An Arkansas Tech University student remains in serious condition in a Little Rock hospital after sustaining injuries in an alleged fraternity hazing incident last week.

The fraternity has been suspended by the university pending the outcome of an investigation by Arkansas State Police and the school’s Office of Public Safety.

According to a statement released by Tech officials Monday, authorities are investigating to determine if the student, Deshawn Scoggins, was a victim of a hazing incident involving the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Scoggins was listed in serious condition by a University of Arkansas for Medical Science hospital spokesperson Friday afternoon. Scoggins is not listed in Tech’s online student directory.

The release says ATU officials learned of the injuries Saturday.

According to Arkansas law, hazing can range from “the playing of abusive or truculent tricks on or off the property of any school, college, university or other educational institution in Arkansas” to any act “by one student alone or acting with others in striking, beating, bruising, or maiming.”

Arkansas statute 6-5-203 classifies hazing as a class B misdemeanor. Fifth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons said if hazing is found to be the cause of the student’s injuries, the extent of those injuries and what weapons were used to cause them could carry felony battery charges.

The misdemeanor is punishable by expulsion from the school, according to the statute.

The university’s student handbook defines hazing as “an act that endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student, or which destroys or removes public or private property, for the purpose of initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership in a group or organization.” The handbook lists several sanctions for hazing, ranging from a warning or probation to monetary fines, restitution, denial of credit or degree, or suspension or expulsion.

The handbook also states each student organization is required to sign a statement which states they understand the definition and penalties of hazing.

Ennis Koonce never left a day of work without stopping by each coworker’s desk to say goodbye.

Those same coworkers now walk past the same neatly kept, now-vacant desk as a reminder of his untimely passing April 5.

Koonce had a multi-faceted career at OU. He served as an Adams Center resident director, higher education administration graduate student and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member.

Those who worked with him said he had a passion for helping others.

“He loved helping students, mentoring, just stopping and talking to people,” resident director Lauren Carter said.

Before his passing, Koonce helped develop a program intended to help transport injured students living in residence halls to and from classes, said Jennifer Doughty, Housing and Food director of operations.

Koonce’s fondness for amusing wordplay inspired him to push for the name “Lending a Limb,” Doughty said.

Colleagues said he was clever and had a sharp wit.

“He created words, he coined phrases that became parts of his peers’ vocabulary,” said T. Elon Dancy, higher education professor. “He was very creative.”

Koonce was at OU to study higher education administration, and his dissertation was focused on African American male performance in college, Dancy said.

“He saw himself in a professional role of serving this population of students, either through mentoring or broader student affairs work,” Dancy said.

Koonce practiced kindness to those around him, but in a humble manner.

“He did it in such a way that it wasn’t a big show, being kind,” Doughty said. “He was very quietly and privately kind, like leaving notes on your desk.”

Doughty said Koonce never left the office without saying goodbye to each employee, and his loss is devastating.

“It sounds like such a small thing, but it’s really meaningful when someone takes the time out from everything else that’s going on,” Doughty said. “Every single day.”

Despite his passing, lessons learned from Koonce still linger.

“Like his big heart, it’s still impacting us on a day-to-day basis,” Carter said. “He is still teaching us stuff, even though he’s not physically here.”

Koonce taught her to be honest and true to herself, Carter said. Koonce also inspired others to do whatever they could to help people.

An avid cook, Koonce also informed Carter that he made the best turkey burger, though she never had the chance to try one.

“I’ve heard nothing but good reviews of all of his food,” Carter said. “If you gave that man a kitchen, he’d make you a meal.”

Still, he taught coworkers other lessons.

Resident director Klint Neal said Koonce taught him to follow his passions and helped him plan out his own career path.

Resilience is another lesson Koonce left behind.

“He hadn’t been well for some months, and he never gave up,” Klint said. “He was still very much involved in pursuing his Ph.D. and completing his classes, on top of his work in Housing and Food.”

After graduating, he planned to work helping students. He was interested in being a vice president of student affairs, directing resident life or deanship of student life, Dancy said.

“He wanted to do work that mattered to the issues around African American male performance in colleges and universities,” Dancy said.

