NEWS
Wiley: Sexual hazing culture plagues band
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Also by Mike Gendall:
- Committee denies Christian group (September 22, 2006)
Related Stories:
- Marching band in dark on Michigan incident (October 11, 2006)
- Wiley: Marching Band's future up in air (October 12, 2006)
- Band reacts to new fiasco (February 15, 2007)
- UW Band assistant resigns amid controversy (February 14, 2007)
- Greer accuses Wiley of endorsement (October 24, 2002)
by Mike Gendall
Friday, October 13, 2006
The University of Wisconsin Marching Band's Sept. 23 trip to Michigan was the latest incident in its "ingrained" culture of sexualized hazing, Chancellor John Wiley said Thursday.
According to Wiley's executive assistant Casey Nagy, the chancellor's office received complaints from "multiple sources" regarding "highly sexualized banter" from the band's now-infamous bus trip to Michigan.
"We had dancing and disrobing taking place that made some people feel not only uncomfortable but also unsafe," Nagy said at a press conference Thursday. "And we had people feel that they were not at liberty to use lavatory facilities while in transit — or at least made to feel very uncomfortable while making the trip to and from the bathroom."
In addition to inappropriate dancing from semi-nude band members, Nagy said one band member had his head shaved in an apparent hazing incident. The "clear impression," he said, was that the individual would have preferred to keep his hair.
And apparently such complaints are nothing new. A UW release distributed at the press conference cited eight separate reports of inappropriate behavior from the band over past years, including a 2004 incident in which the band apparently got so out of control a bus driver pulled over and called the police.
The release also cited women being forced to kiss other women in order to gain access to bus bathrooms, and said a female band member who was told to suck on a sex toy in an another apparent hazing incident.
Also released was the previously redacted portion of a letter from Wiley to band director Mike Leckrone, which Leckrone voluntarily read aloud. In that passage, Wiley says he is "not optimistic" about Leckrone's ability to bring a permanent end to the band members' alleged misconduct.
It was a sentiment Nagy echoed Thursday.
"[W]hen you see prior conversations repeatedly lose their efficacy over time, you at some point become skeptical that further conversation is going to continue to provide the outcome you're looking for," he said.
For his part, the 70-year-old Leckrone acknowledged his age may finally be catching up with him, a message Leckrone said he relayed to the band at Wiley's Oct. 5 meeting.
"I told them it was the first time in 38 years I wondered if I've been on this job too long," Leckrone said. "If there's a disconnect because I'm so much older … then I shouldn't be doing it."
Although Leckrone said he has since been regenerated by the band's positive attitude in the face of the sexualized hazing scandal, Wiley wrote in his letter that a single future instance of inappropriate conduct would force him to consider "wholesale changes" in the band's leadership.
Nagy was noncommittal Thursday when asked whether the legendary band director's job is on the line.
"I would emphasize that the chancellor and Mike have approached this over the last several years in consultative fashion and have tried to work together to address this problem," Nagy said.
The university also refused to disclose whether or not it was band members who filed the complaints from the Michigan trip, and Nagy also said that to his knowledge there are no threats of lawsuits or pending criminal action.
He did, however, reveal that a sexual harassment complaint against a UW staff member is now under review with the Office for Equity and Diversity. Nagy would not elaborate further but to say that it "came out of [the] context" of the Michigan trip.
It is also unclear what would happen should further allegations of misconduct against the band arise. The band is scheduled to perform tomorrow at the Badgers' homecoming game against the University of Minnesota, which can sometimes be a raucous event.
In his Oct. 3 letter to Leckrone, Wiley placed the band on probation and threatened "virtual extinction for a significant period of time" should any more embarrassing incidents arise.
Leckrone, who called the band's conduct this year "markedly" different from years past, said he will schedule harassment training for the entire band Monday, as was required in Wiley's letter.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 7:43am):
Son, did you prefer to keep your hair?
Yes sir.
The band is banned, now let's get you a Pedro wig from goodwill. Oh my gosh, is that a semi-nude band member? I've been on this job way too long. If I see man-nipples or a hairy ass crack once more, I'm going to freak!
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 7:48am):
Way to go WisconSIN...
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 8:27am):
Are you kidding me?
Chancellor Cotton Mather should spend some time in the football, basketball, or rowing team locker rooms and get back to us on how bad things are with the band.
