University of Utah terminates recognition of fraternity accused of ‘egregious and serious' hazing
The University of Utah has terminated its recognition of a fraternity accused of 'egregious and serious' hazing, including forcing new members to drink alcohol and use drugs, sleep on a basement floor, and do chores at 3 a.m.
According to a letter from Vice President for Student Affairs Lori McDonald, the university will not consider applications to recognize the Sigma Nu – Epsilon Lambda fraternity until 2031.
The letter, signed in May, details a number of hazing allegations that occurred during fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters, pointing to 'a pattern of misbehavior over the past six years, including hazing, alcohol-related violations, and destruction of property.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
In January, the university was alerted to possible violations of student code from the fraternity. It launched an investigation that was completed in May.
That investigation, according to a report released by the university, found at least 13 incidents of 'subtle, harassment and violent' hazing. That included:
An event where new members were forced to drink large quantities of beer, vodka and whiskey.
Requiring new members to complete chores as early as 3 a.m. or risk facing humiliating sexualized punishment by active members.
Blindfolding, kidnapping and bringing new members to an 'exotic dance club.'
Telling new members to participate in an interview while using marijuana, or risk removal.
Giving members 'derogatory' nicknames.
Hosting expensive and unsanctioned parties where alcohol was provided.
Requiring new members to carry 'pledge packs' at all times, which included items like tobacco, condoms, a golf tee, gum, Zyns and a marijuana pen.
The investigation report also detailed a tradition where new members were forced to stay in the basement of the fraternity building.
'During this timeframe, limited food was provided, new members slept on the basement floor, and they were required to clean the facility and sing songs while actives and alumni were present,' the document reads.
'I do not have confidence the Sigma Nu chapter will follow the University's directions, policies, or the terms of a suspension, and therefore, termination of the University's recognition of the chapter is warranted,' McDonald wrote to the fraternity in the May 19 letter.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the university's Greek Council Executive Board said hazing is 'harmful, unacceptable, and has no place in our community.'
'The actions that led to this decision, do not reflect the values or true purpose of Greek life. Greek organizations should stand for leadership, service, friendship, and personal growth,' the board said.
According to the university, three fraternities have lost their official recognition since 2002.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Caught on the jumbotron: How literature helps us understand modern-day public shaming
The scene at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts on July 16 was steeped in irony. During Coldplay's 'jumbotron song' — the concert segment where cameras pan over the crowd — the big screen landed on Andy Byron, then-CEO of data firm Astronomer, intimately embracing Kristin Cabot, the company's chief people officer. Both are married to other people. The moment, captured on video and widely circulated on social media, shows the pair abruptly recoiling as Coldplay's lead singer Chris Martin says: 'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy.' Martin's comment — seemingly light-hearted at the time — quickly took on a different tone as online sleuths identified the pair and uncovered their corporate roles and marital statuses. Within days, Byron resigned from his position as CEO while Cabot is on leave. This spectacle raises a deeper question: why does infidelity, especially among the powerful, provoke such public outcry. Literary tradition offers some insight: intimate betrayal is never truly private. It shatters an implicit social contract, demanding communal scrutiny to restore trust. When trust crumbles publicly French philosopher Paul Ricoeur's notion of 'narrative identity' suggests we make sense of our lives as unfolding stories. The promises we make (and break) become chapters of identity and the basis of others' trust. Betrayal ruptures the framework that stitches private vows to public roles; without that stitch, trust frays. Byron's stadium exposure turned a marital vow into a proxy for professional integrity. Public betrayal magnifies public outcry because leaders symbolize stability; their personal failings inevitably reflect on their institutions. When Astronomer's board stated the expected standard 'was not met,' they were lamenting the collapse of Byron's narrative integrity — and, by extension, their company's. This idea — that private morality underpins public order — is hardly new. In Laws, ancient Greek philosopher Plato described adultery as a disorder undermining family and state. Roman philosopher Seneca called it a betrayal of nature, while statesman Cicero warned that breaking fides (trust) corrodes civic bonds. The social cost of infidelity in literature Literature rarely confines infidelity to the bedroom; its shockwaves fracture communities. French sociologist Émile Durkheim's idea of the 'conscience collective' holds that shared moral norms create 'social solidarity.' As literature demonstrates, violations of these norms inevitably undermines communal trust. Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina (1875-77) dramatizes the social fracture of betrayal. Anna's affair with Count Vronsky not only defies moral convention but destabilizes the aristocratic norms that once upheld her status. As the scandal leads to her ostracization, Anna mourns the social world she has lost, realizing too late that 'the position she enjoyed in society… was precious to her… [and] she could not be stronger than she was.' In Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), Emma Bovary's extramarital affairs unravel the networks of her provincial town, turning private yearning for luxury and romance into public contagion. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) makes this explicit: Hester Prynne's scarlet 'A' turns her sin into civic theatre. Public shaming on the scaffold, the novel suggests, delineates moral boundaries and seeks to restore social order — a process that prefigures today's 'digital pillories,' where viral moments subject individuals to mass online judgment and public condemnation. Domestic crumbs and digital scaffolds Contemporary narratives shift the setting but uphold the same principle: betrayal devastates the mundane rituals that build trust. Nora Ephron's autobiographical novel Heartburn (1983), based on her own marriage's collapse to investigative journalist Carl Bernstein, weaponizes domesticity. Heartburn's protagonist Rachel Samstat delivers her emotions through recipes — 'Vinaigrette' as a marker of intimacy and betrayal, 'Lillian Hellman's Pot Roast' as a bid for domestic stability and 'Key Lime Pie,' hurled at her cheating husband — become symbols of a life undone by public infidelity. Ephron's satire, later adapted into a film, anticipates our digital age of exposure, where private pain fuels public consumption and judgment. Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation (2014), which draws from her own life, shows another perspective: betrayal as quiet erosion. Offill never depicts the affair directly; instead, the husband's absences, silences and an off-hand reference to 'someone else' create a suffocating dread. This indirection shows betrayal's power lies in its latent potential, slowly dismantling a life built on trust before any overt act. Both works underscore betrayal's impact on the collective conscience: a lie fractures a family as fundamentally as a CEO's indiscretion erodes institutional trust. Power magnifies the fallout by turning private failings into public symbols of fragility. Even hidden betrayal poisons the shared rituals binding any group, making the notion of 'private' unsustainable long before any public revelation. The limits of power Literature acknowledges power's protective veneer from consequence — and its limits. Theodore Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire (1912–47), modelled on the Gilded Age robber baron Charles Yerkes, follows the rise of financier Frank Cowperwood, whose power shields him — until it doesn't. Even his vast empire proves vulnerable once his adultery becomes public. The very networks that protected him grow wary. Though many critics of the elite are themselves morally compromised in the trilogy, Cowperwood's transgression becomes a weapon to discredit him. His brief exile shows that power may defer, but cannot erase, the costs of betrayal. Once trust fractures, even the powerful become liabilities. They do not fall less often — only more conspicuously. Gender also plays a role in shaping these narratives. Male protagonists like Cowperwood rebound as tragic anti-heroes, their moral failings recast as flaws of character. By contrast, women — think Flaubert's Emma Bovary or Hawthorne's Hester Prynne — are branded cautionary figures, their transgressions stigmatized rather than mythologized. This imbalance in assigning consequences reveals a deeper societal judgment: while broken trust demands repair, the path to restoration often depends on the transgressor's gender. The unblinking eye From Tolstoy's salons to TikTok's scroll, literature offers no refuge from betrayal's ripple effects. When private trust visibly fractures, communal reflexes kick in. Scarlet letters, exile or a CEO's resignation all aim to heal the collective trust. The jumbotron, like Hester's scaffold, is the latest instrument in this age-old theatre of exposure. Jumbotrons. Scaffolds. Same operating system. Same shame. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Jason Wang, Toronto Metropolitan University Read more: 'Eat the rich' — Why horror films are taking aim at the ultra-wealthy TikTok may be bad for privacy, but is it also harming our cognitive abilities? Citizens' social media, like Mastodon, can provide an antidote to propaganda and disinformation Jason Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Fox News
