A new hazing records investigation launched by KnightNews.com reveals several brutal hazing allegations from UCF’s past were kept out of the public eye — and never formally reported in writing to UCF police for criminal investigations.
A beating with a cane so severe an 18-year-old pledge was hospitalized and “could have died.”
Agonizing exercises that resulted in a pledge’s elbows “bleeding and scabbing.”
A “very disturbing” phone call to a UCF official who said the allegations had the “appearance of clear hazing situations!”
When we showed records UCF released of those three chilling hazing allegations from the last five years — which included no records of a request by UCF for police to investigate — to hazing expert Hank Nuwer, he raised the obvious question: “Why wasn’t that reported to police?”
KnightNews.com posed that question to UCF to try and find out about the decisions being made in these situations.
When KnightNews.com first asked UCF why police didn’t formally investigate, UCF told KnightNews.com that “over the past several years” UCF staff did “engage in many conversations about hazing allegations” with UCF police, but emphasised that the civillian UCF staff “investigates all hazing allegations by speaking with organization members, leaders and advisers as well as the individuals who report the allegations.”
At that time, UCF also said as part of its review of Greek life it’s working to formalize the hazing reporting process to “assist UCF Police with reviewing alleged on-campus incidents and with forwarding information to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for alleged off-campus incidents.”
After KnightNews.com published this story, UCF clarified its statement, saying that a process is in place for notifying UCF Police about hazing allegations and UCF’s “Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities has been contacting UCF Police by telephone to discuss allegations of hazing.”
But when KnightNews.com obtained public records from the UCF Police Department last December, showing all records of hazing, even by phone, only one document showing an official police investigation had been started was produced. That record related to a 2010 case involving the Mu Sigma Upsilon sorority, but wasn’t featured in this story since that case had already been made public.
UCF’s clarification also pointed out that it can be hard to investigate hazing cases when the victims don’t come forward and some allegations happen outside of UCF police jurisdiction.
After receiving an initial incident report, UCF’s Office of Student Conduct is able to drop the allegations or could choose to bring the allegation to a formal hearing, which could result in sanctions against the organization.
“In unusual cases which may risk the health and safety of any individual, the student body, or any part of the University or its community, UCF may, without first holding a hearing, take “immediate action to resolve the situation by placing the student organization on interim suspension.”
The following stories focus on some of the most shocking allegations of hazing that Greek Life has faced without any record of an official criminal investigation by the UCF police force. In most cases, the allegations did not even result in an emergency “interim suspension” — imposed without a hearing — which UCF has recently routinely imposed.
HOSPITALIZED FOR WEEKS
In 2008, a concerned relative of a new member in the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity sent emails to UCF alleging brutal hazing injuries her nephew received, which caused him to end up in the hospital for weeks.
“He is young, only 18, and I really do not want him to get into further trouble, but he could have died,” the relative said in the emails sent to UCF.
According to the emails, during those several weeks in the hospital, her nephew had surgery, was given blood, had a bad infection and had to be transported by ambulance for 10 sessions for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. All of which she believed was the result of injuries from brutal acts of hazing.
The relative went on to tell UCF that her nephew wasn’t speaking much about the situation, and first claimed his injuries were the result of him falling on a paddle. He would later admit to her that he was struck by a cane that a guy was swinging as he walked behind him, according to his aunt’s emails.
Despite the allegations from a family member in writing, which named the alleged victim, there are no records showing UCF placed the fraternity on interim suspension or asked UCF police to investigate. However, a formal hearing was set for the fraternity in July of 2008. The fraternity was then sent a letter confirming the panel found it not in-violation of hazing.
UCF administrators, however, would later express that despite that “not in-violation” finding, they weren’t convinced hazing did not happen in that case, believing that not all of the information surrounding the incident was presented to the panel.
The panel’s rationale for finding the fraternity not in-violation of hazing was based on testimony from the alleged victim, who said he was not hazed. But Florida’s hazing law says a victim’s consent is not a defense to hazing, and experts warn that hazing victims “allow themselves to be put in these humiliating and dangerous situations.”
That’s according to Dr. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist who focuses on campus conflict and violence in high schools and college. Lipkins wrote on her anti-hazing website that hazing victims allow hazing because “the individual trusts that the group will not really harm them. They also believe that there are no other alternatives to gain entry.”
When it came to the moment of the aunt having to testify in front of her nephew’s fraternity during its formal hearing, records show she backed off from her emailed statements she sent to UCF, which pointed out that she was reporting hazing without her nephew’s knowledge, and also believed that he had already “crossed over” into the fraternity.
The relative wrote that the “doctor’s records will reveal the severity of the injuries,” however, the Office of Student Conduct didn’t have the power to subpoena those records. Had the university police been conducting a criminal investigation, they would have been able to subpoena those records and interview people who would risk facing perjury charges if they did not tell the truth about the hazing allegations.
The fraternity was off the hook but only for a short time, as new, yet similar, allegations from concerned relatives came to UCF about a year later.
SIMILAR ALLEGATIONS
In September of 2009, an anonymous call from a pledge’s mother was placed to UCF President John Hitt’s office about a pledge being severely beaten and bruised.
