athletic Director Mark Murphy suspended the team indefinitely until a thorough investigation is completed.
Along with the photos, a promise was posted that 12 more sets of hazing photos - with accompanying schools - would be released on Wednesday. There is no word yet on whether the other 11 schools have taken any disciplinary action.
Response to the Northwestern photos was very strong, as evidenced by the media attention the pictures received on Tuesday, and by the traffic on Reno's site. But many believe Reno is just trying to garner publicity for his site.
"The idea of a website, if you're going to do it, is to try to draw traffic to it in the most constructive way that you can find," Reno said. "I certainly feel that this is an important issue, and that's why I worked with Dr. Lipkins on it."
According to the site, this will be the last time that a large amount of initiation photos will be posted at one time.
As for the men's lacrosse team, Paul and the university did talk to the team about the photos posted on the website, but Madej said that because the team was already disciplined, no further action would be necessary.