Clemson University Suspends All 24 Fraternities Following Student’s Death
It has been a rough week so far in Clemson, S.C.
On Monday, Clemson University sophomore Tucker Hipps went missing during a run with his Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers. Hipps reportedly fell behind in the run, and when his brothers went to look for him, he was nowhere to be found. Sadly, later that afternoon, his body was found in an off-campus lake.
Although the local sheriff has been quoted as saying he does not believe hazing is to blame for Tucker’s death, school officials made the decision to suspend all social and new member initiation activities of all on-campus fraternities.
Clemson’s vice president of student affairs released the following statement on the decision.
From Business Insider:
“It is especially prudent to suspend fraternity activities given the tragic death of Tucker Hipps. There has been a high number of reports of serious incidents involving fraternity activities, ranging from alcohol-related medical emergencies to sexual misconduct … These behaviors are unacceptable and mandate swift and effective action to protect students. There is no higher priority than the safety and welfare of our students.”
The school continued to say that “matters of criminal nature have been turned over to appropriate law enforcement agencies.”
While the decision to suspend all fraternities may initially seem dramatic, it appears to be the final straw in what has already been an unnerving semester at Clemson.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Tucker’s family, friends, and his Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers..
[via Business Insider]
Image via Clemson University
VDBL.
10 years ago at 1:22 pmI think it’s bad that Clemson felt the need to react so quickly, should’ve at least given it a few days. Give the kids some time to mourn, they already have enough going on in their minds right now. I feel terrible for this kid and his friends and his family, way too young for something like that to happen.
10 years ago at 3:01 pmJust to give some insight as a Sig Ep from another chapter, pledge class runs (or even active member runs) are a normal thing throughout the fraternity and Sig Ep chapters have been doing them for upwards of like 60 years. They are a staple of the sound body program that both traditional and balanced man chapters are supposed to follow. In fact, there’s a whole course at the Sig Ep national conference that covers group workouts/runs and they’re encouraged. When I was pledging I had to go on a bunch of runs and workouts that I absolutely hated, but I wouldn’t consider them hazing at all. If you fall behind the other guys helped you, and if you were really seriously hurting you were able to stop. It’s completely feasible that this guy fell behind and nobody noticed, he passed out/had an athsma attack/heart attack/whatever and fell off the bridge. People saying that his pledge brothers/active brothers are lying in order to cover up his death seriously concern me, if you think this is what happened that says a lot about how you would handle one of your own pledge brothers dying.
Sorry about the long ass response, but I just hate to see all these posts with people saying they pushed kids off bridges or were doing some sort of deathly pledge triathlon and left him to die. My heart goes out to the brothers at Clemson. VDBL
10 years ago at 4:38 pm(1) Allegedly, the kid was falling behind and asked a brother if they could take a break. The brother told him that they just needed to cross the bridge first.
(2) According to WLTX, the run was at 5:30-6:00 a.m. The fraternity didn’t call police until 1:45 p.m.
Bottom line: they left [an exhausted] “brother” out there for 8 hours.
10 years ago at 7:48 ammy prayers go out to clemson…
10 years ago at 4:47 pm…jameis did it
hey fuck you.
10 years ago at 9:07 pmA serial killer could walk in and kill an entire fraternity, and the media would still blame the fraternity.
10 years ago at 8:35 pmAnyone think he knew something he shouldn’t?
10 years ago at 9:17 pmDamn, we had a pledge die here a few weeks ago during the first week of school i think and nothing happened.
10 years ago at 9:57 pmI’m not sure why this was down voted. It’s true. UNL Farmhouse pledge. I’m wondering if clemson went overboard or our university didn’t go far enough?
10 years ago at 6:30 pmwell what were the circumstances? that might be an important detail.
10 years ago at 7:46 pmHe was a diabetic and the fraternity threw a party where he drank causing him to die.
10 years ago at 11:01 pmVandyLaw and DarkoM need to be blackballed now
10 years ago at 12:56 amVDBL
10 years ago at 2:02 amFirst off prayers to Tucker Hipps family, friends, brothers and girlfriend.
Clemson is doing this out of respect and to save face. They are in the midst of lawsuits now. One being from a Women’s soccer player hazing incident that from the looks of they are going to lose badly and fire many administrators.
VandyLaw: Were you there? No. Can you see visions of the sequence of events with some odd superhuman power everybody here doesn’t know about? No.
Fact 1: You are an ASSHOLE.
Fact 2: My cousin from Ohio State was/is a Sig Ep and they did brother runs. It’s a common thing to do when you are in a fraternity and leads to bonding and the well rounded man.
Fact 3: This is none of your business and antagonizing just brings out your true character and class. Anybody can sit behind a screen and type negative bullshit just hoping to get a reaction which in most cases you did.
Fact 4: You are still an ASSHOLE.
#FuckTheNegative
10 years ago at 12:52 pm