His leadership skills sprang from his strong sense of self, Dancy said.

“He was not the type to succumb to peer pressure,” Dancy said. “He was often the leader in groups because of that.”

This quality made people want to be mentored by Koonce, Dancy said.

He earned his undergraduate degree in his home state of Georgia and left behind a similar legacy there.

“By the time he left Georgia to come to [OU], he left behind a countless number of students who missed him very much,” Dancy said.

“He lived life, with not one bad memory,” Carter said. “I can honestly say that he served every day with great purpose.”

It started with 12 black men at the University of Minnesota who started a social club in 1911.

The club became a chapter of the national Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in 1912. In less than a week, the fraternity will celebrate its 100th year on campus.

The historically black fraternity will celebrate in conjunction with the 80th Midwest Regional Convention of the national organization. The convention is a celebration of all chapters in the region.

Every year, chapters from the Midwest apply to host the convention. This year the Minnesota chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha will host.

“It’s been a long time coming; this is something we’ve been planning since we put in a bid about a year ago,” said Emeka Okafor, a pre-medicine and psychology senior.

The fraternity will start the event next Thursday at the McNamara Alumni Center. The evening will feature speakers, including communication studies senior and chapter President Anthony Gnakadja. Other student organizations on campus are scheduled to speak in recognition of the chapter. The convention will continue through April 15.

The convention will also serve as a commemoration of those who were initiated into the Minnesota chapter of the fraternity years ago. A room will display pictures of members since 1912. Many members who were initiated in the Mu chapter in the 1930s and ’40s are attending.

In preparation for the anniversary, the University provided the chapter a grant to help fund the convention and anniversary. The grant helped fund buses that will transport attendees from the University to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, where a large portion of the convention will be held.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. was first founded in 1905-1906 at Cornell University, after half of a dozen black students didn’t return to school the previous year because of the racism they experienced on campus. The fraternity is the oldest black fraternity in the nation.

Notable members of Alpha Phi Alpha include Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Black greek life in its entirety benefits from the success of Alpha Phi Alpha. Since 2009, four other historically black fraternities and sororities have returned to campus.

“We, as men of Alpha Phi Alpha, we want to be leaders; we want to improve the community to the best of our abilities,” Gnakadja said. “But we cannot always do that by ourselves. We need help.”

The brothers see their accomplishments as largely supported by the black sororities on campus.

“What are men without women,” Okafor said.

Members of the fraternity have worked long hours to pull the centennial celebration together. Most express excitement and anxiety in tandem.

“It’s going to be a really big event on campus,” Okafor said. “There’s going to be a lot of people here, and it should be really fun.”

Members and friends of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity collect donations to help the homeless.

They are calling it a sleepout. Beginning at 9:00 p.m. Thursday, some 20 members and friends of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity camped out on both sides of Vine near 20th Street. Their mission, to collect donations to help the homeless.

Fraternity spokesman Bryan Colbert Jr. said the fraternity has been holding this event in Omaha near 72nd and Dodge for years. This is the first event held in Lincoln.

Holding signs on both sides of the street as cars pass by was effective too. A number of vehicles stopped and asked what was going on. Some even came back to drop off items.

Food, clothing and cash donations are all passed on to a number of Lincoln area agencies who support the homeless.

Colbert said, “It’s a great thing to come out, a lot of people come together and do something for other people.”

The shooting death of Trayvon Martin is one that has struck a chord with communities throughout the country, and students at Marshall University gathered Friday to remember Martin and to make the national conversation a local one.

More than 100 students, faculty and community members gathered at the Memorial Student Center Plaza for its own Justice for Trayvon rally, where the message was not one of anger, but one seeking camaraderie between people with any kind of difference said Jonathan Austin, vice president of Marshall’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.

“We’re not looking for a rebellion. It’s not about one race versus another. It’s about respecting and valuing another person’s life,” Austin said. “It’s a tribute to the life of a 17-year-old kid, who, for all we know, could have been a Marshall student next year. We’re commemorating a life lost.”

