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Hazing News

50 Hazing Deaths since 2000

My colleague Dean Harwood has taken my list of hazing deaths and broken down the incidents into easily understood categories.  I will excerpt here, but I recommend you read his entire blog post.

Nice job, Mr. Harwood.

Using information from Hank Nuwer’s list of hazing deaths, this is the 50th entry for a college student’s death from hazing/pledging since we moved into the 2000s.

Of those 50 deaths:

  • Four have been from Asian/Asian-Interest Fraternities.
  • Six have come from National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) chapters.
  • Nine are from unrecognized/suspended/local/sub-rosa groups.
  • Two are non-fraternity/sorority related.
  • 29 come from 17 different NIC member fraternities.
  • Five women have died, 45 men.
  • Four incidents have resulted in two deaths, one incident had four deaths.
  • Lambda Phi Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, and Theta Chi have each had three deaths at three different campuses.
  • California State-Chico has had three deaths from three different incidents.
  • November (11) and February (9) are the deadliest times of the year.

Here are some details. You can check for additional information on Hank Nuwer’s list.

Non-Fraternity/Sorority (2)

Minnesota-Duluth Rugby

Florida A&M Band

Asian Fraternities (NAPA) (4)

Lambda Phi Epsilon

  • San Francisco State
  • UC-Irvine
  • Texas

Pi Delta Psi

  • Baruch College

NIC Member Fraternities (29)

Alpha Tau Omega

  • University of Georgia

Chi Psi

  • Colorado

Delta Kappa Epsilon

  • Yale (4)

Delta Tau Delta

  • Wabash College
  • Northern Colorado

Kappa Sigma

  • University of Miami

Phi Kappa Tau

  • Bradley University
  • Rider University

Phi Sigma Kappa

  • Maryland

Pi Kappa Alpha

  • Nevada – Reno
  • Northern Illinois

Pi Kappa Phi

  • California State – Chico

Sigma Alpha Epsilon

  • Texas
  • Cal Poly
  • Cornell

Sigma Alpha Mu

  • Delaware

Sigma Chi

  • Oklahoma

Sigma Nu

  • Utah State

Sigma Pi

  • California State – Chico

Tau Kappa Epsilon

  • San Diego State (2)
  • Radford University

Theta Chi

  • Indiana University
  • Lenoir-Rhyne College
  • Fresno State

Zeta Beta Tau

  • Alfred University

NPHC Fraternities/Sororities (6)

Alpha Kappa Alpha

  • California State – Los Angeles (2)

Delta Sigma Theta

  • East Carolina University (2)

Omega Psi Phi

  • Tennessee State

Phi Beta Sigma

  • Prairie View A&M

Unrecognized/Local/Sub Rosa/etc. (9)

Chi Tau

  • California State – Chico

Delta Gamma Iota

  • Vincennes University

Kappa Delta Rho

  • Lafayette College

Kappa Phi Theta

  • Rochester Institute of Technology

Men of Honor

  • Virginia State (2)

PIGS Drinking Club

  • SUNY – Geneseo

Psi Epsilon Chi

  • SUNY – Plattsburgh

Sigma Kappa Omega Sorority

  • Plymouth State (NH)

Summary by Year

  • 2000 – 2
  • 2001 – 4
  • 2002 – 7
  • 2003 – 8
  • 2004 – 2
  • 2005 – 3
  • 2006 – 1
  • 2007 – 1
  • 2008 – 5
  • 2009 – 2
  • 2010 – 3
  • 2011 – 3
  • 2012 – 5
  • 2013 – 4

Summary by Month

  • January – 5
  • February – 9
  • March – 3
  • April – 5
  • May – 1
  • August – 2
  • September – 5
  • October – 6
  • November – 11
  • December – 3

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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