Student suicide raises questions about UCF Pike

[adpiucf]

http://www.ucfnews.com/news/831200.html?page=1

Article highlights:
The apparent suicide of a UCF fraternity pledge in November has prompted police to open two investigations surrounding his death.

John Yancy, 19, was found dead Nov. 19 in his Oviedo home, with a handgun at his side, by a roommate who called police.

...

[A family friend] said Yancy had never done drugs before entering college. Based upon incidents described by Yancy prior to his death, she blamed Pi Kappa Alpha for distributing drugs to its members.

...

On Nov. 14, five days before his death, Yancy was arrested for possession of cocaine and Xanax. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office report, Yancy said the drugs were for his own use. He referred to the Xanax as a "xanny bar." In Yancy's wallet after his death, investigators found a Post-It note that read, "8 - Bars $30," suggesting a sale or purchase.

...

On the day Yancy died, police found items in his bedroom that included several prescription medications, $230 in cash, five cell phones, many bags containing a white powder and residue, a measuring scale and several bongs, marijuana plants and syringes. They also found a safe and a combination to that safe. The combination was addressed to a UCF student. Inside the safe were more bags containing a white, powdery substance.

...

Yancy's family and friends want the investigation to take a hard look at the actions of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity members.

"He had told us about them beating him up," the family friend said. "At the funeral, members of Pi Kappa Alpha told very disgusting stories."

One of the restrained stories involved Yancy being high one night, and members of the fraternity shaving his sideburns off. A more disturbing story involved fraternity members tying up pledges and women visitors, and forcing them to take drugs until they passed out, she said.

...

Yancy's mother had tried to talk to UCF President John Hitt and other members of the administration about her concerns with the fraternity, but that she didn't get the answers she was looking for. "They just kind of blew her off. The president didn't even acknowledge [John's death]," she said.

[adpiucf]

When I was a student, the UCF Pikes had the reputation of being jocks and were a top fraternity. There were always rumors about steroid use in the house, and a lot of the guys were very "built." They've gone through ups and downs with the quality of their members.

From what I have heard from students and local alumni, UCF has started to attract more students who engage in recreational substance abuse.

I hope the police, Pike and the university are able to determine what caused this student to commit suicide, and that if there were fraternity brothers who helped foster a drug habit, that those members are held accountable.

ETA: My observations of Pike are from my time as a UCF student in the late 1990s. My comments about UCF and a new drug subculture come from talking with current students, university alumni, etc. I do not think the Greek community has experienced any wide effects as a result of this drug subculture, nor are all the students drug addicts or users. But recently, there are more and more reports of student drug use at UCF.

[DeltAlum]

Emotions run high after any death, sometimes even higher when someone so young takes his/her life.

It's best to let the university and law enforcement officials finish their investigations before coming to any conculsions -- or allowing speculation to paint the wrong picture.

We have seen parents, in their grief, who have not been entirely fair with schools, law enforcement and Greek organizations. On the other hand, sometimes they have brought to light serious problems.

Again, I think it's important to allow the authorities a little time before anyone rushes to judgement.

[epsilon99]

Not trying to discredit the story at all but its important to be certain about these things when making claims. There is a big rumor on my campus that you had to do cocaine during pledging at my fraternity. I have never done cocaine in my life but everyone on my campus assumes I have. I always try to discredit this rumor.

[adpiucf]

The Central Florida Future, UCF's student newspaper, isn't known for being Greek-Friendly. One of my all-time favorite headlines was something along the lines of "Sorority gets wet, Fraternity gets hammered" ... it was an article about the hurricanes that hit Central Florida (one of the sorority houses lost a roof during the rain, and a fraternity was helping board up windows...)

You get the idea.

[ZTAngel]

I don't think there's a single fraternity on the UCF campus that I haven't heard stories about hazing activities. Most of the activities are pretty tame and probably wouldn't cause any physical/mental harm to the pledges. Every once in a while you'd hear about some not-so-tame activities but never to the extent of tying pledges up with female visitors and making them take drugs. I'm not saying that this never happened but I really find it hard to believe.

But, unfortunately, I've been hearing more and more about recreational drug abuse at UCF. When I first joined, it was very uncommon to find members of the greek community who abused hard core drugs. I just hardly ever heard anything except for twice when 2 different fraternities each expelled their members for GHB usage. After my graduation, I've been hearing countless stories about UCF greeks who are abusing these drugs. I don't know why this drug culture has suddenly grown but I really hope it ends not only for the sake of risk-management issues but for the well-being of the students.

Pike always had a rep for being the jocks, the partiers, the steroid users but never the hard core drug users. The guys I knew in Pike were not like that so I'm really hoping these allegations are false.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by adpiucf
http://www.ucfnews.com/news/831200.html?page=1


[A family friend] said Yancy had never done drugs before entering college. Based upon incidents described by Yancy prior to his death, she blamed Pi Kappa Alpha for distributing drugs to its members.