Reports indicate that Martin, 17, was wearing a hoodie and carrying candy and a bottle of tea he had purchased at a store in the neighborhood of his father’s home in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26 when he was shot and killed by volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.

Conflicting information has been reported as to what happened after Zimmerman called 911 to report Martin as a “suspicious person” until Martin was shot. Zimmerman told authorities he acted in self defense.

Zimmerman has not been arrested in connection to the shooting, and rallies, like the one on campus, have taken place throughout the country to call attention to the incident.

In a sign of support for Martin’s family, people throughout the country, including celebrities, a Congressman and participants in the event at Marshall, have worn hoodies to draw attention to the case.

Friday’s event was organized by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity & Delta Sigma Theta Sorority members.

Keelon Hinton, a professor of psychology at Marshall said the coverage of the event stems, in part, from how surprised many people were to have heard the incident occurred.

“We’re not here to debate what happened. We all know something wrong happened, that a boy was shot and killed. We are here to decide what we are going to do about it. We need to decide if this is the kind of society we want to live in,” Hinton said. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all the same color and had the same family lives? It isn’t about whether you’re black, white, red, yellow or purple. We’re all different. Our skin is different colors and our family lives are different. Instead of pretending like we don’t see these differences, we need to acknowledge them and accept them.”

In addition to Hinton and Austin, speakers at the event included Brenda Green, executive director of the West Virginia ACLU, Kimberly White, president of the Huntington Branch of the National Association of Social Workers and the Rev. Donte’ Jackson, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Huntington.

Jasmine Johnson and Vanessa Obafemi spend just about every waking moment together.

They’re roommates, Zeta Phi Beta sorority sisters, healthcare administration classmates and fellow Campus Activities Board members.

On top of all that, the two DeSoto, Texas natives are senior WKU basketball players in the thick of their 10th year playing the sport together.

“Besides sleeping,” Johnson said, “we’re almost always together.”

Johnson, a 6-foot-3 center, and Obafemi, a 5-foot-10 guard, began playing together as seventh graders at DeSoto East Junior High School.

The two went on to DeSoto High School, where they caught the eye of Head Coach Mary Taylor Cowles while leading their high school team to a 37-2 record during their senior season.

“Athletically, we knew about Jasmine,” Cowles said. “You typically find out about 6-foot-3 post players.

“And in recruiting Jasmine… is when we saw Vanessa and her ability to shoot the basketball, and that kind of opened our eyes.”

After being recruited by Cowles and former assistant Nikki McCray, Johnson and Obafemi both decided to come to WKU.

“We called each other,” Johnson said of the day they both committed. “We both really liked our visit and the atmosphere on campus… The academic part just really got our attention, too.”

Neither Johnson nor Obafemi saw immediate playing time for the Lady Toppers.

Johnson averaged 10.4, 5.6 and 10.4 minutes per game, respectively, in her first three seasons while playing behind star forward Arnika Brown.

Likewise, Obafemi averaged 6.4 and 7.2 minutes per game during her freshman and sophomore years.

But this year, Obafemi has started all but four games, averaging 6.9 points per game and hitting a team-high 37 threes. Meanwhile, Johnson has averaged 4.4 points and 5.1 rebounds a game, and her 35 blocked shots rank fourth in the Sun Belt Conference.

 “They had to kind of put in their time in their career. It wasn’t something where they walked in the door as freshmen and started playing and were in the lineup,” Cowles said. “They’ve both had to endure the process of being in college for four years.”

Through that college process, Obafemi said her friendship with Johnson has developed to the point where she “pretty much knows everything” about her teammate.

“I think our relationship just grew over the years from being around each other through basketball,” Obafemi said.

Johnson agreed, saying that her bond with Obafemi has developed into an on-court asset.

“We’ve been playing together so long, I don’t think I could find another teammate like Vanessa,” Johnson said.

Johnson and Obafemi will play their final career regular season game in Diddle Arena at 1 p.m. on Sunday against league rival Middle Tennessee State.

WKU currently has an eight-game losing streak to the Lady Raiders, with the Lady Toppers’ last win in the series coming in March of 2008, when Johnson and Obafemi were seniors at DeSoto High.

