Sonoma State University hired Leonard Serrato as the new lead campus advisor for fraternity and sorority life this summer. Serrato’s on a mission to make the most out of his time at Sonoma State.
Serrato was involved in a hazing related death while attending Fresno State in 2012, where one of his pledges died from excessive drinking caused by hazing. Serrato plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of hazing and providing alcohol to a minor causing death in 2014. According to the Press Democrat, he was sentenced to 90 days in the Fresno County Jail, 90 days in the county’s adult offender work program, three years probation, and a $220 fine.
“When I was new member educator, one of our new members passed away from a hazing related incident and it was that incident that truly inspired me and opened up my eyes to what my mission and purpose is in life and that is to educated students on hazing,” Serrato said.
One of Serrato’s duties as new member educator was to purchase alcohol for the parties; these actions were directly related to the new member, Philip Dhanens’ death. Dhanens died at his initiation from swelling of the brain due to acute alcohol consumption after drinking about 37 shots, according to the Press Democrat.
Serrato was charged with misdemeanor hazing and a misdemeanor contributing to alcohol because of his role as new member educator within his fraternity, Theta Chi. Because of these charges, Serrato was suspended from school, spent 45 days in jail, served 720 community service hours, and did not graduate on time. The fraternity, Theta Chi, was later suspended by their national organization and Fresno State University.
“Philip Dhanens is always in the back of my mind, he is the driving force behind everything that I do when it comes to working with our students, because the night that he passed away I pledged to him and his family that I would not let his death be in vain.”
Serrato said he had a different college experience than most, because he attended three different junior colleges and later transferred to Fresno State where he graduated with a B.A. in Psychology.
While attending Fresno State, Serrato said he rushed a fraternity because he didn’t know anyone.
He later held leadership roles within the chapter, he served as brotherhood chairman, alumni relations, assistant new member educator, new member educator and IFC representative.
After graduation, Serrato was working toward applied behavioral analysis with autistic children, but because of his hazing experience through his fraternity he decided to change the trajectory of his life. Serrato was hired on at Fresno State as the assistant Greek life advisor where he implemented a new policy on new member education and hazing prevention. “That experience was amazing, I would not have been able to come into Sonoma State had I not had the experience I had at Fresno State,” said Serrato.
With Sonoma State being one of his top choices, Serrato applied for Greek life advisor roles all over the country. Serrato said that Sonoma State was one of his top choices because of the location—it being closer to his family—and the large concentration of Greeks on a smaller campus. “I saw there was a lot of opportunity within the greek life community,” Serrato said.
Some of Serrato’s main goals as Sonoma State’s new Greek life advisor is to implement hazing prevention strategies, to focus on rape culture prevention, sexual misconduct, and alcohol use and misuse. Serrato said that he wants to support the students by giving them stability. “I felt like that was something they were lacking in an advisor, and I have a clear path I want to take in creating a structure that gives them a sense of security,” Serrato said.
While in graduate school, Serrato wrote a called, ‘Greek Life Hazed and Confused’. In the book, he speaks about his experiences and the need to empower new members to give them their voices back. Serrato said that new members can shift the alcohol and hazing culture after attaining the proper education about what hazing looks like and the multiple levels of hazing.
“We are working with the Max Gruver Foundation, Max is one of the four individuals that passed away last year to a hazing incident and working with that to bring more hazing awareness on to campus.”
Serrato said his future plans would include traveling around to universities across the country to give keynote speeches about his hazing incident experience and educating students on hazing prevention. “I do not want anyone else go through the awful experience that I went through, there are so many ways in which we can take action and prevent these things from happening again,” Serrato said.
Daisy Agers, the president of Alpha Gamma Delta Sorority at Sonoma State said, “Leo has already made changes in our community by rebranding us, instead of Greek Life, he wants the new brand to be Fraternity and Sorority Life. Leo is working on making Greek Life more positive at school and in the community.”
