The University of Miami (UM) is facing yet another hazing scandal.
On February 29, a story from the Miami Hurricane, the UM campus newspaper, alleged that the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon had committed hazing—and recorded it on video. The video, which was widely circulated within hours, showed members in the fraternity house’s backyard chugging milk, then vomiting onto a student standing inside a trash can.
The Miami Herald reached out to David Bianchi as “a national leader in hazing litigation” for comment. David emphasized that likely no criminal charges would come of the hazing incident, as no one has been hurt or killed. However, that’s not the only possible path this could take.
“The university can most certainly take steps to discipline the students involved because every university has an anti-hazing policy,” David said. “I would expect the national fraternity to take disciplinary action as well.”
“We have placed our Chapter on a Cease & Desist and are working jointly with the University to investigate,” the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity Service Center said to the Herald.
University’s Role More Important Than Ever
University officials have before them a rare opportunity to address hazing before someone gets hurt—or worse. At the same time, the actions shown in the clip depict a culture of vile abuse and malicious leadership. It must be mentioned that this is only the behavior that’s been caught on video.
In the Herald article, David makes the case that this could be the perfect moment for the University of Miami to make an example out of hazing abuse.
“Fortunately, this was discovered before the consequences became too severe,” he said. “Nevertheless, the university is going to want to send a message to all the Greek organizations on campus that any form of hazing will not be tolerated.”
If they fail to do this, the university risks ignoring a major red flag. And, of course, the university is already haunted by the ghost of another failure: the death of Chad Meredith. Chad’s drowning occurred near UM’s campus, becoming the catalyst for David Bianchi to draft the strongest anti-hazing legislation in the country.
We recommend reading the full Herald article. The report goes into the history of anti-hazing law in Florida, which of course is also the history of STFBC’s advocacy on behalf of the families who’ve lost their loved ones to fraternity hazing.