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UCI Hazing Death Suspends Frat Group
By Wendy Leung, Sep 23, 2005
As students at the University of California, Irvine campus reconvene for the start of the 2005 school year, they have one less student group on campus.
Lambda Phi Epsilon, a national Asian fraternity, was placed on emergency suspension by the school and the fraternity’s national president after a Cal Poly Pomona student died in a football game that is suspected as a hazing incident.
Kenny Luong, 19, died after suffering traumatic brain injury from a hard tackle. The Rosemead resident and his classmates were hoping to start a Lambda chapter at Cal Poly. The football game was the last part of the pledging process.
Lt. Jeff Love said Irvine police were “relying on witnesses’ statements,” and had not yet decided “whether or not it was hazing.”
The UC Irvine team reportedly had more players than the Cal Poly team and none wore any protective gear. One Cal Poly pledge said his team was outnumbered 5 to 1.
“The teams were lopsided and that could be some evidence to indicate that it was hazing,” said Love.
UCI’s Lambda chapter had a clean reputation until the tragedy last month. According to Sally Peterson, UCI dean of students, the fraternity held a successful fundraiser last school year for the victims of the tsunami and put in a lot of time raising awareness about the much-needed bone marrow donations for the Asian community. The group’s participation won them a fundraising award from the dean.
Irvine is the fraternity’s fifth chapter and was started in 1989. With 40 members, Peterson said the group is not considered big or popular at a school with such a large Asian population.
“If evidence shows that hazing occurred,” said Peterson citing state anti-hazing laws, “then the Lambdas don’t have a future here.”
Gabriella Manchester, Luong’s high school teacher of three years, recalled that Luong was an excellent student in her conflict mediation class.
“He was the kind of kid that any teacher and parent would be happy to have,” she said, adding that his brother is now in her class at San Gabriel High School.
After Luong’s unfortunate death, fellow pledges at Cal Poly gave up their plans for a fraternity chapter, and opted instead to start a campus community service group in honor of Luong.
Irvine police have interviewed over 30 people, conducted search warrants on people’s homes and seized computers to see whether past e-mails could shed some light on the football game.
Since the incident, UCI’s Lambda chapter has shut down its website and no members returned e-mails for this article.
Run-in with the Law
The recent death of Kenny Luong, a prospective Lambda Phi Epsilon member, follows other unfortunate events that may have seriously tarnished the fraternity’s reputation.
San Jose State University Lambda member Alam Kim was stabbed to death on his 23rd birthday in a 2003 fight between Lambda and its rival Pi Alpha Phi. Three others were stabbed and one suffered a head injury. The melee drew around 100 people including members from UC Santa Cruz.
UC Davis Lambda members were disciplined in 2002 after they broke into the Pi Alpha Phi house and vandalized personal property and emblems considered by the rival fraternity as sacred.
At UC Riverside in 2001, police found narcotics including ecstasy and LSD during a drug raid at the Lambda house, after an undercover cop bought drugs from the fraternity’s president.
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