The General Board of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., unanimously voted to authorize the Fraternity, in concert with the International President, to expel any member found guilty of hazing. The decision was made on January 7, 2012 at the winter of the General Board in Memphis, Tennessee.

International President Jimmy Hammock has expressed deep concern over the effects of hazing on the Fraternity: “There are members of Phi Beta Sigma, and other fraternities who have pretty much ignored the anti-hazing, no pledge policy for new membership intake, as state by the member organizations of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Underground pledging has overshadowed a system designed to eliminate hazing and reduce the liability pledging and/or hazing has on Black Greek Letter Organizations. No one wants to be a called a “paper” brother, or to allow someone to “skate” into the fraternity, or be accused of being “soft”; so the madness continues. We must work to change this culture, by taking the lead on the enforcement of the anti-hazing policies set by all Black Greeks”

The General Board also unanimously adopted the following procedure measure to the expulsion process: After investigation by Regional Director, and upon the recommendation to the International President, members found guilty must receive notice via US mail to their known address. Members will be given 30 days to respond to that letter; if there is no response within this timeframe, then the General Board will expel the member(s) pending verification at the next Conclave.

These decisions are the beginning of a series of anti-hazing actions and initiatives implemented by the General Board. Members of Phi Beta Sigma will receive more information on risk management matters in the near future.

“Sigma will become the global brand reference for fraternities and community service organizations,” shares President Hammock. “A major threat to our brand today is the threat of hazing. We are determined to seriously address and eradicate this culture of hazing.”

A student at Jarvis Christian College claims fraternity members damaged his kidneys and opened wounds on his butt by beating him with heavy wooden paddles, then welcomed him to the fraternity’s “‘Century Club’ … reserved for those who could withstand at least 100 blows during this initiation process.”

Xavier Foster sued Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and four of its members – Sadallie “CJ” Cole, Waymon Humphrey, Bruce Nance and Omar McElroy – in Federal Court. Foster says when he enrolled in the Christian college in Hawkins, Texas in August 2009, friends and coaches encouraged him to pledge membership with Kappa Alpha Psi.

He says at the on-campus “intake meeting,” fraternity members and school representatives went over the pledge process and told him “the sole requirements for membership in Kappa Alpha Psi were a minimum grade point average, approval by current members and successful completion of a written examination on the history, rituals and traditions of the fraternity.” At that meeting, Foster says, frat members and school officials said they did not tolerate “physical or psychological hazing of pledges.” Foster says he fulfilled all requirements to join the fraternity by paying membership fees, and passing its written exam on April 24, 2010.

But his new brothers had other plans for him, Foster says, and on April 30, 2010 a frat member told him to report to CJ Cole’s apartment in Hawkins for further initiation into the national fraternity and its local chapter. ”There, defendants CJ Cole, Keith Humphrey and Bruce ‘BJ’ Nance physically and psychologically assaulted Foster,” the complaint states. “These defendants stood at attention and peppered him with questions regarding the history, traditions and rituals of the fraternity, punctuating each incorrect answer with blows from heavy wooden paddles and rods. ”CJ Cole, Keith Humphrey and Bruce ‘BJ’ Nance further represented to Foster that membership in the fraternity’s ‘Century Club’ was reserved for those who could withstand at least 100 blows during this initiation process.”

Later that evening, Foster says, the defendants ordered him to report to a second apartment in Hawkins for more initiation.
There Cole, Humphrey and Nance were joined by the frat’s “dean of pledges” Omar McElroy, and they all set to “striking Foster about his legs and buttocks with paddles, rods and boards for approximately two more hours,” according to the complaint. ”Finally, after more than five hours of non-stop beatings, verbal and psychological abuse,” the four frat members welcomed him into Kappa Alpha Psi, and “pronounced him a member of exclusive the ‘Century Club.’”

The complaint continues: “Within days of the beatings, Foster began to succumb to his injuries. His legs and buttocks were predictably inflamed and swollen. More unexpectedly, he began to suffer nausea, cramping in his hands and feet and loss of appetite. He began to vomit and could not eat. ”On May 3, 2010, Foster’s family doctor diagnosed Foster with acute renal failure and admitted him to the hospital where doctors confirmed the admitting diagnosis through a kidney biopsy and began an immediate course of dialysis. In the meantime, the wounds on Foster’s buttocks had grown so severe that they ruptured and required complete debridement and ongoing treatment of a wound care specialist.”

He was released from the hospital 8 days later, but needed “continued medication and monitoring of his kidney function and a wound vacuum for the still-healing wounds on his buttocks.”

