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FSU’s Pi Kappa Phi in hot water prior to pledge (“associate member”) death

Post author By Hank Nuwer
Post date November 4, 2017
No Comments on FSU’s Pi Kappa Phi in hot water prior to pledge (“associate member”) death

Tallahassee Democrat report

Karl Etters, Democrat staff writerPublished 4:24 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2017 | Updated 5:02 p.m. ET Nov. 4, 2017

The Florida State University fraternity suspended in connection with the death of one of its pledges has a history of alleged violations and disciplinary action in recent years.

After 20-year-old Andrew Coffey, a pledge of Pi Kappa Phi died following an off-campus house party Friday morning, the fraternity’s Beta Eta chapter was suspended by its national office.

The fraternity’s records indicate in the last five years FSU’s chapter has faced disciplinary action twice for hazing and once each for alcohol and violations of university policy.

After a hazing complaint in October 2012, the fraternity’s national office in Charlotte, North Carolina, sanctioned the chapter with a remedial action plan which was supported by FSU, according to fraternity documents.

In April 2013, chapter conduct summaries posted on the national office’s website show the fraternity faced university sanctions after an alleged conduct violation.

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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