A recent investigation at the University of Buffalo (UB) has found five recently shut down fraternities that exist on campus, but technically do not exist in the eyes of the school.
According to USA Today, journalist Lisa Khoury spent seven months investigating these illegal fraternities and found their members dealt drugs, abuse alcohol and haze pledges. She found UB does not officially recognize Phi Delta Theta, Alpha Tau Omega, Sigma Alpha Mu, Kappa Sigma and Delta Sigma Phi, but they continue to go on.
The five fraternities belong to national organizations with chapters at colleges and universities around the nation, but they were recently shut down at UB.
"They stay together after national organizations [shut them down]," Khoury, a recent UB graduate and former managing editor of the school's newspaper the Spectrum, told USA Today. "They operate outside the system and protect their members' identities by encircling themselves in a code of silence."
CLICK HERE to read the full Q&A with Khoury and HERE to read her full report for the Spectrum.
As she detailed in her investigative piece, published earlier this month, these fraternity houses existed "just off campus." At the Sigma Alpha Mu house, she reported, the fraternity brothers ordered the pledges to beat each other up and when they did one with a preexisting medical condition began convulsing. At that point, the fraternity brothers brought him to a local hospital.
Elizabeth Lidano, the director of UB's Judicial Affairs, told Khoury she has spent "years" trying to gather information on such unrecognized student groups in order to punish them.
"The culture is such that the students who are pledging are really taught to keep their mouths shut," Lidano said. "They're taught how to lie to us. And they're afraid."
The student journalist reported "brothers" in these unrecognized fraternities are afraid of punishment from the school if they admit to being in an illegal student group. However, they also fear retaliation from their fellow brothers for turning in the group.
"What seems to be happening, like I pointed out toward the end of my article, is that no one is shutting down these groups until somebody gets seriously hurt," Khoury told USA Today. "In 2009 at SUNY Geneseo, a pledge of an underground fraternity died after being hazed. So, if reporters around the country don't bring attention to this issue, these groups can continue to exist and harm students while nobody is watching."