“Since his release, Foster has undergone surgery to place skin grafts over the wounds on his buttocks.

“The damage to Foster’s kidneys was so severe that he now suffers from a permanent loss of 10 percent of his renal function. As a result, doctors have placed him on three separate medications to control his blood pressure to prevent further damage to his kidneys. ”Foster continues to be under the care of physicians because of the injuries inflicted on him. He is at increased risk of future kidney damage. He has pain with sitting for long periods of time. His legs and buttocks are scarred and disfigured.”

He seeks damages and punitive damages for negligence, gross negligence, assault and battery, and pain and suffering.

In the wake of a college drum major’s death in Florida, a lawmaker from the state plans to introduce anti-hazing legislation when Congress returns in mid-January.

The bill would strip financial aid from anyone sanctioned by a university for hazing or witnessing hazing and failing to report it – including the victim, said Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson.

“Hazing is demeaning, dangerous and, sadly, deadly,” Wilson, a former school principal, told the Los Angeles Times, adding that the death of Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion warrants a federal response.

Florida has toughened the penalties against hazing, but Wilson said in an interview that, under her proposal, if anyone witnesses hazing – “including the victim, they will tell because they don’t want to lose their federal aid.”

Florida officials have ruled Champion’s death in November a homicide. The incident has drawn national attention and generated soul-searching on college campuses throughout the country.

Wilson, who has yet to draft the legislation, said she also wants the U.S. attorney general to set up a commission to examine ways to stamp out hazing.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2005 signed legislation making hazing that results in serious injury or death a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, even if the victim consents. The bill, the Chad Meredith Act, was named after a University of Miami freshman who drowned in a campus lake while trying to join a fraternity in 2001.

Wilson said that, notwithstanding the new law, “we have had a plethora of hazing incidents,” but prosecutions have been difficult because “you can’t find any victims to talk.”

“We’ve got to take a tougher stance,” added Wilson, who said that she became known as the “haze buster” while serving as South Atlantic regional director for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. “It’s time to stop it.”

Congress has been considering legislation aimed at bullying, including requiring states to report bulling incidents and expanding programs for teachers, administrators and counselors on strategies to prevent bullying and harassment.

In November 2010, I watched “HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” and saw a piece on the hazing antics at several historically black colleges and fraternities. I took to Twitter to share my thoughts on the issue.

Much of the report focused on Southern University, and man, did the floodgates open as a number of students from the university angrily tweeted me back, cussing, yelling and screaming, with some defending hazing, while others were angry at the national attention focused on their university.

For hours we went round and round, and were joined in the discussion by members of several black fraternities, including my own Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. A number of these individuals actually supported hazing, or “pledging hard” and not becoming a “paper” member who “skated” into the fraternity.

Despite the anger and vitriol, I refused to back down, making it clear that getting beaten for being in a band or fraternity was absolutely dumb.

Here was a young man who went off to college, planning to earn a college degree while leading one of the nation’s most colorful and exciting bands, only to be returned home to his parents in Georgia in a coffin.

While hazing immediately was suspected, we could only speculate about the cause of the 26-year-old’s death. That is, until Friday, when the medical examiner released details of his autopsy, concluding that Champion “collapsed and died within an hour of a hazing incident during which he suffered multiple blunt trauma blows to his body.”

News of the death has rocked the Florida A&M campus, angering its students and alumni, triggering multiple state investigations and leading Gov. Rick Scott to call for the suspension of school President James Ammons. That prompted FAMU students to march to the governor’s mansion on Friday and camp out on his lawn, demanding he rescind the resignation call.

Champion’s death isn’t the first time we have seen individuals in a band or fraternity die. It is incredible that some folks have given their lives — literally — for just being a part of a student group.

State laws have been passed, organizations have been kicked off campuses and national fraternal and sorority groups have paid millions in settlements because of hazing, but we continue to see these stories.

“Why?” is a consistent question that is asked, and at the end of the day, it boils down to power and a desire to demand others kowtow to someone else’s demands in order for them to be accepted.

A decision not to follow through means you can be ostracized, ignored and marginalized. That’s the last thing any young person wants to experience when in an organization.

Every one of these organizations is overseen by adult leaders or advisers. But in truth, fellow students run the show. Normally in a band, a drum major sits at the top of the food chain, but Champion clearly had to bend to the band’s culture to be fully accepted as a member of FAMU’s “Marching 100.”

So what you have is a bunch of students between the ages of 18 and 22 calling the shots and making it clear who is accepted and who isn’t, who gets in and who doesn’t. You aim to please them and no one else. Oftentimes they are leading based on how they were led, and it has been indoctrinated into them that this is the way of life, take it or leave it.

