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Kappa Sigma house at WVU has Buffalo, NY freshman on life support

Moderator:  My prayers are for Nolan Michael Burch, his family, and friends.  As a Buffalo, native, this hits hard. West Virginia police are seeking any information they can on this tragic incident.

If you have any information, please call Morgantown Detectives at 304-284-7522. My records show this chapter was punished for a hazing incident in 2010.

From a breaking story: excerpt

“All fraternities and sororities at West Virginia University were suspended Thursday after an 18-year-old freshman was found unconscious and not breathing inside a fraternity house, just a week after a different fraternity was suspended after 19 pledges got into a street brawl, university officials and police said.

Nolan Michael Burch, 18, of Buffalo, New York, was in critical condition in intensive care Thursday at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, police and a hospital spokesman said. Morgantown police said they were called to the Kappa Sigma house about midnight Wednesday and found a man performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Burch, who was lying on the floor. Burch wasn’t breathing and had no pulse, police said.”

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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