Clemson University suspends all fraternities after freshman’s death
 

South Carolina’s Clemson University has suspended all 24 of its on-campus fraternities following the death of a 19-year-old freshman on Monday.
According to USA Today, fraternity brothers of Tucker Hipps say that the new member from Piedmont, South Carolina went jogging with them on Monday morning, but fell behind and subsequently disappeared. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/c...eshmans-death/


Clemson suspends frat activities after drowning death http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...eath/16142317/

*IFC Fraternities

Thank you for the clarification. I was just about to ask. Using "ALL" made me think it was every fraternity on their campus, not just the IFC.

I wonder what is about to happen?

Wierdly broad brush...
 

The article left me wondering whether the 24 fraternities mentioned represented the entirety of the NIC, and if so, does *every* member of the NIC have that type of report?

If not, I find the idea of idea of limiting the activities of Delta Tau Delta (to pick an example) without limiting those of Kappa Alpha Psi or Kappa Alpha Theta to be really odd...

Wow, bad thread title.

They didn't suspend the fraternities, they suspended PLEDGING ACTIVITIES.

And considering this has already been commented on by a poster who is AN ACTUAL ACTIVE SORORITY MEMBER AT CLEMSON I don't know why this thread is even here. The last thing we need is a poorly written USA Today article.

The campus IFC members are affected, not the NIC member fraternities.

In which thread? I don't remember seeing anything

In the "What do you feel like saying right now?" thread.

I see that LillyPhi has been banned, after others noticed her/his posts were always negative/anti-Greek. SOM seems to have a similar track record.

I posted in the thread LillyPhi started with the misleading title that appears to have been deleted. Points of clarification:

-All social and new member activities have been suspended indefinitely for fraternities that belong to the campus IFC. This means, for example, that our chapter of Beta Upsilon Chi has been suspended, even though they are not a member of the NIC, and it means that none of the NPHC chapters are facing these sanctions.

-All fraternities are required to initiate their new members by 9 PM this Friday unless they have asked for and been approved for an extension. A member of each national organization is required to confirm that the fraternities actually initiated their new members.

-Fraternity philanthropic events and alumni events are being approved on a case-by-case basis. We're in the middle of Sigma Chi's Derby Days right now and various aspects of it are and aren't being cancelled at the last minute. As of right now we have no idea if the annual Homecoming float-building competition is happening or not.

-The first of the Office of Conduct and Ethical Standards (OCES) hearings against fraternities are being heard this week. The number of fraternities with campus charges pending against them keeps changing, and I don't know which ones that is or what the charges are.

-Tucker was a sophomore, not a freshman. This was his first year on campus but he was enrolled in the Clemson University Bridge Program last year, which is similar to other college transition programs found at Texas and Texas Tech.

Why would Kappa Alpha Theta be impacted, when we are not a member of the NIC or IFC?

Well Scencewoman I never gave much thought at all about my posting style or record. If I do see something positive, I would give some thought to posting here. And yes, some of what I post is of a negative report. And not due to me being "anti-Greek". As people who know me in the real world would tell you I am rather "pro-Greek". And negative actions within or by Greeks hurts us all. And in this case, it may be more of the actions of the school than of the GLO's. Time will tell us all which it is.

I guess I missed the other thread when I did a search to see if this had been posted already.

As for source matterial, once it was brought up as a concern, I did a rather fast search of the internet and found more, much more on this story.
Clemson Suspends Activity at 24 Fraternities After Student Dies http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...dent-dies.html

Was 19-year-old Clemson student killed by hazing? University suspends fraternity activities after Sigma Phil Eplison member fell off bridge to his death after 'initiation ritual'

• Tucker Hipps' body was found in Hartwell Lake Monday and investigation into the cause of death continues
• Six students were arrested earlier this year on drug charges in a police sting operation
• All 24 of the campus fraternities are affected by the ban

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz3EHiJFc30

Clemson University suspends all fraternity activities after student death

University officials cite reports of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct but stop short of tying ban to student’s death http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...tivities-death


Clemson Suspends All Fraternity Activities After Student Death http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2014/0...student-death/

If you really are pro Greek, you should be aware that the news media often does a REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD job with Greek terms and to reproduce their headlines whole is foolhardy.

This is quite a Zippy thread.

I know and understand that all too well 33girl. And that observation goes to just about every report on every type of event by any type of media. Part of the reason I read a great deal from many sources.

