“I just wanted to see what it felt like to be a part of that crowd, to be part of the cool kids, the party people,” he said. “I wasn’t a party person in high school. I’ve since learned that I’m not a party person in general. But I thought like I just had this, I don’t know, I had an idea in my head of the person I wanted to be, so I joined a fraternity.”
The realization that he no longer aspired to be that type of person led Burford to literally walk out on the fraternity during a night of hazing, ripping off a blindfold and the duct tape that bound his wrists and ankles.
Burford never became a member of the fraternity, but he defined himself at the University in another way. On a campus where the realities of student social life are at best hinted at in public forums, Burford detailed the hazing he underwent as a pledge in a candid interview with The Daily Princetonian last spring. When Burford came forward with his story, it marked the first time such serious hazing allegations had been made public since fraternities returned to campus in the 1980s, after being officially banned from 1855 to the 1940s.
“Of all the things I have done or will do at Princeton, that is what I’ll be remembered for, and it feels kind of weird to sort of have this focus placed on one facet of yourself,” he said. “That’s what I’m known for, and I had to be OK with that before I went forward with it.”
In the days that followed the article’s publication, rumors flew that he might be threatened after speaking up, and friends and strangers told him they were worried for his safety.
“People were like, ‘Oh, dude, you need to start locking your doors at night; people are going to break into your room and do shit to you.’ I was like, ‘First of all, I know all these people, and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to do that,’ ” he said.
Burford said that he sat down with members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon to discuss the article shortly after it was published, and that they generally remain on good terms. “The people in SAE that I was on good terms with before, I’m still on good terms with now ... The ones it was awkward with before, it’s still awkward with.”
Even before he spoke to the ‘Prince,’ Burford had been open with friends and acquaintances about the hazing, despite fraternity taboos. “You’re not supposed to tell anybody, not so much because SAE people are afraid, but mainly they don’t want girls to find out and think that they’re crazy and not have sex with them. That was their main reason for not wanting us to gossip about it.” The reactions of his friends eventually helped convince Burford to quit the fraternity.
Last spring, Burford detailed his pledge experiences to the ‘Prince,’ which included suffering a nicotine overdose after chugging 20 ounces of tobacco spit (not his own); swimming naked across a frozen pond after breaking the ice on its surface; and being handcuffed, whipped and bitten by a stripper while his pledge brothers watched.
Mostly though, he threw up. “SAE is very big on throwing up. Each fraternity has its central theme or something,” he said. “On average, I threw up about once a day for my whole first semester.”
Burford had previously considered making his experiences public but wanted to wait until he was in an eating club. “I didn’t want that to like screw me over, if I’m being honest,” he said.
Ivy Club and Tiger Inn were “off limits because SAE has a very strong presence in those clubs,” he said. Burford unsuccessfully bickered Cap & Gown Club last winter. He is now a member of Colonial Club.
“After being in SAE and pretending to be somebody that I wasn’t for a long time, it was nice to come to Colonial and have everybody be very comfortable with who they were and very relaxed about it,” he said.
When his story was made public, Burford said he was approached by The Daily Beast to “take the thing national,” and he admitted that he was tempted to do so.
“I’m a Republican. I very rarely crusade about anything just because I’m usually the ‘who really gives a shit’ kind of person. At that time, I was kind of in the crusading mode, and I was very caught up in everything,” he said. He eventually decided against working with The Daily Beast based on the advice of friends and the belief that the University was confronting the issue.
But today, Burford, who ended a column published in the ‘Prince’ last spring with “The ball’s in your court, President Tilghman,” said he isn’t optimistic about further action from the University. “I think they’ll probably just be like, ‘Oh, we strengthened our language and we made a committee about it,’ and they’ll probably just leave it at that.”
Since the spring, the University has yet to make any policy changes concerning hazing or Greek life. Last April, President Shirley Tilghman told the ‘Prince’ that she considers fraternities and sororities to be “antithetical to Princeton’s educational mission” and that she was considering banning them, recognizing and regulating them, or continuing the current policy of non-recognition.
When asked this fall if she is now leaning toward one of those options, Tilghman said in an e-mail that she is awaiting the report of the University working group on campus social and residential life.
“We haven’t had that substantive conversation yet, so I think it’s a little too early to talk about what the conclusions are going to be,” said University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee ’69, who is co-chair of the working group, when asked about the issue of Greek life on campus. “Right now we’re getting organized to have that conversation.”
The working group is scheduled to release a report this spring, which will also cover residential college life and the possibility of reintroducing a campus pub.
The Department of Public Safety, which took Burford’s statement about his hazing experiences, declined to comment on its ongoing investigation.
Last spring, after Burford’s story was made public, the national headquarters of Sigma Alpha Epsilon released a statement saying that they had completed their own investigation of the hazing allegations. “Based on our findings, chapter leaders deny the claims made in the article and maintain their pledge education program follows stringent guidelines and risk-management regulations spelled out by the national organization,” the statement said.
Burford said he was not contacted in the course of the inquiry. Sigma Alpha Epsilon headquarters declined to comment further on the results of the investigation.
“We are open to suggestions from anybody as to how we can improve our own rush and pledge processes,” Sam Mikell ’12, a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said when asked to comment on the allegations. He added that an adult alumni adviser had been appointed to the Princeton chapter to ensure that it followed guidelines set by the fraternity’s national headquarters.
Literature on the website for the fraternity’s national headquarters states, “Sigma Alpha Epsilon bases its membership experience off of our guiding motto, ‘The True Gentleman.’ Hazing is not and should never be a part of that experience.”
Now, Burford says, he worries that the lack of response may put future pledges in danger. He recalled one particular incident his freshman year when a pledge brother was hospitalized with a near-lethal 0.40 blood alcohol content after he was cornered by an alumnus at a fraternity tailgate and forced to drink 10 shots of Everclear.
According to Burford, the pledges were warned that alumni hazing at the tailgate would be particularly harsh. “The brothers told us ahead of time, ‘Most of our alumni are stressed-out people on Wall Street who are made to feel like crap most of the year, so they’ll probably try to take out their pent-up aggression on you. It’s kind of tradition.’ ”
Burford said he is concerned that the next pledge might not be so lucky to survive. But more than six months later, he said he is still glad that he came forward — because the status quo isn’t working.
“Since there’s minimal oversight here, because the University doesn’t do very much to regulate or watch people or punish people or do anything, then fraternities can kind of do whatever the hell they want,” Burford said.
If he had not made his story so public, Burford said, he believes the University administration “would have just blown me off, which they have to some degree now, but not as much as they would if I hadn’t had this whole ruckus.”
Though he’s found that people remember him as “the hazing guy,” Burford said he was surprised by the lack of hostility he encountered from his former pledge brothers and the student body at large.
“I thought more people would say negative things to my face. I was surprised that nobody said, ‘Oh, dude, what the fuck?’ or ‘What’s the matter with you?’ ” he said. “There was less negative and more positive feedback than I expected ... They were just kind of surprised that I rocked the boat.”
In retrospect, Burford said, he thinks his personal story has been over-sensationalized.
“When you read it, it sounds really dramatic and serious. It was really dramatic and serious at the time, but, you know, it happens,” he said. “It’s given me lots of stories. You know, the times with the prostitutes or the strippers. I feel very worldly, even though I’m definitely not.”
Editor's note: This article has been slightly modified from its print version to clarify the episode describing how Burford made his story public.
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