These are powerful forces that can only be changed by peers. Hazing will only be brought to a close when members of organizations make it clear the vile hazing traditions will not go forward. No one today can be hazed if the student leaders make it clear that it’s unacceptable. Yet because of the natural turnover in student organizations, that mindset has to be created and passed on for it to succeed.

When I was about to pledge Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. in spring 1989, I met with my four other pledge brothers and made it clear: I’m not getting hit, I will never use alcohol and I will not agree to be hazed.

Even though my older brother pledged the same fraternity at Texas A&M two years earlier without any nonsense, I was making it clear that such shenanigans were idiotic. All five of us agreed and in the four weeks, two days, 16 hours, 38 minutes and 39 seconds I was on line (yea, having to recite such specifics was a part of our process), the behavior that we often heard was associated with pledging didn’t exist.

Yet because of that, we weren’t always as accepted by other fraternity members at other campuses. Our chapter was called soft; we were criticized as not “pledging the right way” and had to constantly defend our manhood.

Me, I didn’t give a damn. I would look others in the eye and say, “In the history of our chapter, only one brother has failed to graduate, and we do nothing with him. Are you guys on the six- or seven-year plan, and can you match our graduate rate?”

From my perspective, we were supposed to be in college to graduate, not to pledge. And if my fraternity was founded as a study group at Cornell University on December 4, 1906, why would we eschew academics?

Even though we pledged the right way at Texas A&M, that peer pressure was still unbearable for some. That summer at our national convention in San Antonio, hazing was on the agenda, and I made it clear I was going to speak. Some other brothers in my chapter pulled my coattails and said, “Don’t tell the brothers you didn’t take any wood (that’s being paddled).”

I yelled, “If we pledged brothers the right way, why in the hell are we afraid to say it?”

Since those days, I’ve never wavered from my anti-hazing position. It is deplorable and shameful to think that someone would beat another person for them to prove something. Prove what? They can take a punch? No. I prefer to challenge his mind, his intellect.

Our goal as fraternity men is to take young men and mold and shape them to be better men. It is not our aim to take young men and train them to be collegiate mercenaries, hellbent on inflicting as much pain as they got onto the first person they have control over.

Is there tremendous value in fraternities, sororities, bands and student organizations? Absolutely. The leadership opportunities are tremendous, and the lifelong relationships are vital.

But what has to be preached and preached and preached to every student, whether they are white, black, Asian, Latino, male or female, is that if they love that frat, sorority, drill team or band, they shouldn’t do anything to jeopardize it for the next person.

Do we need tougher hazing laws? Yes. Do we need universities to take punitive action, including kicking students out who break the rules? Yes. Do we need national organizations to ban chapters for years for egregious behavior? Absolutely. Should fellow student leaders turn in others who break the rules and haze? Of course. There must be a zero tolerance attitude from every state official, administrator, student leader and organization member. To hell with tradition, rituals and “the way we do things.” All that must end. Now.

But we also must raise a generation of young people who have enough confidence in themselves to say, “I will not take a beating just to be accepted by you. I’d rather not have your affection or support if it means putting my life on the line.”

And if that means other students calling you out or teasing you, fine. I’d rather you talk about me like a dog today than be hazed and have my friends search to figure out what to say at my funeral.

Texas police on Friday released a composite sketch of a man they believe broke into the homes of four former members of the same sorority, then sexually assaulted them.

No name has been given for the suspect in the alleged break-ins and attacks, which took place between November 2010 and October 2011, according to a timeline from the Plano police.

Detectives, however, do have “a definite DNA profile on the suspect” after a crime lab report, the police statement noted.

Plano police in October released a video — dated in April — showing a man with a distinctive swagger who they believe is responsible. Snapshots from that video were distributed Friday.

The alleged assaults occurred in the cities of Plano, Coppell and Corinth, all suburbs of Dallas.

The alleged victims — all females in their mid-50s to mid-60s — were alumnae of the same predominantly African-American sorority: Delta Sigma Theta, according to police.

They offered similar descriptions of their assailant as being a black male in his late 30s to mid-40s, weighing from 275 to 300 pounds and standing between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall.

“He made it obvious to our victims that he knew information … about them personally,” Plano police spokesman Andre Smith said this fall, adding that none of the women believe they knew their attacker in advance.

According to Corinth Police Capt. Greg Wilkerson, all the assaults occurred in “residential settings” between 9:15 p.m. and 4 a.m. when the victims were alone. The alleged attack in his city, 35 miles northwest of Dallas, took place on October 14.

