Investigations. Allegations of hazing. They're nothing new to Sigma Nu.
Rumors and allegations of hazing have swirled around ASU's Sigma Nu chapter this semester after a complaint was filed against the organization in December. Since then, university officials have been gathering information about a hazing-related incident at a chapter function.
However, Tempe is only one of several university towns to see their Sigma Nu chapter accused of illegal activities. Since 1997, six other Sigma Nu chapters have been accused of hazing; some chapters have been proven guilty, while others have been wrongfully accused.
"I wouldn't say it's an epidemic...I don't think that's accurate," said David Glassman, Sigma Nu's national director of insurance and risk reduction.
"It's important to look at hazing as a continuum," Glassman said "There are situations that are not dangerous, ones that are silly. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got dangerous acts like forced consumption of alcohol, physically abusive things, etcetera."
Hazing apparently extends beyond booze, beatings and torment, though.
In 1998, Emory University in Atlanta suspended their Sigma Nu chapter for "psychologically hazing" a pledge class with a stripper at their campus fraternity house.
Hazing was not intended, but the university's perception that pledges were made uncomfortable during the stripper's performance led to the suspension.
"There is no clear, scientific way to say 'this is hazing,'" Glassman said. "The word 'discomfort' can be misconstrued."
Proven innocent
In September, Texas A&M University immediately suspended their Sigma Nu chapter for two years after a member of the fall pledge class claimed he was hazed.
Due to the severity of the student's allegations, the university sought the swiftest actions possible. But after reviewing the raw facts, their hasty decision was overturned.
Chapter president Brian Appel said the allegations were entirely untrue.
"It was almost like we were presumed guilty before we could prove ourselves innocent," Appel said.
The Texas A&M chapter institutes certain rules for their pledge class to follow. Appel said few people understood the entire story behind the allegations against his organization, or the motive behind the accusatory party.
"Our policy for pledgeship is dry and drug free," Appel said. "That caused the disgruntled former pledge to go to the university, after he was caught smoking weed in the woods at a chapter event."
The Sigma Nu house at Washington State University also found its name in the newspaper with "hazing" in the headline.
In March of last year, the Associated Press reported that Pullman, Wash. police would recommend charging Sigma Nu with hazing after a student was found duct-taped to a bed during a fire.
The "hazed" student turned out to be a cousin of a fraternity member. The two family members had been playing practical jokes on each other. Though a fire broke out - proving the duct-taping to be a poor joke - the student wasn't hazed, as newspaper reports insinuated.
"(The student) wasn't even a fraternity member," Glassman said. "It wasn't a hazing situation. But someone did make a bad decision."
The situation at WSU was magnified, in part, because of an incident at the same Sigma Nu house in 1998, when a drunken member of the fraternity fell out of a second-story window and fractured his skull.
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Okla. saw their Sigma Nu chapter dragged into court.
In 1997, a former pledge sued the fraternity for over $20,000, citing 13 acts of hazing.
According to a wire article in the Sept. 5, 1997 Arizona Daily Wildcat, allegations included "spitting and urinating on pledges...and requiring pledges to get signatures on their private parts at the female residence halls."
University of Arkansas
The university revoked Sigma Nu's charter for hazing during the Fall 2000 semester.
After a weekend trip, some pledges returned home to find their material possessions destroyed and their clothes thrown outside.
The incident, in addition to past incidents of fighting and financial problems, led to the university's decision.
Tulane University
Tulane's Sigma Nu chapter had their charter revoked by their national office after the Spring 2001 rush. The fraternity is no longer recognized by the university.
Tulane claimed the fraternity had hazed several pledges.
Rape allegations tied to Sigma Nu
Two women reported being raped at two different Sigma Nu chapters.
The Seattle Times reported a 20-year-old UW student was allegedly raped on April 27, 2000 at the Sigma Nu house. The organization released a statement saying the attacker was not a member of the fraternity.
In 1998, the St.Louis Post-Dispatch reported another rape to have occurred in Columbia, Mo. at the University of Missouri's Sigma Nu chapter on Sept. 10 of that year. The woman was a university student, and she identified a suspect, though it wasn't clear in the newspaper's report if the person was a Sigma Nu member.
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