In this case, usage of terms is a bit problematic. As are the facts of the matter.

Wow. ALL IFC fraternities got slapped with sanctions because ONE pledge died under circumstances that nobody can prove had anything to do with hazing?

As many of you know, back in 1997, a freshman FIJI pledge at MIT died from alcohol poisoning. From all the information I have (I was a grad student at the time, and also did my undergrad at MIT) I'm pretty well convinced it was hazing. The pledge class was provided with a considerable amount of alcohol and had to consume all the alcohol before they could leave the room, and Scott Krueger "took one for the team" as it were, drank way too much booze, and died. (FIJI pulled the chapter's charter.)

We (the undergrad and graduate student body) thought the MIT administration's reaction was pretty extreme. They banned alcohol at any event where anyone under 21 might be in attendance. (They later backed off a bit - IIRC, when the dust settled, alcohol was allowed at events as long as everyone was carded and someone who was TIPS trained was present.)

But that's nothing compared to "OK, a pledge died, we can't prove it's hazing, but there have been incidents of hazing on campus, so we're just going to paint all IFC fraternities with a broad brush and tell them that they must initiate all current pledges immediately and not recruit any new pledges" (indefinitely, as far as I can make out).

My impression is that the suspension is less about this specific incident/this specific fraternity and more to do with problems with the general fraternity culture there. According to the Student Affairs VP, over the past couple weeks alone, the university has gotten at least 15 complaints over hazing, sexual assault, and other problems--and at least 6 of those complaints are serious enough that they're being investigated by the police. To me, that does suggest a crisis that's dire enough to take drastic measures.

The NPHC and NPC groups are either not engaging in the same kinds of practices or nobody is bothering to complain about them doing so, so it's not surprising that they wouldn't be subject to the ban.

We're talking about a student body of nearly 17,000 students. If less than 1:1000 on a campus is experiencing some sort of negative behavior, can we really call it an epidemic?

So a fraternity allegedly hazed hard enough to kill someone. What does the University think compliance with their suspension of pledging activities from groups which already (allegedly) didn't have problems breaking the law by hazing will look like?

The organizations which always follow the rules will do so and the groups which ignored state law and the student code of conduct will continue to do that. Typical overreaction.

You've omitted the part where it's just in the last couple of weeks. and it's not an issue of 1:1000 if it's complaints against organizations. If, out of 15 complaints, 6 of those are important and they deal with multiple fraternities that speaks to a campus culture issue surrounding both pledging and the general social climate.

The other issue is now with Title IX and more people speaking out about sexual assault on campus the university is going to be more cautious. If there are obvious issues related to hazing and increased alcohol consumption during pledging those are also going to connect to more issues related to sexual assault or harassment.

And I'm guessing there's nothing new here. Let the process play out. There should be no action taken against groups who follow the rules.

Well, that's the point. It isn't a student body of 17,000 students that's experiencing these complaints. It's a group of fraternity members consisting of 1600, give or take a hundred (the most recent stats I found on Clemson's IFC were from 2012). Some of those complaints involve multiple fraternities. And the university says that that is substantially above the usual number of complaints they receive in a similar time span.

And in my opinion, one sexual assault allegation is serious enough for the university to take some kind of action. Three in the span of "a few weeks" is beyond the pale and the suspension of activities would be justified on that basis alone.

According to this article, the hazing complaints that are currently being investigated/have recently been investigated involve every single one of the IFC fraternities.

Update:

Clemson will allow some fraternities to resume activities October 10, according to reports. For details and requirements that must be met for a fraternity to resume activities, see

http://www.abcnews4.com/story/267007...-resume-oct-10

Tucker Hipps' parents have filed a $25 million lawsuit in which it is alleged that his death stemmed from a fight over McDonald's biscuits.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/stor...suit/70690688/

I have no words.

I was reading this today. I'm greatly disturbed by the allegations of a coverup by the members and the pledges. If the accusations are true, these guys went to great lengths to hide what happened.

MysticCat or Kevin can probably clarify, but is there "conspiracy after the fact" in cases of manslaughter?

As an insurance defense attorney, I see comolaints filed with courts every day that are full of wild, hugely unsubstantiated claims. It's the nature of the beast, at least where I practice. I would caution anyone from thinking that the allegations in a complaint are all founded on truth or even suspicion.

Not saying that is the case here. Just advising we all read complaints with several grains of salt.

Reading the article, I'm having a hard time seeing manslaughter.