Four Charged with Hazing -- Florida State U (Sigma Phi Epsilon)

[exlurker]

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbc.../70129023/1086

Excerpts from article:

Thirty-one pledges of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity were found in a crawl space under an off-campus house over the weekend, authorities said.

Maj. Jim Russell of the Florida State University Police Department said officers received a complaint of possible hazing. . . .

. . . . Upon further investigation, 31 pledges were found wearing sweat pants and white T-shirts with profanity and vulgarity written on them.

Russell said officers reported it was 30 degrees outside during the time of the arrests.

The following men were charged with hazing: Drew Johnson, 22, FSU student; Eric Fernandez, 19, a Tallahassee Community College student; Joshua Vincent, 19, FSU student and Nicholas Finazzo, 18, a Tallahassee Community College student.

Edited to add: A very similar report (with pictures of the individuals arrested) is at:

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs...NEWS/701290334

[Tom Earp]

I often wonder when there is hazing, is it by a few members or condoned by the whole Chapter?

How do 30 Pledges be put in this position and the Chapter not know?

If by a few members and hidden behind closed doors, get rid of them.

I the same vein, if it is the whole Chapter then get rid of them!

They now reflect on all of us!

[exlurker]

A few more details are being reported. Forida State U. has suspended Sig Ep pending more investigation, as you'd expect. Reportedly, according to a recent article (below), the pledges were smeared with messy and smelly gunk (fish bait, raw eggs, etc.) and were shivering from the cold.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs....301300003/1075


I personally have a tangential question: how did community college students get involved in this? Is it fairly common practice on some 4-year campuses to have some community college students in fraternity or sorority chapters? (I'm aware of NPHC "city-wide" chapters, and I know those are completely legitimate, operating under the rules of the NPHC fraternities and sororities. I'm asking about campus-specific chapters of other GLOs -- are people from 2-year colleges in the area frequently recruited and initiated into them?)

[kdonline]

Originally Posted by exlurker

I personally have a tangential question: how did community college students get involved in this? Is it fairly common practice on some 4-year campuses to have some community college students in fraternity or sorority chapters? (I'm aware of NPHC "city-wide" chapters, and I know those are completely legitimate, operating under the rules of the NPHC fraternities and sororities. I'm asking about campus-specific chapters of other GLOs -- are people from 2-year colleges in the area frequently recruited and initiated into them?)

Not for NPC sororities, but it happens at many of Florida's state universities (I know for sure @ UF & FSU....been happening for more than 20 years.)

It seems that fraternities can pledge men from the local community college - I'm guessing they intend to enroll at the university, at some point. But many never do.

NPC sororities have strict guidelines when it comes to recruitment - ie preregistration, transcripts, etc. With fraternity rush, you just walk in the door, right?

[JonInKC]

I know at our chapter, if men went to another college in town, they could still afiliate with us. We got a few guys that went to community college, but to my knowledge, never anyone from Drury or another four year school.

[Firehouse]

I'm at Florida State. The Community College is less than a mile away with 15,000-20,000 students many of whom are marking time until they can get into FSU (40,000). Pledging TCC students is controversial here. They are allowed to join the FSU marching band, but Greek Life absolutely forbids them joining fraternities or sororities and punishes groups when they do. IFC chapters are split on the issue; some Nationals would permit it and some would not. I'm told that many of the fraternities do pledge TCC students and simply don't report them until they enter FSU. Now, I'm certain that having TCC students as brothers will be among the charges leveled at Sigma Phi Epsilon.
We've been hit hard by the hazing issue here. Two men from FAMU (less than a mile in the other direction) were just sentenced to two year in prison for beating their KAPsi pledges with canes. At FSU, we lost SAE to hazing. I'm told ATO may also be in trouble for hazing, and now Sig Ep is really in big trouble. Both ATO and Sig Ep are preparing to break ground for new $4 million houses!
Last year Florida passed legislation making hazing a felony.
Maybe it will calm down.
We certainly hazed when I was an undergraduate, but now the threshhold of what's permitted seems to have been drastically lowered. Plus, you have to be an idiot to take guys out of the house and do what the SPEs did in a residential neighborhood.

[macallan25]

There are guys in chapters down here that go to St. Edwards and ACC......not really that big of a deal.

[ufdale]

I heard that here each chapter has at least 4-5 guys from Santa Fe (our huge 20,000+ CC).

Not all fraternities can pledge these guys though. A couple of days ago a friend's fraternity wanted to pledge someone from Santa Fe and their alum board stepped in and said no.

[Munchkin03]

Aren't TCC and Santa Fe like, pre-school for FSU and UF?

I don't think some of the National HQs want the liability, since most NIC/NPC groups do not do city-wide chapters. Besides...to me, community college is about preparing yourself academically. Save Greek life for people who made it to university.

[Private I]

I know a lot of people who went to TCC to get their liberal arts out of the way because it was cheaper and then transferred to FSU or to FAMU. It's not out of the ordinary. I believe there is some discussion going on to actually change it into a 4 year college because of the amount of students attending it-the number is close to the amount of students that attend FAMU (also in Tallahassee).

I was told that this story was the most read on tallahassee.com yesterday.

[PenguinTrax]

Yup, been big news 'round these parts. The chapter has already been suspended and the papers have been full of editorials on this and KAPsi incidents.

It's a shame, all around.