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Sigma Alpha Mu at Indiana U. in trouble again–that makes 9 troubled chapters at IU

All: My first complaint about Indiana Sigma Alpha Mu having a culture of hazing came from a pledge’s parents back in 1993 when they came to see me.  –Moderator Hank Nuwer PS: From the Michigan student newspaper: “Sigma Alpha Mu [at Michigan] was [kicked out] by its national chapter after … more than $250,000 in damages during a January 2015 ski trip to Treetops Resort.”

 

Excerpt from 2016:

(BLOOMINGTON) – The Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity at Indiana University is being punished after it was accused of hazing.

The fraternity is facing a number of sanctions after an investigation by Indiana University’s Offices of Student Ethics and Student Life and Learning, and the fraternity’s headquarters in Indianapolis.

The Herald Times reports that the investigation began after an anonymous report was made in mid-January through the Student Life and Learning website reporting the incidents occurred during the fall semester of 2015, and involved subjecting pledges to servitude, mental hazing and physical hazing.

After an investigation, the fraternity is now on deferred suspension until December 31. Any violation from now until that date will result in the immediate removal of the chapter from IU.

For the suspension to be deferred, the fraternity chapter had to agree to a long list of educational and punitive sanctions.

This is the ninth fraternity chapter at IU to be subject to discipline this school year. Seven, including Sigma Alpha Mu, received either deferred suspension or some form of probation. Two of those, Phi Kappa Si and Alpha Tau Omega, were suspended.

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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