“He came home one night and could barely walk from the beating he received. He has bruises all over his body,” said an employee in Hitt’s office in an e-mail summarizing the call, according to a 2009 KnightNews.com story.
UCF had all fraternities go on a “voluntary” suspension of pledge activities following that phone call, but it was lifted within a week or two. It is clear from records UCF released, the university learned it was Kappa Alpha Psi being accused of brutal hazing a second time. However, once again, there were no records of UCF police being asked to investigate, and no records of an interim suspension being imposed. Instead, UCF wrote a letter to the group on April 6, 2010.
In that letter to Kappa Alpha Psi, UCF Assistant Vice President Kerry Welch told the fraternity of UCF’s grave concerns about the repeated hazing allegations UCF received. The concerns included how a pledge “was forced to sit on a pillow to drive,” and on at least one occasion “was so fearful that he pleaded with a family member to notify the fraternity that the student was unavailable to attend a scheduled meeting.”
The 2010 letter made it clear that UCF still believed there may have been merit to the 2008 accusations, by noting that the panel may not have uncovered all of the facts. “…[I]t should be noted that the family member who participated in the hearing did not disclose many of the details from the original complaint,” the letter said.
The family member who shared the new information with the school was “unwilling to come forward for a formal hearing to share her observations,” Welch said in the letter to the fraternity. He did say there was enough information to “strongly suggest” that unsafe new member practices were taking place.
Five days before UCF sent its letter, the fraternity’s national office sent a cease and desist order to the organization, notifying the fraternity that it would be placed in an “inactive status” until the issue was resolved. The fraternity has been gone from UCF ever since.
We asked UCF the group didn’t get punished by UCF when administrators had this amount of evidence.
“The 2010 incident led to Kappa Alpha Psi being sanctioned by the chapter’s national organization with the support of the university,” UCF told KnightNews.com. “Upon learning of the allegations, the national organization swiftly acted to close the chapter.”
“ELBOWS WERE BLEEDING AND SCABBING”
In March of 2011, a concerned UCF employee filed a hazing incident report with the school, citing drastic changes in behavior, attitude and hygiene of a worker who reported to him. The worker told him he was trying to join the Lambda Theta Phi fraternity.
After probing his employee with more questions, he was told that “pledges are not allowed to sleep and are up at all hours of the night and then start their days extremely early and are put through rigorous workouts.”
He also noted that at one point his employee’s elbows were bleeding and scabbing.
“He told me that the night before the brothers made them [the pledges] get on the floor in plank position while their elbows rested upon dried rice,” the UCF staff member wrote in the report to UCF’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
When the concerned UCF staff member asked his student worker about a large bump and open sore the size of a half-dollar on his forehead. “When I asked him what had happened he said he ran into a wall but then I asked again if it was from the fraternity again and he looked at me and agreed by nodding his head,” the employee wrote in his report.
Although the information was reported to Belinda Boston, no further records show any formal investigations by UCF or its police exist.
We asked UCF why it didn’t conduct a panel hearing and why there were no records asking police to investigate. A UCF spokesperson responded, saying “the complaint involved an anonymous victim.”
“LOTS OF RED FLAGS” — BUT NO FORMAL HEARING
A sorority pledge’s sister called UCF to report hazing, stating that the girls who were pledging Mu Sigma Upsilon were sleep deprived, not allowed to eat certain foods or eat at all without permission and verbally abused daily.
Belinda Boston, the Director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life during this incident in 2008, responded to a message left by the sister reporting the allegations — only to soon be caught up in a heated argument over the reporting of the allegations.
While on the phone, the other sister [the pledge of Mu Sigma Upsilon], walked into the room and proceeded to have a conversation with her sister regarding the matter, Boston recalled in the report she filed. Boston then states that she “immediately heard shouting and a very emotional woman on the other end.”
Boston recalled hearing the sister state “that she really wanted to be a member of this organization and if they found out she had called, they are going to be really mad at her.”
“It’s not ok for them to be mean to you, or deprive you of food and sleep, or treat you this way!” the sister speaking to Boston said, as written by Boston in her report. Boston said that the sister replied, “They can treat me any way they want as long as I become a member.”
When the heated discussion subsided, the sister returned to Boston on the phone, who urged her to move forward with the report.
The next day, she called Boston and asked if she could submit the report anonymously — which she was told she could, but it would be only for informational purposes at that point. Boston did say she would file a report based on what she heard. Boston’s report said to initiate the Student Conduct Review process.
“Lots of red flags and the appearance of clear hazing situations!” Boston said in her report.
Although the Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life herself said that hazing seemed clear in this situation, the sorority was never investigated fully, with a hearing, by the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities or put on interim suspension. Police never were asked to investigate the allegations, according to records released by UCFPD in response to KnightNews.com’s request for any hazing allegations.
Instead, UCF told KnightNews.com, “The Mu Sigma [U]psilon hazing investigation included an interview with the alleged victim. She denied she was hazed.”
“THEY HAD ME POUND DRINKS”
In 2011, A Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputy found a young man, in his early 20s, passed out on the side of McCullouch Rd. with the nightly low temperatures in the 30′s, according to the SCSO report.
