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The University of Maine will sanction one of its fraternities for violating hazing policies, according to a statement released by the university Friday.
The sanctions are the result of an investigation into the April 17 search for Joshua Gilmore, a sophomore financial economics student who went missing for more than eight hours during a Sigma Chi initiation ritual.
Gilmore was searching for a nonexistent “white cross,” similar to the one found on the fraternity’s crest, the statement said. The search for the cross is supposed to be “figurative, metaphorical and symbolic,” according to Sigma Chi President Zachary Hunt.
David Fiacco, director of UMaine’s Office of Community Standards, Rights and Responsibilities in Student Affairs, headed the investigation.
According to Dean of Students Robert Dana, Gilmore trekked more than six miles in an attempt to find the cross, heading out at roughly 6 a.m. and walking along the Stillwater River from the Sigma Chi Heritage House to an area near Dewitt Field, the Old Town airport, before turning around.
Gilmore was seen emerging from a wooded area by the Steam Plant parking lot just before 2:30 p.m., according to Richard Bowie, director of operations for the Down East Emergency Medicine Institute, the group that coordinated the search.
Dana said Gilmore and another pledge were required to be isolated from social contact during a period known as “Introspection Week,” which lasted April 11-17.
For the week, the fraternity’s two pledges lived in one bedroom of two fraternity members’ Old Town home. The members were not allowed to watch television, according to Dana and Hunt. Students were allowed to go to class and free to come and go, they said.
Dana said Sigma Chi pledges were required to perform household chores which other members did not have to do.
“That distinction of pledges vs. non-pledges — it’s part of that slippery slope,” Dana said Friday afternoon. “The possibility exists that you could then make the pledge do another behavior that isn’t so palatable or that could be problematic.”
Hunt said the chores performed by the pledges were no more rigorous than those performed by the residents of the apartment.
“Since pledges are living there for the week, they are expected to assist the brothers with normal household chores,” Hunt said.
The confidential executive summary of Fiacco’s investigation, provided to The Maine Campus, said that during Introspection Week initiates “were required to wear shirt, tie and sport coat while active members were not required to wear similar attire.” Hunt said the dress code only applied when pledges were on campus, including fraternity meetings.
The statement charges these practices as being in violation of the university’s anti-hazing policy, which defines hazing as “any activity expected for someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades or risks emotional and/or physical harm, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”
Sanctions against the fraternity include a period of disciplinary probation and a full review of its pledge education program. According to Dana, the fraternity is under heightened scrutiny for one year. If other acts that violate the conduct code occur, the fraternity could potentially be suspended.
Sigma Chi will remain on disciplinary probation until May 31, 2011 and will not be allowed access to the Heritage House, where the fraternity holds occasional events, until at least Sept. 15.
The fraternity will also be required to create a “New Member Education Road Show,” which will be used as an educational model for the entire Greek community and other student organizations. Sigma Chi will talk about “unanticipated consequences” of student initiation activities as part of the program, according to Dana.
“I’m very disappointed with the way the university has chosen to handle the situation, and fear that these decisions will turn potential brothers away from an organization who has done nothing but make me understand how to better myself,” Gilmore wrote in a statement released through Hunt.
Hunt said the UMaine chapter of Sigma Chi’s initiation process has been approved by the national organization and that pledges were not forced into it. Gilmore wrote that the process was a “voluntary and positive experience from day one.”
“We make it clear that everything we do as a fraternity is entirely voluntary,” Hunt said.
Hunt said the university has singled out Sigma Chi because of media attention surrounding Gilmore’s disappearance.
“If they’re looking at us to this degree, they need to be looking into all student organizations to the same degree,” Hunt said. “Under the precedent this sets, just about every student organization has something in their induction methods or procedures that would be classified as hazing.”
Mary Madden, an associate research professor in UMaine’s Center for Research and Education and an expert on hazing in postsecondary institutions, said hazing definitions are often seen as overbroad.
“I would disagree with [Hunt], but I have heard from many students who would agree with him,” Madden said. “The issue is students are looking for a list of behaviors — ‘This is hazing, this is not.’ I think that when universities provide that list, students find other ways to haze their members.”
Madden said just because someone is volunteering for fraternity initiation does not mean fraternities are off the hook for hazing.
She said cases of hazing “almost always” involve voluntary actions by initiates.
“It’s really important that organizations understand the power dynamics that are involved in hazing — that it’s not just certain activities, but it’s the power older members have over the incoming members, in particular, the incoming member’s desire to join the organization,” Madden said. “In fact, with that type of group environment, you cannot really freely agree to participate. There’s a certain level of coercion there.”
In the statement, Dana expressed hope that “Sigma Chi fraternity members will learn from this and take advantage of the opportunity to become a model student organization that can help lead positive change throughout the UMaine community.”
Hunt said Gilmore has not been initiated yet, but plans to continue the process where he left off.
“The end of the story is that no one was hurt and the young man who was allegedly the victim of hazing is more enthusiastic than ever and has the full support of his parents to become a member of the organization that is alleged to have perpetrated the hazing,” Hunt said.
Rob Stigle contributed to this report.
