Dive Brief:

• The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity is banning pledging across all of its chapters.
• Chapters of the fraternity will recruit and invite new members to join, and students who accept will become full members of the fraternity almost immediately.
• All SAE members will have to complete a training that includes alcohol education.

Dive Insight:

Will this move by one of the largest fraternities in the U.S. lead to the end of the paddling, sleep deprivation, “hell weeks,” forced binge drinking, and other humiliating and potentially fatal abuses of new members at other fraternities? Time will tell. Bloomberg reports that its data shows that SAE is the deadliest fraternity, with at least 10 deaths since 2006 linked to hazing, alcohol, or drugs at the fraternity’s events. More than 60 fraternity-related deaths have occurred overall since 2005. SAE is calling its new initiation process “the True Gentleman Experience.”