“My fraternity [explicit] me over,” the young man told the officer after he finally woke up.
The deputy knew the signs of hazing, having worked as a UCF police officer previously. The young man told the sheriff’s deputy, “I had to drink more than the brothers, so they had me pound drinks,” when he was questioned about his situation.
That’s when the young man said he had come from the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity house in Pegasus Landing after drinking and thought that he had been driven back to his home in Avalon park — 6 to 7 miles away from his current location.
Although listed as “possible hazing” in a sworn statement by a Seminole County Sheriff’s deputy, there are no records which show UCF placed the fraternity on interim suspension or asked UCF police to investigate because, unlike the deputy, UCF police have jurisdiction on matters in Pegasus Landing.
Instead, records show UCF’s Office of Student Conduct summoned the young man who was found by the deputy for questioning. After that meeting, no other records exist.
“UCF confirmed after receiving the Delta Tau Delta report that the student was never a pledge or a member of any fraternity at UCF,” a UCF spokesman told KnightNews.com.
Even if the student wasn’t an official pledge, we asked UCF if the fraternity could have been punished if it provided alcohol to a young man, especially if he may have been a potential new member considering pledging down the road.
“With regard to an organization potentially facing sanctions for providing excessive amounts of alcohol to students, allegations of that type are reviewed on a case-by-case basis,” the UCF spokesman said.
The deputy’s report went on to say that the man then requested he be transported back to the fraternity house to pick up his keys and then have a taxi called there to take him to his home in Avalon Park.
It is not clear why UCF didn’t choose to put the fraternity through a formal hearing following the deputy’s report indicating alcohol was provided in excess to the student at the Delta Tau Delta house.
STRIPPED NAKED, TIED TO A TABLE
A man wanting to remain anonymous sent an email to UCF in 2011, alleging that during his initiation week for Sigma Chi in Fall 2009, he was stripped naked, tied to a table and had baking powder thrown all over him and the other new members.
He further described the incident as “incredibly humiliating,” saying that he was “left there like that for 30 minutes until someone let me go.”
After being placed on interim suspension, followed by an investigation by UCF’s Office of Student Conduct, the fraternity was found not in-violation. The panel stated that it was just not clear what happened during that week in Fall 2009.
“It is clear that something happened during ‘Initiation Week’ in the Fall of 2009, and it was significant enough to postpone initiation until Spring 2010; however, it is unclear exactly what happened,” the Office of Student Conduct’s rationale statement said.
While the school officials admitted that it was clear “something” happened and there was a pledge week going on, police were never notified of the allegations.
ALLEGATION OF HAZING DEATH
In September of 2008 an anonymous tip was sent to police “which indicated a possible death was a result of a hazing incident” involving the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Several days after the school received the allegation, a meeting was set up between UCF and the fraternity chapter president at the time. At no time was the organization placed on an interim suspension by UCF, records show.
Although UCFPD notified UCF’s Office of Student Conduct of the allegation in order for a civil investigation to take place, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office was handling the law enforcement investigation since the death happened off campus.
The family of the student, identified as Mcandy Douarin, wanted a more thorough investigation conducted to determine whether he may have died at the hands of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, according to the family statements to Channel 9 news. A medical examiner, however, ruled the victim died of a heart attack. Douarin’s family wasn’t satisfied with that ruling.
“Mom, someone hit me in the chest,” Douarin told his mother, according to Channel 9 news.
His family then showed a photo of a bruise over Douarin’s heart, which the family says proves he was punched.
UCF’s Office of Student Conduct never conducted a formal hearing investigation, however, telling Channel 9 news that there wasn’t enough evidence to launch its full investigative process.
Several years later, UF police documents obtained by the Gainesville Sun alleged UF’s Alpha Phi Alpha pledges were hit in the chest during a hazing ritual known as “thunderslaps.”
2013: BAN ON ALL GREEK LIFE
In February of 2013, UCF suspended all Greek life activities under the watch of the school’s vice president, Maribeth Ehasz.
Secret meetings with UCF officials led to decisions to suspend Greek life activities for the entire campus, including organizations that were not ever accused of wrongdoing. Recent letters from lawyers representing many of the organizations on campus demanded the halt be lifted, arguing deprivation of rights and due process. The ban was lifted for most organizations on April 1.
In recent months, UCF has taken swift action, including issuing an interim suspension, against Greek organizations, such as Alpha Tau Omega, when hazing allegations arose — even if there wasn’t concrete proof of the identity of a victim or direct accuser. However, when compared to schools like the University of Florida , it appears UCF does not take as aggressive an approach when it comes to involving police in hazing allegations.
UCF suggests that new efforts within the Greek community will help police play a larger role in UCF’s response to hazing allegations.
“The focus of our Greek Life review during the past five weeks has been working closely with our fraternities and sororities as they develop plans for resuming activities and changing the culture related to alcohol misuse and hazing.,” UCF said. “Moving forward, UCF will continue discussions about how to best ensure that our Greek community lives up to our expectations. UCF Police will be involved in those discussions.”
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