This is the same guy that freaked out over the UW's party school ranking a few years back. He should stop worrying about what students do for fun and start standing up to the State Legislature who wants to "purify" UW of all "liberal" bias as well as continuing to solidify the university's academic reputation.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 10:03am):
Hey, "are you kidding me"
Do you actually believe its allright to create the kind of violent atmosphere described in todays article. You might need some sensitivity training in a local prison "boys club". Clearly in your sheltered little life you've never had to surrender you personal rights!!
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 10:17am):
Considering all the actual criminal _charges_ and __convictions__ that have occured on the football team in the last 10 years, this band thing is hardly worth acknowledging.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 10:39am):
Kudos to 8:27am. I was a rower for four years. Yes, I got my head shaved as a freshman. I had to refill some beer cups and was on the recieving end of some jokes. No, I didn't love it, but I didn't think it was anything worse than kids in the Greek system (or the band for that matter) had to go through.
There is something to be said in the strange little rituals that make you part of something bigger than yourself. Was it hazing? Sure. Would I have liked to say "no thanks?" Yeah, and I probably could have...but going through a shared experience is something that I will never forget. Traditions are traditions and serve a purpose, for better or worse.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 10:51am):
Was Casey Nagy the one who got his head shaved? Looks like it to me? For years and years the Band and the master Michael Leckrone have done a wonderful job and make all of us in the state of Wisconsin proud. These antics...I think are very minor and don't compare to other happenings on campus that we all know about. Was Wiley one of these want-to-be band members and never made it? What ever it is... just drop it! I think there are more important things he should be digging into... and we all know what those things are. Show me one organization that does not have some sort of "welcome to the club" action. It's expected! LEAVE LECKRONE AND THE BAND ALONE. Have Wiley and Nagy look at something of substance... I'm sure someone's moped was stolen again today!
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 12:01pm):
The members of the Marching Band are representatives of this University, and their behavior is a disgrace. I am not talking about just the incident on the Michigan trip, whatever that may have been, but rather the entire hazing culture. I am glad that someone is finally doing something about it. There are many things at University of Wisconsin-Madison for which I feel great pride, and the Marching Band is not one of them.
Those of you who say that their behavior is "not that bad" obviously live in a fantasy child-world where responsibility for one's actions does not exist. Welcome to college. Welcome to adulthood. Grow up.
The members of the band involved in these hazing rituals and other childish behavior should be ashamed to call themselves Badgers.
Obviously the details of the case are still sketchy, but if it is determined that the band should fry, then the band should fry.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 12:27pm):
Of all the issues that have come across Mr. Wiley's desk, why choose this one? Mr. Wiley's focus on the marching band shows his weakness as a leader and administrator when he chooses to threaten firings and suspensions over hazing incidents, yet fails to take such firm stances on issues of true importance.
Had we seen such a strong response while the UW was dealing with the convicted felons on its payroll, the questionable way Barry Alvarez appointed a successor to his former coaching position without following UW hiring policies, or a firm stance one way or the other on Kevin Barrett's place in the classroom, this reaction could have been seen as acceptable.
This is an issue that definetely needs to be addressed if students are feeling threatened or unsafe in the band. However, choosing to launch such an agressive and public attack against a target such as the band and Leckrone while failing to deal with the aforementioned issues which truly needed swift and decisive stances questions Mr. Wiley's ability to discern what really is deserving of his attention.
-Reed Flietner
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 12:40pm):
You putzes don't get it. Sexual harassment is a MAJOR topic in employment and workplace situations nowdays. I understand that many of the students are cool with it -- but some likely aren't That's called a hostile environment and that's sexual harassment too. It isn't just Mike Leckrone patting you on the butt.
The band has a huge group dynamic and there is a tremendous reluctance not to 'rat out' your fellow members -- even if they're not your friend. So where does that leave us?
Well, if the band isn't careful it's going to get the Unversity in a 25 million group sexual harassment lawsuit. See how quickly that ends the band run and Leckrone 'retires'. Don't even come in here with the 'band is crucial' stuff or fundraising stuff.
This is all about the law and liability -- the UW doesn't want to get pinched because Todd from Eau Claire thinks it's funny for a 18 year old freshman female to suck on a sex toy. It isn't by the way.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 1:00pm):
I was in the band two years ago. I quit over the sexual harassment in the band of the 'freshmen'. I actually was not a freshman but a first year in the band and took a lot of crap for not giving into all the hazing. I went to Leckrone after the bowl trip because I was disturbed by the actions of rank 25 who went throughout the bus showing porn on their computer-even to those who did not want to have any part and who forced all the freshmen to make up sex stories of the field assistants. Other hazing happened but it was more abusive-like cramming 10 freshmen into the bus bathroom and shutting the door. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that there were members of Campus Crusade and the band bible study on this trip who either did nothing to stop the hazing or joined in. The bus trip back from the bowl also resulted in me quitting Crusade.
