UConn Suspends Fraternity and Sorority Chapters While School and State Police Conduct Hazing Investigation
ByThe University of Connecticut (UConn) has temporarily suspended both its Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity while the school and state police open an investigation into allegations of hazing.
According to the Associated Press, all activities at both chapters are to be halted pending the outcome of the probes. The investigation stems from KKG member Hillary Holt telling reporters Friday she was taken to the SAE house March 6 and forced to drink alcohol until she passed out.
UConn's Office of Community Standards wants to know if any student broke the honor code and the police want to know if anyone broke the law. One could end in expulsion, the other in arrest.
Holt claimed she woke up in the hospital the day after the frat party and was told her blood-alcohol limit was at least 0.24, triple the legal limit.
Both local chapters have declined to comment and deferred all questions to the national organizations. Both SAE and KKG national organizations have said they will assist the investigation in whatever way they can.
"SAE offers its apologies to Miss Holt for any hazing or ordeal that she may have been subjected to, especially in a Sigma Alpha Epsilon house," SAE spokesman Brandon Weghorst said in a statement. "And we apologize if any of our members were responsible for those actions. They are not consistent with our expectations."
The Hartford Courant reported that hazing violates both UConn's policy and Conn. state law.
"Students who violate the UConn Student Code of Conduct are subject to a range of disciplinary sanctions that can range from warnings to expulsions," UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said in a statement. "Student organizations can also face a range of responses from warnings to loss of recognition."
This follows several incidents of hazing, but most recently the death of a Baruch College student pledging for a fraternity.