Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

USU has no plans to increase oversight of Greeks
Hazing » Past pledges were encouraged to drink, charges allege

By Brian Maffly

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 01/05/2009 06:55:47 PM MST

Although prosecutors allege a fatal fraternity initiation prank followed a recurring pattern, Utah State University officials say they have no plans to more closely monitor its affiliated Greek-letter societies.

Hazing charges filed Friday in Logan’s 1st District Court allege that Sigma Nu fraternity pledges have been encouraged to drink at past induction events. That came as a surprise to campus officials, according to USU general counsel Craig Simper.

“These so-called initiations are very private, sometimes secretive. Only members are invited to participate,” Simper said Monday. Any notion that the school can and should track the activities of fraternities and sororities, which count 308 members in 10 chapters at the Logan campus, is misguided, he added.

“That’s a double-edged sword,” Simper said. “Why would we want to assume that kind of responsibility? We don’t act as parents. We impose rules on them and we expect people to follow the student code.”

Michael Starks, an 18-year-old freshman from Salt Lake City, was being feted as Sigma Nu’s top pledge when he consumed a lethal dose of vodka during an initiation party at a member’s off-campus home in Logan, charges allege. He was in the company of several teen-age members of the Chi Omega sorority, who “captured” and painted him as a reward. They also gave him a liter of vodka to drink, prosecutors allege.

Court documents indicate that Starks and another pledge, 22-year-old
Advertisement

Mack Perry, gladly participated in the ritual. Under Utah’s hazing statute, however, a victim’s consent is irrelevant.

“The activity was done in fun and is supposed to build brotherhood among the pledges,” prosecutor Tony Baird wrote in an affidavit supporting the charges. The previous spring, Sigma Nu pledge John Lynn, now a 19-year-old member, was treated in a similar manner.

Lynn was asked to visit the Chi Omega sorority, next door to Sigma Nu, where the young women “kidnapped” him, Lynn told police investigating the Starks matter.

“They bound his hands with duct tape and transported him to an unknown house in Logan,” charging documents state. “Once inside an upstairs room, the girls started to kiss his face, leaving lip marks and used markers to write their names on his arms. With his consent, they shaved the Sigma Nu and Chi Omega logos on the back of his head.”

Before being “rescued” by other Sigma Nu pledges, Lynn became very drunk off a bottle of vodka the women provided, according to the charges. Lynn, who was not charged in the Starks case, was home late on the night of Nov. 20 when Starks and Perry stumbled into the fraternity house after their bout of drinking with sorority women.

He woke up at 4 a.m. with paramedics in the house defibrillating Starks’ unresponsive body. Medical examiners determined his blood alcohol was approaching five times the legal limit for driving when his respiratory system failed.

Prosecutors have charged the two Greek chapters involved and 12 members with hazing in connection with Starks’ death, but no one was charged with hazing Perry or Lynn. Summons will be issued this week and court dates have yet to be set.

“Our lives have been irreparably hurt by what has taken place,” said Starks’ father in a prepared statement. “At the same time we express our heartfelt sorrow for other parents of their own children caught up in this heartbreaking tragedy in a moment of careless actions on their part, resulting in this tragic situation.”

The university and the Greek chapters’ national offices were waiting for Logan police to complete their investigation before moving forward with their own inquiries, officials said.

The university has already indefinitely suspended the two Greek chapters involved, as had Sigma Nu and Chi Omega’s headquarters.

“All we care about is that [the chapters] don’t do anything in relation to this university anymore. I feel confident the university has done all it can legally at this time,” Simper said.

USU officials expect to initiate proceedings against students identified in the criminal case, but the process is not open to the public.

“The university student code has a policy against hazing that mirrors state law,” officials said in a brief prepared statement late Monday. “An administrative student disciplinary process will be carried out against any of our students who may have hazed other USU students or violated other sections of the Student Code.”

bmaffly@sltrib.com

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:01/12/2009 06:59:42 PM MST
by Brian Maffly

A dozen Utah State University students appeared in court Monday to enter not-guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges that they participated in an alleged hazing that contributed to the death of a freshman fraternity pledge in November.

An attorney for Cody Littlewood, the commander of the Sigma Nu fraternity, contends Littlewood was not present at the hazing, discouraged alcohol use at Sigma Nu initiations, and took good care of 18-year-old pledge Michael Starks when he returned intoxicated.

“Cody Littlewood gave Michael Starks excellent care,” said lawyer Clayton Simms “It’s a tragedy. They liked Michael. They enjoyed his company. It’s double whammy to lose a friend and to be blamed for his demise.”

Cache County prosecutors have charged Littlewood, a 20-year-old junior majoring in journalism, three Sigma Nu brothers, and eight underage members of Chi Omega sorority with class A misdemeanors that carry a maximum jail term of one year. They have pretrial hearings set for Jan. 26. The USU chapters of their organizations are charged with felony hazing in connection with Starks’ Nov. 21 death from alcohol poisoning.