Leckrone's only punishment was to give a vague speech to the band about behaving in general (nothing specific to hazing) and to yell at some of rank 25's members in his office. No other punishment occurred.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 1:03pm):
Most of the current posts above are from current band members covering their asses for being those accused of the hazing. The hazing is serious, harmful, and scarring.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 1:08pm):
Wiley is an a$$hat. As an alum, I hope this guy goes very soon. "Sexualized hazing"? In COLLEGE? Dear me, what is this world coming to?
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 1:17pm):
Is this being carried out under a cloak of secrecy to protect a victim from further victimization? Obviously something happened.
Hasn't all of society become desensitized, and morals become a little lax.
Harrassment training is mandatory in many corporate setting these days. It surely won't hurt, and maybe it will help. What's offensive to me, may not be to you, so we have to meet somewhere in the middle. Let's start with the GREAT UW Band become rolemodels for other students.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 1:22pm):
To clarify about the past cited reports of inappropriate behavior, few of them occured in the past five years of the marching band, and are not within the context of the Michigan trip.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 1:22pm):
How is this any different from what fraternities do? I know for a fact that some fraternities make others pledge far more horrible things. Shouldn't they too be put on such a strict probation?
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 2:19pm):
could you imagine what would have happened if a band member got a free pair of shoesat the shoebox or got stabbed by a girlfriend? Banned forever!!!
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 5:31pm):
I am wondering if what happened on the band trip is more of an excuse to get rid of the current band director, then it is in stopping harrsement. Yes harrsement of under classmen needs to be stopped, but at what cost, lets face facts this same kind of treatment has been going on for decades, on all campuses, all around America, is it right no, but as in this case should all the members of the band be punished, along with the band director for a few bad apples. I don't think so, most of the kids on that trip had no idea what was going on, but yet they will be punished for it. The students who caused this problem should come forward, and end all of this, stop giving the best band in the country a bad name and lets bring respect back to the Madison Marching Band.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 6:19pm):
Apparently, the liberals have their share of pervs. Maybe they should run for Congress.
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 7:13pm):
All you morality police need to get a grip. "Welcome to college. Welcome to adulthood. Grow up." Are you kidding me? Has the concept of college undergone a radical redefinition? I thought college was about enjoying as much debauchery as you could while still maintaining whatever GPA you needed to get into the grad school of your choice.
Joining the UW band does not mean you have to forego your collegiate entitlement to stupidity in the name of fun. And don't start talking about corporate harassment codes just because the only world you know is the cubicle and the canteen. This is not a job that these kids depend on for their livelihoods. And it's not like they were dressed up in their band outfits sodomizing each other with trombone slides while Leckrone watched over and waved his baton. These are college kids doing college stuff.
Yes, hazing can go too far. And I would lead the condemnation if someone had gotten hurt or publicly humiliated -- or sodomized with a trombone slide. But taking the previous commenter's example of being shown porn and having to make up dirty stories and draw dirty pictures...darling, if that's the worst you encounter in life then you are charmed indeed.
The band is not a job one depends on. If you want to be in a band so damn bad, surely the marching band is not your only campus option. Here's what you prohibitionists don't get: some people enjoy a little creative -- or even *gasp* dirty -- hazing. And as long as no one's getting hurt or *publicly* humiliated, what is the big deal?
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 8:38pm):
Grow up kids!
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 11:24pm):
The University of Wisconsin - Madison Marching Band: Turning high school band geeks into criminals since 1885.
(You've got to be kidding me, how pathetic has this world become that another "hazing" incident is in the news for bringing "great distress" to a few individuals who have been protected by mommy and daddy for their last 18+ years.
Talk to your parents and ask them about hazing during their high school and/or college days; then compare that to your own experiences after all the hazing crackdowns over the last ten+ years in these same institutions. I've experienced hazing myself, but still beleive that it is an important part of our culture that helps us to grow personally and learn to overcome adversity together with others in the same situation. Nobody likes being "hazed" when it is occurring, but yet most of us look back, laugh, and grow from the situation.