Both Obafemi and Johnson said Sunday, which will be their Senior Day, will be an emotional moment in their careers.

“We haven’t really been through this before other than high school on Senior Night,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be kind of different, playing in front of a different crowd, and it’s our rivalry team, so it’s like, ‘Oh gosh.’”

Six Wiley College students have been banned from the campus while school officials investigate an alleged hazing. Administrators tell KSLA News 12 that a few students have come forward saying they were physically abused while trying to join the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.  The six fraternity brothers that were suspended said they are innocent.

“The information they provided was credible enough for us to take the step of an interim suspension,” Wiley College Vice President Joseph Morale.

Administrators at Wiley have also put a staff member, who allegedly played a role in the hazing, on administrative leave without pay.

“Pending the investigation, may in fact warrant further disciplinary action,” said Morale.

Both the college and the national fraternity have anti-hazing policies in place. On their website it reads “No chapter of Phi Beta Sigma shall indulge in any physical abuse or undignified treatment (hazing) of its members or prospective members.” The policy prohibits actions such as paddling, and excessive fatigue.

KSLA News 12 reached out to the Phi Beta Sigma headquarters but they declined to comment on the case. However, one of the fraternity members, not mentioned in the allegations, said his frat brothers are innocent.

“They say they have evidence but they haven’t shown us. So, they’re like just kicking us out without any evidence, or showing us, or letting us see any pictures or anything like that. It’s like we have to take their word for it,” Shawn Groce with Phi Beta Sigma.

The school’s administration said after their investigation is complete the six students will have a chance to state their case to a panel of fellow students and staff members.  If they are found guilty of hazing Vice President Morale said one possible option on the table is completely shutting down the local chapter of Phi Beta Sigma.

“Can we choke you?” joked the self-defense instructor before asking the 25 seated girls whether they were up for a live demonstration of an attack.

This exchange took place Thursday night at Café 58 inside Irvine Auditorium, where students attended a self-defense workshop, designed to teach girls about public safety and how to respond in crisis situations.

The event, part of African-American interest fraternity Omega Psi Phi’s Women’s Appreciation Week, was organized by the fraternity, as well as Panhellenic Council chapter Zeta Tau Alpha.

The collaboration between a Multicultural Greek Council fraternity and a Panhel sorority is “something that we do not see very often,” according to College senior Tobi Abegunde, president of Omega Psi Phi.

Women’s Appreciation Week, an annual Omega Psi Phi event, began on Monday with a Women’s Spa Day, and ends with a speed dating event on Sunday.

Abegunde said that, while the event is not nationally mandated, the brothers decided to put it into place in 2010 because they “felt something was not right about the community we live in.”

“We personally feel that women on this campus are not appreciated,” Abegunde said. “Fraternities traditionally have a bad reputation of objectifying women, and this is our way of breaking that stereotype.”

Abegunde added that his fraternity was “probably the only fraternity on campus to organize a self-defense class for women.”

Omega Psi Phi is a city-wide fraternity, with brothers at schools like Villanova and Drexel universities. Two of the seven events during the week took place on Villanova’s campus, including the spa day, which was held in collaboration with King of Prussia Mall’s Bubbles Salon.

“We approached these businesses and told them what we wanted to do, and they volunteered to provide their services for free,” said College senior Jae Barchus, a brother at Omega Psi Phi and president of the MGC. One such organization volunteering its services for free is “Voices in Power,” a poetry group performing at Friday’s “For Her” performing arts night.

Although Women’s Appreciation Week is only two years old, turnout at each of the events has been promising, with around 50 girls attending spa day and 25 girls attending the self-defense workshop, according to Barchus.

“We have people telling us that they will write on their Facebook walls how much they appreciate what we are doing,” he said.

College senior Melanie Redfearn, who is judicial chair at ZTA, said the self-defense workshop was the first event she had attended of the week.

“I think this event allows women to slow down for a second instead of running from activity to activity, and really decompress,” she said.

Redfearn also found the week “especially relevant” to Penn’s campus.

“A lot of the events during Women’s Appreciation Week are associated with raising funds for assault victims and women’s centers,” she said. “Definitely an event like a self-defense workshop is important to an urban campus like ours, where crime is more frequent than we think.”

