UCF’s Sigma Chi fraternity may be suspended through summer 2022 and on probation through summer 2023, according to the fraternity’s hearing officer.
The fraternity was found not in-violation of forcing a pledge to do cocaine, the original concern in the anonymous October 2019 hazing allegation.
After members of the Greek organization endured mandatory witness interviews and required surveys, the hearing officer found Sigma Chi to be in-violation of disruptive conduct, two different kinds of hazing, alcohol misconduct and drug-related misconduct.
It is unclear whether Michael Gilmer, the director of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity — the recently rebranded Office of Student Conduct — will adopt the findings and sanction recommendations of the hearing officer.
“Sigma Chi has not received formal word from UCF regarding our case,” Sigma Chi President Brian Walls said on Tuesday. “We understand, from Knight News, the expected outcome. We are steadfast in our innocence and will appeal a finding of ‘in violation’. This outcome raises serious questions as to the fairness of the Student Conduct Process at UCF.”
Knight News first requested the hearing records on June 16 — despite receiving hundreds of pages of public records, UCF failed to include the June 4 hearing determination. Knight News requested the public records again on Wednesday, and sent a reminder on Thursday. A UCF spokesperson replied and said the Sigma Chi case remained under review on Thursday.
After Knight News challenged the university’s position that its ongoing review of the fraternity’s case legally justified withholding the hearing determination record, UCF changed its position and withheld the record over the weekend citing time needed for FERPA redactions.
Through public records, Knight News has uncovered that not all UCF organizations accused of hazing are required to go through the same student conduct process.
Despite multiple requests, UCF has refused to respond to Knight News regarding the student conduct process and whether it is treating Greek organizations to the same standards as non-Greek affiliated organizations.
Records show Greek organizations are often immediately placed on interim suspension when the university is informed of an allegation, while a non-Greek organization may avoid this interim suspension and student conduct processes.
While the KnightMoves dance team was investigated by the UCF Police Department for criminal hazing charges earlier this year, the university affiliated group appeared to skip the standard operating procedures that Greek organizations affiliated with the university are routinely subject to.
The dance team’s alleged hazing incident did not warrant criminal hazing charges, according to UCFPD.
The UCF dance team was investigated by UCFPD for a “risk of injury or death” hazing incident after members of the team were thought to have been placed in an enclosed trunk of a vehicle in August 2019, according to a police report.
UCFPD said the two members were not put in an enclosed trunk, but rather were seated in the rear space of an SUV.
UCF head cheer and dance coach Linda Gooch reported the incident in December 2019. Gooch told officers she reprimanded the team and did not permit KnightMoves dancers to travel to away games or to attend the 2019 Gasparilla Bowl game, the report states.
The members UCFPD interviewed said they had experienced a similar event as a new member, and the veterans told officers in the report that it was their responsibility to continue the tradition.
UCFPD interviewed the 20 members present during the alleged hazing incident, which began with veteran team members waking rookie members from their sleep with pots and pans. The veterans quizzed the rookie team members, squirted them with water, blindfolded them and walked them down three flights of stairs, according to UCFPD.
The report states some rookies were deprived of sleep, but they told officers they viewed it as team bonding and they were having fun. UCF’s Golden Rule Student Handbook states a defense to a hazing allegation can not be “the consent of the victim had been obtained.”
One female — who was put in the back of the SUV — later wrote a letter to quit the team, citing the experience as causing depression, the report reads.
Knight News asked for clarification as to why the dance team was not placed on an interim suspension, subject to the mandatory witness interviews, or any other processes the Greek organizations are subject to, but the university refused to respond when asked by email in May.
“This was not being investigated as an organizational case until Student Conduct received the police report from UCFPD,” a UCF spokesperson said in an email in May. “Student Conduct is now reviewing it and will take appropriate action.”
However, UCFPD’s report states it received the initial report from the Office of Student Conduct. It is not clear if the university’s conduct office received this before UCFPD because the university refused to respond to Knight News’ requests for comment.
Knight News reached out to UCF to see where the dance team’s hazing case stands, but did not hear back before publication.
Despite the KnightMoves veteran’s members telling UCFPD officers in the report the “tradition” — that prompted the investigation into alleged hazing of new members — was a responsibility of theirs to continue the university remains silent.
The hearing officer in Sigma Chi’s case relied on a witness that had to admit to illegal behavior to prove his credibility. “The hearing officer acknowledges the organization’s assertion that [this witness] engaged in individual illegal behavior and that he is a ‘bitter former member attempting to discredit the organization,’” the hearing determination reads.
The hearing officer said the witness was credible due to his willingness to disclose that he served alcohol to minors in his capacity as a bartender, and the information went to support a pattern of illegal alcohol use.
The hearing determination states the same witness — a former member who was removed from the organization after he slapped a pledge on the face and used a belt to attempt to wake the individual — contributed to parts of every testimony leading to an in-violation finding. The fraternity was not in-violation of hazing, as the former brother was acting on his own.
Despite not having directly participated in the fall 2019 process, the defunct brother was allowed to provide detailed witness testimony contributing significantly to the findings of the hearing officer’s determination.
The fraternity’s fate is not yet set in stone — the hearing officer recommends Sigma Chi lose its ability to be a recognized student organization, and encourages Gilmer to remove the fraternity from its privately owned on-campus house through summer 2022.
“This punitive sanction is recommended due to the continued pattern of reported organizational misconduct and the attempted interventions by the University to curtail the reported misconduct and the lack of meaningful change by the chapter,” the hearing officer said.
Earlier this year, student conduct threatened to evict Sigma Chi from its university owned house.
During the appeal process, the fraternity won its battle against Gilmer on the grounds the sanctions were extraordinarily disproportionate to the violations, and that there were irregularities in fairness and stated procedures of the hearing that could have affected the outcome of the hearing.