I hope this country's recent love affair with pampering and "protecting" our youth is not going to come back to haunt us as we grow into America's next generation of leaders.)
Anonymous (October 13, 2006 @ 11:33pm):
Yeah, it's OK to bash Foley for what he did with pages, which serves him right. But the hazing in the marching band is perfectly OK? What lez fantasy had to be fulfilled before two girls could use the bathroom? What the hell is up with liberals in this country when this kind of crap is tolerated?
Anonymous (October 14, 2006 @ 1:17pm):
As a five-year band veteran from the mid-1970s and 50% of the first married couple in the Wisconsin Band (my wife was one of the first seven women in the band...and probably one of the best marchers on the field)I am deeply distressed by all of the articles I have been reading. Some elements of the band have clearly changed, a few for the worse it seems. But I would guess there are a few thousand UW alums who would run through a brick wall for Mike Leckrone, and he deserves a chance to clean this up. Alvarez may have taken us to a few Rose Bowls, but no one has done more for UW spirit (and frankly, put more $$$ in UW coffers during the decades when UW football was lower than whale #$!&) than Mike. Has the band always been tough, lewd and crude, at least "among themselves"? Probably....but I can tell you we loved and befriended our bus drivers, were (at least publicly) respectful to opposing fans (though not goalies :-) ) and tried to upphold the best of tradition while still being a class act...and one of the best bands in the country. While there is no place for explicit harrassment in corporate boardrooms, college fraternities or the back of Badger Buses....I think the lewdness of the early years was pretty contained and pretty tame, and I would be very surprised if anyone ever really felt unsafe--even those first seven women among 200 guys. It sounds as if some things have changed, and if that is the case, I think Mike deserves a chance to address this head on (and if he has already had multiple chances, then I haven't heard about it.). If at that point, things don't improve....shame on the few who are spoiling almost 40 years of the "best band in the land".....
Anonymous (October 15, 2006 @ 5:32pm):
Are we in Kindergarten or College? I personally feel that Wiley should step down immediately as Chancellor. His disgracefull leadership skills are the real problem here.
Here is one for you. Lets blow up the band story so we don't have to talk about this quack professor who claims our government is out to kill us all?
Be carefull what you wish for, you just might get it. You want to lose a lot of alumni dollars, get rid of the band.
Anonymous (October 15, 2006 @ 8:21pm):
As a member of the UW Marching Band in the late 70's and early 80's, there was certainly no shortage of "colorful" language on band trips - including "alternate" lyrics to every Big 10 fight song. But in every case I can recall, the band kept this behavior strictly within it's own ranks, never intended to hurt, intimidate, or harrass anyone (aside from the usual chants of "sieve" at an opposing goalie or joining in with the Camp Randall crowd to express displeasure about the poor record of UW's Head football coach). In public, the band were true ambassadors of Badger spirit - the closest we got to the edge in public was humming the Michigan fight song ("Hail to those humm humm humm...)as we paraded to Michigan stadium - a behavior that got many more smiles from Wolverine fans than jeers. Even our "affectionate" lyical greeting for our Bus Driver was greeted with a grin ("We love you Elrod...").
25 years later, the stuff we did in the 70's wouldn't (and shouldn't) pass as acceptable behavior today. It's just not worth taking the "chance" that you might inadvertantly offend someone - either inside or outside the Band. Corporate America has learned it's lesson the hard way - and the UW Band and it's leadership needs needs to change behaviors with the times. Things should be better today than they were 25 years ago - not worse. If indeed the hazing rituals, harassment, and behavior today are orders of magnitude more explicit that in my day (as one might infer from Wiley's comments), then the UW Band and it's leadership have been asleep at the switch way too long.
If, as Wiley claims, the Band (and Mike) have been warned multiple times in the past and didn't clean up the act, it's no surprise that UW is poised to come down hard - even on the incredible institution that Mike Leckrone has built over 38 years!
Don't get me wrong - Mike's enthusiasm, energy, coaching, and mentoring is legendary. He has positively impacted the lives of 1000's of band members over the years - giving them an experience, sense of devotion, and "espirt d'corps" that will be unequalled for the rest of their lives. But Mike and the Band Members must deal with this most recent problem swiftly and decisively. It would be a tragedy if the UW Band institution that Mike spent a lifetime (yes - a LIFETIME) crumbles under these issues - let the UW Band clean it's own house and show the University that they are prepared to be the finest Badgers anywhwere!