16 hours ago
- Fox News
Former Premier League player George Baldock's cause of death revealed as drowning accident
Officials have released the cause of death of former English Premier League player George Baldock, who was found dead in a swimming pool at his home in Greece in October. The Milton Keynes Coroners Court revealed at an inquest hearing on Wednesday that the 31-year-old soccer player had died as a result of drowning. A post-mortem examination found no traces of drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death. According to the record of inquest reviewed by Fox News Digital, officials discovered that Baldock "had a very large heart that would have meant that he was susceptible to heart arrhythmias." The Mayo Clinic describes heart arrhythmias as an irregular heartbeat, either too fast or too slow. While heart arrhythmias can be harmless for some, in other cases, they can cause "life-threatening symptoms." Baldock's death was ruled an accident. Bladock, who had played for the Greek national team, was discovered in the swimming pool of his residence in Attica, Greece, on Oct. 9. First responders attempted to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful. Bladock was born in England and played for Sheffield United for seven seasons – three in the Premier League. He signed with Panathinaikos Football Club, a member of the Super League Greece, in 2024, making an appearance for the club just three days before his death. He appeared in 12 matches with Greece's national team and last appeared in a game in March in a match against Georgia in the Euro 2024 playoffs. "There are no words to describe the human pain caused by the news of the untimely loss of one of our young people," the Greek Soccer Federation said in a statement at the time. "This moment calls for silence. Condolences to his family. Condolences from his second family. Goodbye."
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Chinese university expels student over 'inappropriate behavior' with Ukrainian
[Source] A university in northeastern China has sparked debate in the country by expelling a student for what it calls 'inappropriate behavior' with a Ukrainian e-sports player that allegedly damaged national dignity. What the school is saying: Dalian Polytechnic University, located in Liaoning province, issued the expulsion notice on July 8, telling the student, 'Your inappropriate behavior on December 16, 2024, has caused a severe negative impact.' The university applied disciplinary regulations stating that students engaging in 'improper relationships with foreigners that undermine national dignity and the university's reputation may face a demerit or more serious disciplinary action, depending on the circumstances.' The notice was posted publicly on the university's website, revealing the student's full name. The student and the foreigner: The controversy centers on former Ukrainian 'Counter-Strike' professional gamer Danylo Teslenko, nicknamed 'Zeus,' who shared videos of himself with the student on his Telegram channel during a December tournament visit to Shanghai. In his posts, Teslenko reportedly referred to the student as an 'easy girl.' Video screenshots circulating online also show the pair in a hotel room — with the student appearing aware of being filmed — though no explicit content was displayed. The Ukrainian national later apologized and clarified he was neither married nor in a relationship. Reactions: Chinese social media users are divided about the student's expulsion. On Weibo, one blogger with 14 million followers noted that 'fawning over foreigners' would never be respectable. On the other hand, Peking University law professor Zhao Hong wrote that 'the online spectators who frantically humiliated an ordinary woman under the banner of so-called justice' were the real threat to national dignity. The hashtag 'disciplined student should not be publicly shamed' also garnered over 57 million views on Weibo, with many condemning the sharing of the student's identity and private content as excessive punishment. Trending on NextShark: The big picture: Beyond the university's action, the incident unveils tensions over China's complex relationship with foreigners, particularly given Ukraine's precarious position amid Beijing's close ties with Russia. Critics also highlighted gender disparities in public reactions, noting that Chinese men who pursue foreign partners typically face no similar scrutiny. Meanwhile, legal scholars questioned whether the university violated higher education laws and China's Civil Code provisions protecting personal data. The student has 60 days to appeal the expulsion decision. Trending on NextShark: This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Subscribe here now! Trending on NextShark: Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
