Auburn’s Alabama Alpha Mu chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, suspended in October 2016, will be eligible to re-apply for University recognition in two years.
"After multiple hazing and risk management policy violations over a two year period, their peers on the Interfraternity Council Judicial Court determined suspension of University recognition was the appropriate sanction," said Chris Lucas, Interfraternity Council adviser.
Specific violations were not made public.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, as a national fraternity, has had nine deaths linked to drinking, drugs and hazing since 2006 — more than any other Greek organization — according to a Bloomberg article. More than 100 chapters have been disciplined since 2007, with at least 15 suspended or closed since 2010 and student members pay among the highest rates for liability insurance of any fraternity because of these incidents.
After the 2011 hazing-related death of a Cornell University sophomore — who was allegedly blindfolded, bound and forced to drink shots of vodka — a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol at all chapter houses was proposed at a SAE national conference. The student was left to die in the empty fraternity house, according to an article by The New York Times. The amendment did not reach the necessary two-thirds majority, however.
SAE eliminated the pledging process and the term “pledge” from its vernacular in 2014 to combat the hazing issues. Once recruits are initiated, they become new members and must be initiated within 96 hours of receiving their bids.
Representatives from Auburn’s Alabama Alpha Mu chapter of SAE declined to comment on this story.
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