Union College and a national sorority have opened an investigation into hazing claims made by a graduate of the school in a column for Cosmopolitan, in which she claimed the ban practice was "weirdly worth it."

According to Inside Higher Ed, the column prompted Union leaders to ask the national heads of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority to help with an investigation into the allegations of hazing made by Tess Koman in the current issue of Cosmo magazine.

In the meantime, Union officials asked the school's Sigma Delta Tau chapter to put pledging on hold for this semester.

"We don't tolerate hazing at Union," a college spokesman, Phillip Wajda, wrote in a statement to Inside Higher Ed. "The column references incidents that allegedly took place three years ago and we are working with the national chapter of Sigma Delta Tau to review the claims."

The examples of hazing described by Koman included sexualized dancing for fraternity brothers, being forced to share a bathroom with 42 pledges while not being allowed to leave a basement, demeaning comments about appearance and being given condescending pledge names.

"From the very beginning, one message colors everything you do: if you want what we have, if you want to be worthy of our attention, if you want to be one of us, you'll do what we say," Koman wrote. "Oh, also? You are not to tell ANYONE (author's emphasis) about it."

Hazing is a violation of New York state law and is therefore against Union's policy.

However, Union's dean of students Stephen Leavitt told the Concordinesis, the school's student newspaper, that the sorority sisters mentioned in Koman's column will not be subject to punishment from the school. The chapter could receive sanctions pending the results of the investigation.

None of the people mentioned are students at the school any longer, but Charles Assini, an attorney at Union, said anyone mentioned to commit acts of hazing in the article could face legal trouble.

"It is possible that a local chapter and involved individuals in a hazing incident could be named in civil litigation and possibly cast in liability depending upon the nature of the acts and damages in any particular case," Assini told Concordiensis.

Debbie Snyder, Sigma Delta Tau's national executive director, confirmed the investigation as well.

"Sigma Delta Tau Sorority does not condone hazing," she said. "Our mission of empowering women at both the undergraduate and alumnae level is in the forefront of all sorority activities, and hazing is absolutely against our values and policies."