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Hazing News

Fiji expelled from University of Connecticut

Close call but death averted at U. Conn Fiji chapter last February.

CT reports: Phi Gamma Delta, commonly known as FIJI, was notified Sept. 30 that it had been “permanently separated from the university with no opportunity to return in the future as a recognized student organization,” UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said.

Moderator: U Conn Fiji was a colony in 2011 and chartered in 2013.  It last held a rush event in the fall of 2020.

Past history: 2017

The Delta Gamma fraternity council said it would be closing the Epsilon Pi sorority chapter at the University of Connecticut following the death of a member of the sorority was struck by a fire department vehicle in October as she was returning home from a fraternity party. The deceased was Jeffny Pally.

In February, six members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity — Patrick Callahan, Matthew Moll, Austin Custodio, Dominic Godi, Dylan Morose and Jonathan Polansky — were arrested and charged with various counts, including permitting a minor to illegally possess alcohol and sale or delivery to minors.

On Monday, the fraternity announced that the UConn chapter of the sorority will close, only weeks after these arrests.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. 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. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

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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