Relaxing in his bedroom and playing on the double bass, Andrew Lohse’s late-night music practice is interrupted by a stream of text messages. “You’re a d – – k,” says the first SMS. “Shut the f – – k up!” says the next.
The 24-year-old Dartmouth College student merely shrugs and turns off his phone. Incoherent rants from raging frat brothers come with the territory when you’ve blown the whistle — or, in their eyes, brought intense shame — on a hallowed college that has long been the educational hothouse for the nation’s elite.
In 2012, Lohse wrote a controversial blog post about the hazing rituals at his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which went viral. His headline-grabbing exposé of the traditions at the $60,000-a-year institution made him a pariah among his preppy former friends.
Undeterred, Lohse has written a book, “Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy,” out Tuesday, about his brutal experiences at the New Hampshire school, which further slams the shady initiation practices behind a number of student deaths.
While Dartmouth pledges have gotten off lightly with the occasional trip to the emergency room, CUNY Baruch freshman Chun “Michael” Deng, 19, died from brain trauma in December 2013 and, in February 2011, Cornell pre-med student George Desdunes, 19, of Brooklyn, succumbed to alcohol poisoning — both allegedly due to pledge activities.
“The people who defend the status quo are on the wrong side of history,” Lohse tells The Post, speaking of the warped customs, which include pledges being forced to guzzle beer until they vomit on each other’s heads — a game known as Doming. Lohse says he eventually became a tormentor himself, making pledges wade in kiddie pools full of vomit, excrement and other bodily fluids.
“Hazing was always part of the system for rank-and-file frat boys. It’s privilege and entitlement — this whole ‘Lord of the Flies’ thing.
“But they didn’t come in as bad kids — they weren’t just released from Rikers Island — they’re fundamentally brilliant, hardworking, talented kids.”
Lohse, who lives with his mom and is working as a part-time bartender in Brattleboro, Vt., is on indefinite “medical leave” from Dartmouth, thanks to the ensuing fallout.
His open letter described debauched scenes straight out of the movie “Animal House” (coincidentally, the 1978 John Belushi film was inspired by the proclivities of Dartmouth’s Alpha Delta fraternity), including being “forced to chug cups of vinegar until I was afraid that I would vomit blood,” and eating so-called “vomlets.”
The account resulted in Dartmouth pursuing charges against him for hazing. Predictably, he lost most of his friends in the fraternity.
Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, a popular news website covering college issues, believes the controversy has added to the conversation about the twin issues of binge drinking and sexual harassment of women on campus.
“We are seeing new policies in which some fraternities are abandoning traditional pledging and promising not to tolerate excessive drinking,” Jaschik tells The Post. “Colleges and universities are cracking down and punishing fraternities and, in some cases, revoking recognition.”
In March, Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s national leadership announced that it was eradicating pledging.
All of this has buoyed Lohse in his crusade. He wants the Greek system to be overhauled, and for women to be allowed membership.
“The only way is to abolish the structure as we know it, or modernize it to the 21st century [by making] it coed,” he says. “Part of the problem with frats is that we’re not in a gender-segregated world anymore.
“The school owes it to its students to abolish the system and repurpose it. Imagine if you could put these gorgeous houses and real estate to a good use, instead of being the place where people vomit on each other.”
To this end, he insists there should be tighter controls on fraternity budgets, particularly the vast amount of money spent on liquor.
“We would routinely drop $30,000 per quarter on alcohol alone,” he recalls, adding that, in 2009, his Dartmouth fraternity paid $40,000 for the big-name rapper Maino to play just three songs at a party.
But he knows he faces an uphill battle, at least when it comes to Dartmouth.
“The alumni’s love of the status quo and the college’s lack of moral courage make it a laughingstock,” says Lohse. “But they need to make the change.
“Yes, they’ll lose donations from these rich, white guys, but the stakeholders in 30 or 40 years will have a different point of view.
“Women won’t write a big, fat check for this reckless behavior to continue in these basements.”