Before the incident, Littlewood and other Sigma Nu members identified Starks as their top pledge, whose reward was to be “captured” by Chi Omega women next door, according to charges. The women took Starks to a Logan home, where they painted him and gave him a liter of vodka, most of which he drank before his fellow pledges “rescued” him.

“He ended up at the fraternity house and was very intoxicated,” Simms said. “That was a concern for the fraternity brothers.”

Littlewood helped Starks remove the blue paint from his skin and another member called poison control. They followed the recommendations to lay Starks on his side and give him water. Littlewood remained up through the early morning hours studying and playing video games, going into Starks’ room every 30 to 45 minutes. He discovered Starks wasn’t breathing at around 4 a.m. and called 911.

According to Simms, Littlewood had no knowledge that the women would give Starks alcohol and had specifically forbidden any pledges be given liquor at initiation events.

bmaffly@sltrib.com

Greek camaraderie can turn toxic
Rituals » Hazing and alcohol abuse persist at college fraternities and sororities.

By Brian Maffly

The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:01/12/2009 07:21:47 AM MST

The hazing of Michael Starks, allegedly at the hands of teen-aged Utah State University sorority women, bears little resemblance to the abuse James Frank Hopkins saw inflicted on cadets at Virginia Military Institute when he founded Sigma Nu fraternity in 1868.

In the 19th century, young officers tormented junior colleagues by hanging them upside down and swatting saber blades against the soles of their bare feet, and any number of other painful corporeal insults. America nearly lost one of its great military minds when, as a West Point cadet, Douglas MacArthur went into convulsions after such a hazing in 1898, according to journalism professor Hank Nuwer, the nation’s leading authority on hazing.

In the century since, college fraternities have become hotbeds of hazing, with deadly results, despite efforts by their national offices to rub out the practice. Five deaths since the beginning of the school year are attributed to fraternity initiations around the country. Nuwer says hazing has killed at least one college student a year since he began studying the cultural phenomenon in 1970.

Given Sigma Nu’s leadership, it is somewhat ironic that its USU chapter, along with top local officers, are charged with hazing in connection with Starks’ Nov. 21 alcohol-poisoning death.

“Sigma Nu is one of the white hats against hazing,” says Nuwer, the author of Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing and other books on the phenomenon. “It has to be crushing to that organization.”

Civil War veterans established Sigma Nu as a safe haven from military hazing back when the practice was called “dibbling,” an old agricultural term that means planting seeds using a pointed implement to poke holes in the dirt.

Before the Starks tragedy, Cache County was the scene of Utah’s most notorious hazing case. In 1993, Sky View High School football players hog-tied back-up quarterback Brian Seamons and duct-taped his genitals before bringing in his prom date into the locker room to witness his humiliation. The incident resulted in a federal jury verdict against the school, but no criminal charges. Seamons, who later graduated from USU, was awarded $250,000 not for the hazing, but for his coach’s insistence that he apologize to his team for reporting it.

The role of ‘group think’ » Although there was little evidence Starks was forced to drink alcohol or endure humiliation that was remotely on par with Seamons’, experts say his case qualifies as a hazing because of the intense peer pressure involved in fraternity initiations.

“There’s no excuse for it. You won’t find a single [Greek] organization that won’t condemn this behavior. But at the local level, this group think takes over,” says Nuwer, who teaches journalism at … Franklin College and was a fraternity member in the 1960s. “Why? No. 1 is camaraderie. This desire for camaraderie is pursued at the risk of deception — of their nationals, their university and of blindness to bad consequences.”

Starks’ alleged hazers were young sorority women armed with paint brushes, smiles and a liter of vodka. According to criminal charges, Chi Omega women would capture Sigma Nu’s top pledges as a reward and take them to off-campus homes, where they would paint the men’s bodies and ply them with liquor. Some could interpret this as friendly horseplay, but Nuwer views the women’s behavior as pernicious.

“Their expectation is that he would get ill and puke his guts out. There’s no question that is demeaning. I would say this is more dangerous because on the surface it doesn’t look unpleasant or like anything but a great memory,” says Nuwer. “Attractive women are involved. Many guys pledge because belonging to a fraternity means access to attractive women. It’s like a carrot and stick with a deadly consequence.”

Common hazing practices include driving blind-folded pledges into the countryside at night for a long walk home, confining them in a room until they polish off a keg of beer, making them wear silly clothes during initiation week, and forcing them to take swigs from a community bottle of cheap bourbon when they are not performing well. Initiation rites often include harmless indignities, like dancing to “Livin’ La Vida Loca” outside the neighboring sorority, but it only takes one sadist in the group to turn the fun into a reckless game tantamount to Russian roulette, Nuwer says.

