With more than 30% of Miami University students involved in Greek Life according to The Cliff Alexander Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life website, the spring recruitment process is a busy and important time for those members and prospective new members. But this year will be different due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly three weeks after the incident was initially reported to the Oxford Police Department (OPD), four men have been charged in relation to the fight outside the Theta Chi fraternity house that resulted in multiple injuries, according to a Facebook post from OPD.
Miami will conduct its own investigation once OPD’s investigation is complete.
The usually full social calendars for the members of the Miami Greek community are virtually empty with pandemic safety precautions limiting gatherings of more than 10 people. With coronavirus continually changing our social world as we know it, Miami Greeks are trying to find as much normalcy as they can during these unprecedented times. Instead of the normal mass gatherings for chapter, weekly chapter meetings are now conducted virtually through a screen.
I joined Greek life to feel more at home on campus, but I feel more disconnected and distant than ever before.
In an email sent to all members of Miami University's Greek community on Aug. 29, the Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and Panhellenic Association detailed a new 10-day shelter-in-place order for all Greek Oxford residents as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Greek life at Miami revolves around a sense of family between the brothers and sisters of the organization. That connection is now being challenged by the limitations on gathering and face-to-face contact.
Both of first-year Jordana Luther’s parents were involved in Greek life when they were in college and still keep in touch with people they met through their fraternity and sorority. Luther came to Miami wanting to join a sorority, hoping to find a group of close friends like her parents had. In early February, new members received their bids after days of recruitment. Luther got a bid to join Phi Sigma Sigma and rushed to greet the group of smiling faces of the girls who were now her sisters. About a month later, almost all of the events that she and the other wide-eyed new members had been looking forward to got canceled — socials, Big/Little Reveal, date parties, semi-formals, moms and dads weekends and formals.
Laura Perino awoke to a barrage of text messages on Sunday, March 17, 2019 — one year ago today. The messages were from her son Tyler’s girlfriend. As her eyes began to focus on the bright screen, words began jumping out in her mind: hospital, police, he’s okay. A feeling of panic washed over her. She would later find out that her son was hospitalized with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.231 — three times over the legal limit — after being violently assaulted at his fraternity’s big/little brother reveal event.
Fast fashion is killing a lot of things: the environment, our bank accounts and individual expression.
All pledging activities at Miami University’s Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig) fraternity have been suspended.
A line of Miami University students stands in Armstrong Student Center, waiting their turn at a booth in front of the passing crowd. A student steps up with a reddened face, scrunching their nose as a cotton swab swipes their inner cheek.
After two-straight weekends of waking up at 6 a.m. to get ready for a day filled with small talk, Haley Faber couldn’t be more excited to celebrate the end of recruitment with her sorority’s new pledge class.
“We can't just sit in an office and make rules,” Vance said. “We've got to provide education and hear the voices of the students, the alumni, the various stakeholders in the community, and bring people together around common ideals. [We have to] help people focus on the fact that we’re values-based organizations, and what is it that we really value?”
Fifteen former Miami University Delta Tau Delta (Delts) fraternity brothers stood before a judge for the first time Tuesday morning in relation to last semester’s hazing incident.
In this episode your host, Julia Plant, talks with senior Maggie McIlroy about her experiences as a transfer student at Miami, who spent her freshman year in Dallas, Texas at Southern Methodist University. Maggie struggled her freshman year at SMU, but didn't find that the transition to Miami was much of a walk in the park either. Maggie and Julia talk about about navigating Greek life and mental health, specifically focusing on the importance of finding helpful coping mechanisms, like yoga.
Earlier this month, 18 former members of Miami University’s Delta Tau Delta (Delts) fraternity were charged on hazing and assault charges. The charges came after an anonymous first-year new member was bludgeoned on his buttocks with a spiked paddle, forced to drink alcohol, smoke weed and was subjected to additional physical abuse during a Big/Little Reveal event last spring. After the men were charged, reporters from The Miami Student reached out to members of Miami’s administration, leaders of Miami Greek Life, representatives from Delta Tau Delta’s national headquarters and the 18 individuals who were charged asking them all to comment and share their side of the story. A few individuals gave vague and brief responses, some said they could not comment on the matter but most did not respond to our reporters at all.
Being criminally charged for hazing on a college campus is incredibly rare. Since Ohio legislators enacted a 1983 law denoting hazing as a fourth degree misdemeanor, there have only been six instances in which members of a fraternity were charged with hazing their fellow brothers and/or new members in the law’s 36-year-existence.
Eighteen current and former Miami University students and former brothers of the Delta Tau Delta (Delts) fraternity have been charged with a total of 68 counts of misdemeanor assault and hazing. The charges come one month after Miami suspended the fraternity for repeatedly assaulting a new member last spring during a fraternity brother Big/Little Reveal event.
Eighteen former members of the Delta Tau Delta (Delts) fraternity could face a total of 64 misdemeanor charges as a result of hazing allegations made by a new member last spring, according to the Hamilton-Journal News.