Media Credit: Micah Miller Judicial Affairs is investigating allegations of hazing by Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Fifteen brothers from MTSU's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity were found to be responsible for hazing pledges last semester by a commission of SAE alumni.

The commission recommended expulsion from the fraternity for one brother and suspension for 14 others. The names of the brothers who received punishment will not be released. The brother recommended for expulsion has the right to a trial to determine whether the expulsion is finalized.

Thomas Dement, SAE province archon, received notice of the hazing allegations after an anonymous e-mail was sent to several MTSU departments, including Sidelines, last November.

Dement headed up the independent investigation by the 15-member alumni commission and has released the details of their findings.

"When the e-mail came out, I contacted our fraternity office in Evans, Ill., and an alumni commission was created immediately," Dement said.

"It's important for everyone to understand that the alumni and the national organization take these allegations very seriously," Dement said. "Hazing is not tolerated and our main focus is to keep this from happening."

The commission found three incidents of hazing, which included requiring pledges to hold a 5-pound wooden paddle over their heads for a brief period and ordering them to do push-ups and sit-ups on two different occasions.

The e-mail alleged more serious offenses, such as the kidnapping of a pledge and jerking on a pledge's hair while he did push-ups, but Dement said the commission found no evidence of these incidents.

"Some of the stuff in the e-mail did not happen; some of it did," Dement said. "And we did find that some of the stuff was hazing, under our own fraternity's definition of hazing."

Dement added that the investigation did not establish the identity of the anonymous e-mailer.

In addition to the individual punishments, the Tennessee Beta chapter has been placed on alumni commission status.

"An alumni commission is where a group of alumni - both local and regional alumni - come in and basically take over the operations of the chapter," Dement said.

 

Issue date: 7/21/04 Section: News

Rape allegations have spurred an investigation by university and Murfreesboro police officials.

The complainant reported the date rape incident to campus police on July 12, though it allegedly occurred at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house on Feb. 27 during a party. No charges have been filed at this time regarding the occurrence.

"From the information that we have, there was an on-going relationship between these two individuals," said Lt. James Fanguy of campus police. "This was not a stranger rape. This was the classic date rape."

The assailant named in police reports is a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, according to Greek Life records. Adam Marshall, president of SAE, said he was a pledge at one time but was never formally initiated as a member of the fraternity.

Police reports also detail that the incident occurred in a closet in the house and that alcohol was involved.

The fraternity is conducting an internal investigation regarding the allegations, Marshall said.

"We don't really know too much about it, just basically what was released," Marshall said. "We're just taking it as it goes."

Marshall also added that if members of the fraternity have knowledge of a crime being committed in the SAE house, they would immediately call campus police.

"[The investigation] is too fresh to release the rest of the information at this point because something may come of it, and it could ruin the investigation if we were to release anything else," Fanguy said.

The elapsed time between when the incident occurred and was reported to officials, which was five months, will hinder the investigation process because of a lack of physical evidence, according to Fanguy.

"Because the victim waited this long, it becomes her word against him unless there are witnesses," Fanguy said.

"The investigation is continuing because of the recent law that was passed around the Nottingham Bill. We had to get the city detectives involved in it by law," Fanguy explained.

"A city detective has been over here and working with [officials] to try to wrap up whatever investigation that can be conducted in those circumstances."

The Nottingham Bill, signed into law by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen on April 25, mandates that university or college police call in local police forces to help investigate serious crimes involving deaths or rapes.

This is the second on-campus rape that has been reported to officials this year.

The first, reported to police on Feb. 12, allegedly occurred in a parking lot outside the James E. Walker Library.

"We could not find any corroborating evidence that it did occur," Fanguy said. "If we did, we would've acted on it by now."