By the late 1970s, most states began passing criminal statutes against hazing. Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Mexico and Hawaii remain the only states without such laws. Utah’s statute allows for felony conviction if hazing results in serious bodily harm or a firearm is involved.

Downside of secrecy » While the secrecy surrounding many Greek events may promote brotherly bonding, it can also invite abuse and shielding perpetrators, experts say. Hazing rituals rarely come to light absent tragedies and hazed initiates have nothing but disincentives to expose abuse. Most of the time, they don’t even believe they were hazed and when they do, they rarely report it, according to a March 2008 study by scholars at the University of Maine titled “Hazing in View: College Students at Risk.”

Based on surveys of 11,482 undergraduates from 53 schools, and interviews with 300 students and campus officials, the study found hazing is widespread, even among groups outside the Greek and athletic communities.

Some 55 percent of college students participating in clubs and athletics have experienced hazing, according to the study. Alcohol abuse, humiliation, isolation, sleep deprivation and sex acts are common forms of hazing. Surveyed students reported that hazing incidents often occur in public, coaches and advisors are sometimes aware of it, and most hazed students perceive it in positive terms.

“Hazing is American as apple pie, but that pie has spoiled a long time ago,” comments Nuwer. “You cannot expect the newcomer to provide cheap entertainment to prove he belongs. Bonding can be achieved in many other positive ways.”

Michael Starks was the youngest in a Salt Lake City family of six children who range in age from 18 to 39, but are tightly bonded. Starks’ older siblings are college graduates, but none ever considered joining a Greek-letter society. The summer before leaving for college, Michael traveled to Australia with eldest brother George. They were at a rugby match when Michael surprised George by announcing his intention to join Sigma Nu.

“I said, ‘ We’re Starks. We don’t join frats. We’re not that kind of people,” says George, a Salt Lake City children’s book publisher. “He said, ‘I met the coolest guys.’ He got connected with them right off the bat. They were funny. He liked their diversity.”

In the Greek community, Michael was looking for a new “family” to help him adjust to life away from his real family, who looked after him and loved him without condition, says sister Megan, a Seattle lawyer.

“They problem is there is no adult who makes sure the ideals of the fraternities are executed,” says Megan, who believes freshmen should not even be permitted to “rush” fraternities and the university should take a stronger hand in regulating them. “They are sanctioned by the school, which facilitates students to join the fraternities.”

Last week, USU President Stan Albrecht announced he would convene a task force to determine whether more oversight of student organizations is warranted.

Task force to review USU oversight of student groups
Hazing death » Officials want to prevent future tragedies.

By Brian Maffly

The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:01/07/2009 05:38:52 PM MST

In response to criminal hazing charges stemming from a freshman’s death, Utah State University vowed to look inward to determine what could have been done to prevent the tragedy and to improve oversight of fraternities and other campus groups.

President Stan Albrecht on Wednesday announced “the formation of a task force to review university policy relating to the operation of student organizations at all of its campuses.” The task force will include faculty and administrators who will examine measures other schools deploy to thwart hazing and alcohol abuse, then make recommendations.

“We want to turn over every rock to ensure we are doing everything within our power to keep our students safe,” said provost Raymond Coward. “The death of one of our students is more than reason for us to review and examine every aspect of our policies. If there are steps we can take to help us better ensure that we are doing all we can to prevent future tragic losses, we will steadfastly pursue those actions.”

Charges filed Friday against 12 students allege not only that Michael Starks, 18, was hazed, but that the lethal alcohol-fueled event was part of an initiation tradition among local chapters of the Sigma Nu fraternity and Chi Omega sorority. Participants and a past pledge admitted to police that teenage sorority women encourage fresh Sigma Nu initiates to consume toxic quantities of vodka that the women provide.

Among those charged are the sorority and fraternity chapters as organizations and the fraternity chapter’s top officers, Cody Littlewood and Timothy Weber, who were not present at the off-campus home where Starks drank most of a liter bottle of booze. Littlewood declined to be interviewed.

Albrecht’s announcement came two days after USU general counsel Craig Simper told The Tribune that the school was not planning to increase oversight of Greek-letter clubs. The task-force announcement left officials straining to square the two positions.

“That was showing strictly the legal side,” said USU spokesman John DeVilbiss. “There is another side that this is a huge concern. We are all asking if there is something we could do differently.”

Many Greek activities are secret affairs that exclude outsiders. University officials have no way of knowing what goes on during these events, so they can only expect members to honor their national organizations’ ideals and the USU Student Code, which bans hazing and underage drinking, Simper said on Monday.

Accordingly, officials plan to initiate disciplinary proceedings against students identified in the police investigation and keep the Starks family apprised of any action.