College sophomore Canaan Bethea, an Omega Psi Phi brother, said the responsibility of hosting the annual event this year largely fell onto the shoulders of younger brothers.

“We had a lot of fun showing women our appreciation,” Bethea said. “I think the ladies are definitely enjoying it, too.”

Police issued warrants for eight people Thursday in connection with the beatings of two Youngstown State University students in what is believed to be part of a fraternity initiation.

All eight people charged face two counts each of felonious assault for the beatings of Resean Yancey, 20, and Breylon Stubbs, 22, over a period stretching from January into February.

There were at least six and maybe as many as nine beatings, police said Wednesday. The beatings took place at a North Side home on Woodford Avenue.

Only one of the suspects, Trey McCune, 21, is a current YSU student. The other seven were former students, and all were members of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, which has since been suspended by the university.

In a statement, YSU President Dr. Cynthia Anderson said the university is conducting an internal investigation of the fraternity that could lead to a revocation of its charter on campus.

City Prosecutor Jay Macejko said the case was hard to crack at first, but once they interviewed the victims, the pieces began to fall into place.

”Once we obtained the cooperation of the victims, the case came together quickly,” he said. ”I was surprised by the severity of what was going on.”

The investigation is ongoing, police said. Youngstown State University police are assisting.

None of the suspects has a record, Macejko said.

The investigation started when Yancey was hospitalized for injuries he received in a Feb. 2 beating.

According to Youngstown State University’s website, the Beta Pi chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi was established at YSU May 5, 1946, as the first black Greek-letter organization, and it is the oldest chapter of any fraternity on campus.

Kappa Alpha Psi was suspended under the YSU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, which prohibits hazing. As a result, the fraternity is denied access to the campus and is prohibited from participating in any university activities.

Last week, university officials met with representatives of all fraternities and sororities to go over the policy on hazing, Anderson said.

”Any campus student organization or individual participating in any activity that threatens the safety of the campus community will be dealt with promptly and severely,” Anderson said in her statement.

There wasn’t an empty seat at the Steven R. Agee II scholarship fund kickoff Monday.

The event was hosted by Steven’s mother, Kimberly Agee, in the Holmes Student Center Capitol Room.

“I think it was a wonderful night,” Kimberly said. “So many students came out. I didn’t expect this. His fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, did all the groundwork. All I had to do was show up.”

Steven was fatally shot in the early hours of Nov. 23 at 809 Edgebrook Drive. He was a senior sociology major and involved in several organizations on campus, including Kappa Alpha Psi.

“The major decision [to create the scholarship] was when I saw my son lying on a slab for the very first time,” Kimberly said. “I promised myself that his death would not be in vain, and this has been part of what I’ve worked on since Nov. 23.”

At the kickoff, Kimberly talked about her son and why she decided to create the scholarship. She then allowed friends of Steven to come up to the front of the room and share stories and memories they had of Steven.

“He was so for diversity,” said Odarian Jordan, senior communication major and Kappa Alpha Psi member. “And that’s one thing that rubbed off on me, is how he just wanted to bring everyone together at the end of the day.”

The scholarship will be run by Steven’s parents and fraternity. Kimberly said applicants must showcase qualities her son had, like an interest in leadership and academics.

“One thing that makes Steven so well-known to the NIU community is how well he was involved in different organizations,” Jordan said.

Kimberly said anyone can donate to the scholarship by going to the website. She said there has already been donations from businesses, groups and individuals. Jordan said students can also ask members of Kappa Alpha Psi to get information on either donating to or applying for the scholarship.

“I think a scholarship would be the perfect thing because he, himself, was very pro-academics and having good grades,” Jordan said. “It’s only right that we give back to our NIU family, our NIU community, with a scholarship in honor of a person who really was prestigious.”

Kimberly said the scholarship will be offered every year. The scholarship has no set amount, Kimberly said, but there will always be some money given.

“If we can’t do anything but help someone purchase books-give them a scholarship for their books, then that’s what we’ll give them,” Kimberly said.