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With both the end of National Hazing Prevention Week last Friday and the end of the University of Maine’s Greek Week this Saturday, some may remember the uproar a fraternity initiation practice gone wrong caused last spring.
On April 17, Joshua Gilmore, at the time a second-year economics student, left the Sigma Chi Heritage House on College Avenue around 6 a.m. and went missing in the woods along the Stillwater River for close to eight hours. He reportedly had been searching for a nonexistent white cross similar to the one on the fraternity’s crest when he became confused and hypothermic, leading him to wander from the Heritage House to an area near Dewitt Field, the Old Town municipal airport and back.
When Gilmore did not return after 15 minutes, the brothers of Sigma Chi began searching for him, calling UMaine Public Safety for assistance around 8:10 a.m. A massive search party was quickly launched, which included the help of no less than 10 emergency agencies and a group of roughly 80 student volunteers.
Around 2:30 p.m. that day, a dress suit-clad Gilmore was found walking out of the woods near the Steam Plant parking lot and was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for treatment. Dean of Students Robert Dana told The Maine Campus that Gilmore was “cut up” but otherwise in good physical condition considering the ordeal he had gone through (‘Missing UMaine student found,’ April 19, 2010).
Gilmore said after preliminary press reports began to emerge, every student on campus seemed to know or have heard about him and his trek. He said the common reactions he received from fellow students tended to be negative but he had no choice other than to accept his sudden and unexpected celebrity.
“Personally, I had to embrace the negativity,” Gilmore said. “Suddenly people knew who I was and newspapers were being slapped in front of me with people asking, ‘Did you read this? Did you read this?’”
To Gilmore, the incident remains an example of when extensive media coverage only worsens a situation. While medical and rescue personnel felt his condition warranted a trip to the hospital, Gilmore felt the move was unnecessary.
“It’s a ridiculous, unavoidable situation that was blown out of proportion and misrepresented. I knew that I would be fine,” he said.
A university ruling labeled Sigma Chi’s initiation procedures as hazing following an investigation headed by David Fiacco, director of UMaine’s Office of Community Standards, Rights and Responsibilities in Student Affairs. The Maine Campus reported that practices such as sequestering the pledges in the Old Town home of two fraternity members and making them perform chores other brothers were not asked to do factored into the decision (‘Fraternity Violated Hazing Policy,’ April 26, 2010).
“That distinction of pledges vs. non-pledges — it’s part of that slippery slope,” Dana said. “The possibility exists that you could then make the pledge do another behavior that isn’t so palatable or that could be problematic,” he added.
Sanctions against the fraternity resulting from the ruling included exclusion from the Heritage House until mid-September and a period of disciplinary probation until May 31, 2010.
Despite these punitive measures against the fraternity, stemming from an official investigation, Gilmore said he believes the university community and administration understands the incident was unintentional.
“The university realizes that it was an accident,” he said.
Even though the initiation ritual caused a great deal of negative publicity for the fraternity, Gilmore was accepted as a member of Sigma Chi just before school ended in the spring. When asked about the initiation process, he explained the spring ceremony had been especially impassioned due to the nature and consequences of the events.
“In the spring, it was a very emotional initiation,” Gilmore said. “We’re reviewing everything and seeing what we can improve on to make initiation safer so nothing like this happens again.”
A statement released by Zachary Hunt, president of Sigma Chi, said that while some of the initiation procedures have been altered as a result of the incident, the core mission of the fraternity remains untouched.
“Obviously, the principles which we stand for and teach remain unchanged,” the statement said. “However, some of the methods and exercises we employ have been adjusted, revised or replaced after this incident.”
Hunt wrote that the incident has given the fraternity insight into the issue of hazing on the university campus, what constitutes abuse as opposed to tradition. He said the fraternity is helping other organizations across campus evaluate their ceremonies and procedures, helping to eliminate issues that could develop into a similar problematic situation.
“We are always learning and constantly improving our organization, and we will continue doing so,” the statement said. “The incident that took place last April was regrettable, but we are using it as an opportunity to teach members of Greek Life about the potential imperfections within their current chapter operations.”
Rob Stigile contributed to this report.