Sigma Nu has been the scene of past alcohol infractions, but university officials say they cannot recall disciplining any Greek member for hazing in the past. Before USU suspended Sigma Nu and Chi Omega after Starks’ death, 10 Greek chapters with 308 members were affiliated with the university. These self-governing chapters answer to national offices, which emphasize lofty ideals of community service, scholastic achievement and personal integrity. They also take a hard line against hazing and alcohol abuse.

The world’s largest sorority with 173 chapters and 16,000 undergraduate members, Chi Omega sponsors the Web site hazingprevention.org and a video addressing bystander behavior.

“We do a lot to emphasize our policies on human dignity that take a strong anti-hazing stance,” said the sorority’s Memphis-based executive director, Anne Emmerth, who was unable to respond to the specifics allegations against her Logan chapter.

“We had held off doing our own inquiry until the police completed their investigation,” Emmerth said. “We want to work as quickly as we can to be fair to our members and the chapter, but we also want to have the best possible information.”

bmaffly@sltrib.com

USU has no plans to increase oversight of Greeks
Hazing » Past pledges were encouraged to drink, charges allege

By Brian Maffly

The Salt Lake Tribune

Although prosecutors allege a fatal fraternity initiation prank followed a recurring pattern, Utah State University officials say they have no plans to more closely monitor its affiliated Greek-letter societies.

Hazing charges filed Friday in Logan’s 1st District Court allege that Sigma Nu fraternity pledges have been encouraged to drink at past induction events. That came as a surprise to campus officials, according to USU general counsel Craig Simper.

“These so-called initiations are very private, sometimes secretive. Only members are invited to participate,” Simper said Monday. Any notion that the school can and should track the activities of fraternities and sororities, which count 308 members in 10 chapters at the Logan campus, is misguided, he added.

“That’s a double-edged sword,” Simper said. “Why would we want to assume that kind of responsibility? We don’t act as parents. We impose rules on them and we expect people to follow the student code.”

Michael Starks, an 18-year-old freshman from Salt Lake City, was being feted as Sigma Nu’s top pledge when he consumed a lethal dose of vodka during an initiation party at a member’s off-campus home in Logan, charges allege. He was in the company of several teen-age members of the Chi Omega sorority, who “captured” and painted him as a reward. They also gave him a liter of vodka to drink, prosecutors allege.

Court documents indicate that Starks and another pledge, 22-year-old
Advertisement

Mack Perry, gladly participated in the ritual. Under Utah’s hazing statute, however, a victim’s consent is irrelevant.

“The activity was done in fun and is supposed to build brotherhood among the pledges,” prosecutor Tony Baird wrote in an affidavit supporting the charges. The previous spring, Sigma Nu pledge John Lynn, now a 19-year-old member, was treated in a similar manner.

Lynn was asked to visit the Chi Omega sorority, next door to Sigma Nu, where the young women “kidnapped” him, Lynn told police investigating the Starks matter.

“They bound his hands with duct tape and transported him to an unknown house in Logan,” charging documents state. “Once inside an upstairs room, the girls started to kiss his face, leaving lip marks and used markers to write their names on his arms. With his consent, they shaved the Sigma Nu and Chi Omega logos on the back of his head.”

Before being “rescued” by other Sigma Nu pledges, Lynn became very drunk off a bottle of vodka the women provided, according to the charges. Lynn, who was not charged in the Starks case, was home late on the night of Nov. 20 when Starks and Perry stumbled into the fraternity house after their bout of drinking with sorority women.

He woke up at 4 a.m. with paramedics in the house defibrillating Starks’ unresponsive body. Medical examiners determined his blood alcohol was approaching five times the legal limit for driving when his respiratory system failed.

Prosecutors have charged the two Greek chapters involved and 12 members with hazing in connection with Starks’ death, but no one was charged with hazing Perry or Lynn. Summons will be issued this week and court dates have yet to be set.

“Our lives have been irreparably hurt by what has taken place,” said Starks’ father in a prepared statement. “At the same time we express our heartfelt sorrow for other parents of their own children caught up in this heartbreaking tragedy in a moment of careless actions on their part, resulting in this tragic situation.”

The university and the Greek chapters’ national offices were waiting for Logan police to complete their investigation before moving forward with their own inquiries, officials said.

The university has already indefinitely suspended the two Greek chapters involved, as had Sigma Nu and Chi Omega’s headquarters.

“All we care about is that [the chapters] don’t do anything in relation to this university anymore. I feel confident the university has done all it can legally at this time,” Simper said.

USU officials expect to initiate proceedings against students identified in the criminal case, but the process is not open to the public.

“The university student code has a policy against hazing that mirrors state law,” officials said in a brief prepared statement late Monday. “An administrative student disciplinary process will be carried out against any of our students who may have hazed other USU students or violated other sections of the Student Code.”

bmaffly@sltrib.com