New “Tucker Hipps Act” Will Increase Fraternity Transparency In South Carolina

Alex Buscemi8 years ago

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act into law Wednesday afternoon.

The law will require colleges in South Carolina to post any conduct violations concerning alcohol, drugs, sexual assaults, and hazing, starting in the 2016-17 school year.

The goal of the law is to discourage fraternities from performing certain illicit behaviors by holding them publicly accountable.

Here’s the full law, per WYFF4:

The law as signed says: “An act to amend the code of laws of South Carolina, 1976, to enact the ‘Tucker Hipps Transparency Act’ by adding section 59-101-210 so as to provide that beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, public institutions of higher learning, excluding technical colleges, shall maintain reports of actual findings of certain misconduct by members of fraternities and sororities formally associated with the institution, to specify information that must be included and must be excluded, to provide requirements for updating and preserving reports, to provide institutions shall make the reports available to the public and online, to provide members of the public may seek redress for suspected violations under the freedom of information act; and to provide specific requirements for the initial reports each institution shall compile and make available; and to provide the act expires three years after its effective date absent further action by the general assembly.”

The law is named after Tucker Hipps, a Clemson University Sigma Phi Epsilon pledge whose body was found in a lake underneath a bridge after an early morning run with his pledge class in the fall of 2014. The body showed signs of head trauma.

The Hipps family filed a wrongful death suit for $25 million against three members of Sigma Phi Epsilon, the national and local chapter of the fraternity, and Clemson University. One person came forward saying that Hipps was forced to walk along the bridge under which his body was found. Text messages reveal that a brother asked Hipps, the pledge class president, to provide a McDonald’s breakfast for each of his 30 pledge brothers on the morning of his death.

The fraternity claims that Hipps’ death was the result of his own negligence.

No criminal charges have been filed..

[via WYFF4]

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