Indiana University frats in hot water over hazing that sent people to the hospital

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Another fraternity is facing disciplinary action over hazing at Indiana University. So far, five fraternities have been penalized for such activity during the fall semester.

The reports first started coming in from the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, where two people had to be hospitalized after they were injured in a hazing incident

in mid-October. 

Two days later, police took another report, but this time it was at the Alpha Epsilon Pi house where three people needed medical attention after being repeatedly hazed. 

The IU Police Department has not provided specifics on what actually happened in either case. 

The latest to be to added to the growing list of fraternities in hot water is the Sigma Phi Epsilon house. IU has suspended the fraternity from social activities, but there is no ongoing criminal investigation into the organization.

“I really think a lack of consequences is what is continuing this cycle here,” columnist Ainsley Foster said.

Foster recently wrote a piece in the Indiana Daily Student with the headline “IU must do more to hold fraternities accountable.” In the column, Foster makes the case that university administration has been weak on discipline.

“If they faced real consequences such as a suspension or expulsion — consequences appropriate for the actions that they are inflicting — we would see far less of these incidents for sure,” Foster said.

She gave the university credit for offering classes and programs for students to avoid landing in situations of sexual assault or hazing.

“These are all great preventative measures, but it puts a lot of the weight on students to avoid being sexually assaulted or harassed or hazed,” Foster said. “What we really need to be doing is holding these organizations that are doing the hazing accountable.”

How, or even if, the fraternities will be held accountable is yet to be seen as investigations into the hazing incidents are still ongoing.

Foster worries that, if nothing is done, things will only get worse.

“If the university doesn’t take things more seriously, if the consequences aren’t enforced, then we very well could be in that situation someday,” Foster said. “And “(I’m) praying that it doesn’t, no parent wants to get that phone call.”

FOX59/CBS4 reached out to the university’s interfraternity council for a response to the hazing incidents but did not hear back.

The university wrote in a statement that the investigations are ongoing, and the fraternities in question will not be allowed to host any social events until further notice.