The late-night setting, the fact the victims were often asleep and the alleged assailant’s “attempts to conceal his identity” make it challenging to definitively identify the attacker, said Wilkerson.

Wilkerson said that the nature of the assaults suggest the alleged assailant was “possibly suspecting surveillance, spending some time around the areas … prior to the attacks.”

The police captain said authorities do not know how the suspect learned details of the victims, speculating it may have been over the internet, by accessing an old directory or noticing would-be victims with Delta Sigma Theta jewelry, placards or other paraphernalia out in public.

Delta Sigma Theta’s President Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre this fall issued a statement urging members in the Dallas area to take precautions.

“To think that our members are being targeted is disturbing and extremely disheartening,” she said.

The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta/+1-404-827-WIRE(9473)

While most students had already gone home for the holiday, some stayed behind to celebrate, but their party quickly turned tragic.

The NIU community woke to a shock early Wednesday morning, after receiving a text reporting that a student was shot while at an off campus party.

“This was an isolated incident that occurred as a result of an argument,” said DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen.

Feithen says 19-year-old Chaz Thrailkill of Markham, IL was arguing with 22-year-old Steven R Agee II, at 809 Edgebrook Drive in DeKalb.  When Thrailkill pulled out a gun and shot Agee multiple times in the chest.

“During that exchange is when the victim was shot,” said Feithen

No one else at the party was hurt, Thrailkill was arrested several hours later near the DeKalb campus.

“Talking to witnesses, we were able to identify the suspect,” said Feithen.

Friends of Agee say they were over come with emotion when they heard he had been shot, and don’t understand why anyone would want to hurt him.

“I didn’t believe that Steven was involved in it, until I showed up with the ambulance and actually saw him,” said Agee’s fraternity brother Paris Harbour.

“A leader, very academically sound, just a great guy to be around,” said Agee’s fraternity brother Turan Crockett.

Agee was the president of Kappa Alpha Psi, and his fraternity brothers say he will be greatly missed.

“We stick close together and everything, we know everything about each other, like I said, we’re loosing a big part,” said Harbour.

NIU says it is doing everything it can to protect students, but can’t control what happens off campus.

“We are very much concerned about safety, we got very strong engaged involved police force,” said Vice President of NIU Relations Kathy Buettner.

Thrailkill is not a NIU student and is in jail on a 3-million dollars bond.  He’s charged with first degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and aggravated discharge of a firearm.

The Florence County Sheriff’s Office has arrested nine men in connection to a hazing incident involving members of a fraternity formerly affiliated with Francis Marion University Thursday.

Capt. Mike Nunn, spokesman for the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, said the alleged incident occurred at the home of Maurice Lavon Robinson, 34, along Rosemount Drive in Florence County on Oct. 23.

According to Nunn, all nine suspects intentionally inflicted physical harm on the victim by beating him with a paddle in order to be admitted to the fraternity. The victim reportedly suffered serious injuries and had to be hospitalized for several days.

The Florence County Sheriff’s office was notified when the victim was admitted to the hospital.

“When the conduct is such that it results in serious body injury to an individual then it ceases to become an accepted admission ritual to an organization and becomes saw,” said Nunn.

Francis Marion University has suspended three of the suspects, who are current FMU students, pending the results of the investigation.

“We have a policy that prohibits hazing of any kind and we hold strong to that. This was an off-campus incident, we have no control over what happens off campus but I think we’ve done a pretty good job controlling what happens on campus,” said Angela Crosland of FMU.

Crosland says FMU has an ongoing risk management program overseeing the activities of Greek Organizations at the university.

She says the university hasn’t had a problem like this and they will continue to do what they’ve always done with the program.

“This is just an isolated incident and we hope nothing like this ever happens again,” said Crosland.

The university has suspended three of the suspects, who are current student’s of FMU, pending the results of the investigation. The FMU chapter of Phi Beta Sigma has also been suspended.

Robinson and the following fellow arrestees are said to be current or former members of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity formerly affiliated with FMU:

• Uribe Raymon Norton, 22, of St. Stephens
• Jatravian Funtello Brown, 21, of Clinton
• Chappelle Marcus Smith, 23, of Florence
• Nicholas Alexander Washington, 27, of Florence
• Marcus N. Raven, 22, of Florence
• Henry James Watson, 22, of Sumter
• Miles Rukean Norton, 24, of St. Stevens
• Kevin Lequincy Cooper, 23, of Florence

Executive Director, Neil Zimmerman, of The Boys and Girls Club of the Pee Dee said that Nicholas Washington has worked with the boys and girls club for 4 years. As a result of his arrest he has been suspended from the organization and is dealing with the situation as it progresses.