...

On Nov. 14, five days before his death, Yancy was arrested for possession of cocaine and Xanax. According to the Orange County Sheriff's Office report, Yancy said the drugs were for his own use. He referred to the Xanax as a "xanny bar." In Yancy's wallet after his death, investigators found a Post-It note that read, "8 - Bars $30," suggesting a sale or purchase.

...

On the day Yancy died, police found items in his bedroom that included several prescription medications, $230 in cash, five cell phones'; many bags containing a white powder and residue, a measuring scale and several bongs, marijuana plants and syringes. They also found a safe and a combination to that safe. The combination was addressed to a UCF student. Inside the safe were more bags containing a white, powdery substance.

I don't mean to be dismissive or anything, but a family friend would probably not know whether or not the kid did drugs in high school. That's not exactly something you go around sharing with casual acquaintances. And let's face it, you don't usually go from non-drug-user to that hardcore in three months no matter who you start hanging out with.

And even if he did get into drugs mostly because of the fraternity, this is still a choice he made. The other fraternity members should be held accountable for their actions if the accusations are true (hazing, tying people up and forcing drugs on them, etc.), but there needs to be some personal accountability here as well.

[HPU PIKE]

very sorry to hear about this. just a bad situation across the board. my thoughts are with the friends and family of the young man, they are going through an unimaginable hell right now.

[alphagamgirlie]

Wow, I'm currently subleasing an apartment from Heidi, the girl who wrote that article...small world.
^^Sorry about that, now onto the real post^^

I'm just surprised that Pike's Orlando Alumni Association isn't stepping in to do anything about Eta Phi's image or whatever & their low chapter GPA. It's not like Pike has a chapter at Rollins that the local alums have to look out for or any other chapter for that matter in the area. Last semester I had a Microbiology class with a Pike alum from a chapter up north who's active with the local alumni association. (He was in either his late 30s or early 40s, so he's with the alumni association instead of being like one of those young alums who still hang out with a collegiate chapter) We learned that the local alums had no idea about some of the events that happened. When we mentioned that one Pike incident they had by landing one XYZ girl into a coma for a month, the alum acted like he was hearing about it for the FIRST time (this was something well-known, AND not something un-well-known like which sorority was the girl a sister of that ran over & killed 2 little girls last semester in October out on Goldenrod Rd about 5 min from campus.)

I don't know what's up with their connection with the alums, I remember when my chapter was having major financial problems with debt, our local alumnae chapter stepped in to do all our paperwork and everything for us, and took over our $$$ problem & basically became our VP of Finance for a year so that we could get back financially together again

[CarolinaDG]

It's curious that Cashmoney hasn't responded yet.

I don't know the whole story, so I really don't have an opinion. BUT it always makes me wonder why we're so quick to blame a fraternity for a fraternity member's drug use. If everyone in my sorority smoked weed, and I didn't want to smoke it, I wouldn't smoke it. It is tragic that this happened, I just wish the blame wouldn't go straight to the fraternity.

[Tom Earp]

Rumors can run rampant cant they!

So until the proof is in?

But isnt it usually true that the few can screw it up for the many?

Not ever Memeber of a Chapter is a Doper or an Alkie. There are many reasons that a individual does what this young man did.

The sad part, is that no one may ever know!

Just waiting to see what the verdict is.

[mmcat]

the whole thing remains so sad...
no matter who did it or helped it happen...

[ZTAngel]

Originally posted by alphagamgirlie
this was something well-known, AND not something un-well-known like which sorority was the girl a sister of that ran over & killed 2 little girls last semester in October out on Goldenrod Rd about 5 min from campus.

That's actually very well-known. Most people know what sorority she is in. Especially because either The Future or The Orlando Sentinel (can't remember which one) included it in the article that they did about it.

[adpiucf]

Originally posted by alphagamgirlie

I don't know what's up with their connection with the alums, I remember when my chapter was having major financial problems with debt, our local alumnae chapter stepped in to do all our paperwork and everything for us, and took over our $$$ problem & basically became our VP of Finance for a year so that we could get back financially together again

Ummm, maybe because you were a sorority member with a chapter having a financial issue... and this is a fraternity (alleged) risk management situation. Apples and oranges. Alumnae associations are asked for money and occasional mentoring support. They're not officially looped in on most risk management issues -- hence the reasoning behind having trained volunteers like advisors and national officers.

[Rudey]

This does bring in a very good point.

Which alumni would be easily willing to step up to the plate if there is a huge risk management issue for an undergraduate chapter?

I know that risk might be transferred onto you and the liability would be scary.

-Rudey