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Notes on the death of the party? Former Tri-Delt chapter now known as Trilogy at Penn State

Where did ex-PSU Delta Delta Delta members go? Anchors away to an underground (barely) chapter no-called Trilogy.

 

Excerpt from the Daily Beast

But one sorority, a group of some 100 young women known as Trilogy, is unlikely to face any of these sanctions and won’t appear on Penn State’s new report cards. Never mind the fact that, according to the grand jury report, their underage members were present at the very party where Piazza was forced to chug cheap vodka, shotgun beers, and run through an alcohol obstacle course while his brothers poured beer on top of him. Piazza was “trying to get around” two of the “sorority women sitting on the stairs,” when he fell, head first, 15 feet down them, according to a lawyer for one of the charged students.

The members of Trilogy won’t be included in these new safety measures. Because, despite its origins and social activities, Trilogy is not a sorority. Not technically. Not in the eyes of Penn State.

Trilogy was born in 2009, out of the ashes of Penn State’s Delta Delta Delta sorority, which had been shuttered by the national executive board due to “alleged hazing and risk management violations,” according to a press releasefrom the national sorority at the time. Risk management violations deal with the unauthorized use of drugs and alcohol.

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 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division.

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 Fairbanks, Alaska. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com

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