Alum Brad Nahrstadt ‘89 was invited back to campus on Monday to speak about hazing prevention to the campus community. The talk, organized by Sigma Phi Epsilon, aimed to educate students about hazing, its impact on college campuses, and how it can be prevented.
“Hazing is all about power,” Nahrstadt explained. “When someone has something another person wants, like membership, acceptance, or playing time, they’re in a position to use that power to make someone do things just to belong. That’s a dangerous dynamic.”
Nahrstadt is a former Grand President of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. While at Monmouth, he was a member of Sig Ep and served one term as chapter president. He is now retired after serving as a title lawyer for over 30 years.
Nahrstadt has remained very involved in Sigma Phi Epsilon since graduation, serving as a district governor, on the national board of directors, and eventually as grand president. He expressed a passion for wanting to preserve the best parts of fraternity and sorority life. “I love being Greek,” Nahrstadt said. “But hazing continues to be a blight on the Greek experience. It continues to maim and kill kids who are in the prime of their lives. Hazing is antithetical to what Greek letter organizations stand for and why they were founded. It’s a cancer that needs to be cut out.”
Nahrstadt emphasized that hazing often persists because it is easier than creating meaningful, rewarding experiences for new members. Developing supportive and constructive programs takes time and effort, he said, while hazing becomes “the lazy way out” for organizations that want to maintain control without putting in the work.
“I want everyone to know that hazing in all forms is dangerous and that it can have real, life-altering consequences—for both the person who is doing the hazing and the person who is being hazed,” he said. “That it goes against everything that the founders of the college, our fraternities, and our sororities stood for when they founded our organizations. That they need to address the small things so that the small things don’t morph into big things.”