Hazing in Thai universities is known as SOTUS. In recent years, SOTUS has made the headlines frequently for its notorious corollaries, from scandalous acts to the deaths of a few freshmen every year. Calls to end the practice recur every time a scandal breaks out, but defenders of hazing are many, and influential, and include not only students and prominent alumni, but also professors and university administrators.
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The English acronym “SOTUS” stands for “Seniority Order Tradition Unity Spirit”. It is said
to be an import from the United States, although this claim has never been substantiated.
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While initiation rites still exist in many American colleges, hazing has been prohibited across that country for some time, even in military academies schools. Interestingly, if one searches on the
Internet, “SOTUS” refers to initiation rites in Thailand
alone, despite its English name. Why does SOTUS thrive only in Thai universities? At a time when Thai higher education is preoccupied with international reputation and ranking, and its universities are trying to become world-class institutions, one must ask why college administrators and many scholars staunchly support the practice instead of getting rid of it in order to improve university rankings. This essay argues that Thai society as it is today is fertile soil for hazing. Regardless of its origin, hazing has been localized and transplanted on Thai soil, where it has flourished. SOTUS is now Thai. Some observers claim that it has flourished even more in the past decade or so. If true, this means that it fits and expresses Thai conditions in the past decade even better than before. SOTUS is more than merely teenage play. Instead, it reflects serious problems in Thai society today.