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Times FreePress report: Delta Sigma Theta

Excerpt:

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Five members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority accused of hazing another student have been placed on interim suspension at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

One student, Seirra Smith, 22, is scheduled to appear May 5 in Hamilton County General Sessions Court on two counts of simple assault.

The suspensions and criminal charges stem from an April 10 police report made by Jasmine Johnson and her mother, Karen Drake, accusing five members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority of assaulting her.

Judicial hearings are being scheduled at UTC for 13 students, including the five on interim suspension, said Chuck Cantrell, university spokesman. Some of the hearings have been completed; others are pending, he said.

Federal law prohibits the release of the findings of the student conduct hearings, he 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 and April 2025 , 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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