We now have new information on the UL fraternity and sorority suspended last week.
KATC Investigates filed a public records request after the suspensions of Sigma Chi fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority were announced, but no reasons why were given. What we found, complaints detailing alcohol abuse and possible illegal activity. Documents accuse both entities of hazing.
In the case of Sigma Chi, two separate complaints detailed pledges being forced to drink for points. In the case of Delta Delta Delta, the allegation is that one girl, who is underage, was forced to drink repeatedly, then left alone at a downtown bar, drunk and stumbling.
The documentation the university has includes complaints from people who didn’t give their names, but also from people who did. Some were members of other fraternities and sororities, and some were members of the organizations being investigated.
The names of all students – except for that of an LSU at Eunice student involved in one incident – were redacted by UL.
The information about the fraternity or sorority of reporters was not redacted, but KATC will not identify any of the Greek groups whose members provided information about the groups being investigated.
Here are the reports of which UL provided documentation:
September 24, 2018 – Public hazing was reported, including a snap chat video showing a Sigma Chi pledge who was carrying around an inflatable alien.
September 27, 2018 – a complaint is made via the UL website about an event at an active Sigma Chi brother’s home that happened a year prior on bid night, when “they gave the pledges handles of liquor and we had to chug them all together.”
September 27, 2018 – a complaint is made via the UL website about Sigma Chi, stating that new members are called pledges and tell them what to wear. They also made the pledges call older members “brother,” the complaint alleged.
October 8, 2018 – An email is sent outlining allegations against Sigma Chi, including having freshmen dress the same and “do crazy stuff,” and that it had been going on for a while. The person sent a video from someone’s social media account and added “I didn’t want to come forward because I have heard what this fraternity does in the past to people who talk to the university.”
October 9, 2018 – Details about the Tri Delta incident were emailed to UL officials. Included in the email are screen shots that appear to be between a senior member of the sorority and a freshman member. The details of the email allege that during a pregame event the older member and some other girls “were forcibly shoving alcohol down the throat” of the younger student. Later in the evening, another Tri Delta member found the girl “visibly drunk (falling over, couldn’t stand up straight, etc.” at Nitetown. When that member called the member who had been with the girl earlier in the evening, that girl said she would pay her sorority sister to take the drunk girl “anywhere else” but her house. The girl was eventually brought to her dorm safely, the email indicates. The younger girl met with the sorority’s standards committee, and said nobody held her mouth and shoved alcohol down her throat, but she “did feel very pressured to drink the whole night.”
October 9, 2018 – A letter is sent to Delta Delta Delta informing the chapter of the Interim Suspension status and is not permitted to conduct any activities.
October 9, 2018 – an email is sent to undisclosed recipients about “conversations regarding the pledge attire, power differentials and hazing.” Because the email refers to “active brothers,” so it appears to have been sent to a fraternity. During the conversation “we all came to the conclusion that although there is good in promoting professionalism to new members, we as a community do not have the luxury to continue treading the line.”
October 14, 2018 – A student reported seeing Sigma Chi pledges, all dressed alike, go out together and then return dirty and sweaty. He said one of them said they had to “earn their way” into the frat, and that at a tailgating party they were forced to drink to get points, because the pledge with the lowest number of points would be cut. The student also said he had to go clean up the house.
October 16, 2018 – A letter is sent to Sigma Chi, informing the chapter of the Interim Suspension status and is not permitted to conduct any activities. The suspension will be in effect while an investigation is made “regarding reports of violations of the Student Code of Conduct, allegedly regarding mistreatment of new members.