Each were charged with hazing and have been released from the Florence County Detention Center on $5,000 personal recognizance bonds.

Nunn said SC law indicates that hazing is a misdemeanor which carries a sentence of up to $500 in fines and/or imprisonment for up to one year.

Following the removal of Alpha Epsilon Phi (AEPhi) sorority from campus last spring, in May, the Alpha Phi Alpha (APhiA) fraternity and Delta Sigma Theta (DST) sorority were suspended from campus due to hazing violations.

According to Director of Greek Life Buck Cooke, the Office of Student Conduct followed the same investigation process as it did with AEPhi, and like AEPhi, both groups will be eligible to return to campus in 2015.

The decision to remove APhiA and DST from campus was made by Student Conduct in consultation with the Dean of Students and the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life, Assistant Dean of Campus Life and Director of Student Conduct Eric Hoffman wrote in an email to the Wheel.

“In both instances, there were reports of physical and psychological hazing,” he wrote.

Any individuals or organizations alleged to have violated the Undergraduate Code of Conduct receive the same process, as outlined in the Code, according to Hoffman.

In cases involving organizations, both prospective and current members of the group are interviewed, and a conduct officer will meet with a representative from the organization to discuss the incident.

If the organization is charged with violating the Code, the representative may either accept or deny responsibility.

If the representative accepts responsibility, the conduct officer makes a sanction recommendation and the case goes to a formal hearing, Hoffman explained.

DST accepted responsibility for hazing and for violating other University policies. APhiA, Hoffman wrote, was also found responsible for hazing.

Currently, the APhiA house and DST lodge are being used as sophomore housing, like the AEPhi lodge. Campus Life and Residence Life and Housing will work together to determine whether the locations will be used for sophomore housing again next year, Cooke wrote.

The fraternity whose party was raided by the ABC last month will face disciplinary probation but will still be able to have social functions in the upcoming school year, Troy University officials said this week.

The Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control unit raided a Kappa Alpha Psi party at The Pines last month, resulting in more than 52 arrests for illegal consumption of alcohol and one felony arrest for possession of drugs.

In the wake of the event, officials at Troy University have deliberated the appropriate actions to take against the fraternity.

Herbert Reeves, Troy University’s dean of student services, said the fraternity-sponsored social event did not operate by standards set by the university and that appropriate action had to be taken.

“I have met with the leadership of the fraternity,” Reeves said.

After considering all courses of action to be taken against the fraternity, Reeves said the following actions were agreed upon: 1) a formal letter of apology, which he said, “should be signed by all members of the fraternity that were present” at The Pines; 2) all social events for the fall semester must be alcohol-free, which means no sale of alcohol or BYOB at any function during the fall semester; 3) the fraternity must invite and sponsor representatives from the ABC Board to conduct a workshop with the leadership of all social organizations on the appropriate use of alcohol at a function and the liabilities of having alcohol at a function, which must be completed by September 15 4) the fraternity must co-sponsor an event with MADD on campus open to all students on the dangers of under-age drinking, which must be completed by October 15; and 5) the fraternity would be placed on Disciplinary Probation for a period of one year.

“Any other infractions during this period would subject the fraternity to an indefinite suspension of recognition,” Reeves said.

An argument between members of two fraternities landed a University of Memphis Omega Psi Phi member in jail on three counts of aggravated assault.

DeAndre McBee, 23, is accused of threatening at least three members of another fraternity at Silver Spoon Lounge on Mt. Moriah on June 12 with a .40-caliber handgun and an assault-type rifle, according to a police affidavit. The name of the second fraternity was not available.

When arguments between the two fraternities erupted in the lounge about 1 a.m., according to the affidavit, McBee threatened another U of M student.

A police incident report charges that McBee left the lounge and returned with the handgun, which he pointed at the three other U of M students.

The three students later saw McBee retrieving an assault-type rifle from his vehicle and pointing it toward them, asking which one of them wanted to die, the affidavit says.

The confrontation ended when Memphis police were called by an off-duty officer who was at the nightclub and said shots had been fired. Upon arrival police found four 9mm casings that apparently did not come from McBee’s guns.

At least one person was treated at Saint Francis Hospital for wounds to the head received when he was jumped by four unknown assailants and hit by a beer bottle, the incident report says.

The three victims picked McBee out of a photo lineup as the person who pointed two guns at them, and he was arrested Thursday. McBee was being held Friday on $75,000 bond.