Bowling Green expels fraternity after hazing death
BOWLING GREEN — Bowling Green State University on Friday announced it has permanently expelled the fraternity involved in the suspected hazing-related death of sophomore Stone Foltz.
The campus chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha had been on interim suspension since March 5, the day after Foltz, 20, of Delaware, Ohio, was dropped off unconscious at his apartment after reportedly being forced to drink an entire bottle of alcohol within 90 minutes at an off-campus event. He was pronounced dead March 7 after his organs were removed for donation.
“From a thorough and fair investigation to seek the truth and facts, and hold those accountable who are responsible for this tragedy, the findings against the organization are clear,” said Alex Solis, BGSU’s deputy chief of staff and university spokesperson, in a statement.
“The University has decided to immediately expel Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. This is permanent loss of recognition — the fraternity will never again be recognized at BGSU in the future.”
In addition, the organization forfeits its assigned townhouse within the Greek Village, and the Office of Residence Life will be notifying students about the process and timeline to vacate.
Pi Kappa Alpha has until April 16 to appeal.
The decision comes one week after BGSU charged the fraternity with six violations of its Code of Student Conduct. The charges included Offenses Against Persons causing harm to others, hazing, and disrupting order or disregarding health and safety with alcohol.
In a letter explaining the expulsion to the fraternity chapter’s president, the university said not only was the hazing “absolutely intolerable,” but the investigation into the incident “revealed a deep culture of deception rooted in the organization, filled with dishonesty and disrespect for our community.”
The letter accused those affiliated with the fraternity, including its leadership, of lying to investigators about being at the off-campus “Big/Little” event that led to Foltz’s death, giving a false alibi, and attempting to minimize the role of alcohol and the intoxication levels of new members at the event. It’s also believed that members were instructed to withhold details of the event, the university said.
And it wasn’t the first time Pi Kappa Alpha had lied related to a hazing investigation, the university said.
In 2018 a student reported suspected hazing where new members were forced to strip down to their underwear and fight each other out of a hole dug in the ground. When questioned, the member denied the allegation.
In fall 2019 the school received a second anonymous report from a witness who said they saw a new member of the fraternity vomiting after attending one of the Big/Little parties in 2018 and drinking a “concoction of alcohol mixtures known as a family drink.” At that time, the university said it interviewed members of the chapter and leadership, but all “adamantly denied” the allegation.
BGSU did report the allegation to the Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity headquarters, which placed the chapter on probation, issued a fine, and required educational programming and anti-hazing training, but the “deception and dishonesty” of members who “repeatedly lied” prevented the university from being able to corroborate or substantiate the allegations, the letter said.
Despite that investigation and anti-hazing policies at the school, “the chapter still knowingly and intentionally engaged in activities that were found to be unsafe, high-risk and strictly prohibited by the University and the law,” the letter said, referring to the March 4 event in which new members were blindfolded and led into a basement area where their “big brother” gave them a handle of alcohol — amounting to 40 shots of liquor — which they were told to “completely consume” before they would be allowed to leave.
When Foltz’s blood was sampled several hours later at a hospital, his family’s attorney said, it tested at 0.394 percent alcohol content, and probably would have been much higher right after the event. That’s nearly five times the 0.08 percent level at which a driver is legally impaired.
“Today’s expulsion is a step forward in eradicating hazing at BGSU,” the university said in its statement.
BGSU has not yet announced whether it will penalize individual students who participated in the hazing event. The investigation is ongoing, it said.
So too is the Bowling Green Police Department’s criminal investigation.
Police spokesman Lt. Dan Mancuso said Friday detectives are still working to determine whether charges will be filed. He could not provide a timeline for when results may be announced.
The Foltz family’s lawyers, Rex Elliott and Sean Alto, issued a statement Friday calling the fraternity’s expulsion and permanent ban “good first steps, but they are expected.” There is more work to do to eliminate even the most minimal act of hazing on college campuses everywhere, they said.
“Stone’s death at the hands of fraternity members hazing him and other pledges was reckless and inhumane,” the attorneys said. “On behalf of Stone and his family, we will not stop until there is a zero-tolerance anti-hazing policy on every college campus in this country.”
BGSU President Rodney Rogers said the university is implementing new and enhanced anti-hazing educational programs to help students identify hazing, and will be improving the anonymous reporting process. He also promised to be “more transparent” and launch a scorecard to document past findings of hazing.
“Some say this happens at every university, but we at BGSU must do better,” his statement to the campus said.
The university previously suspended all new-member intake processes and on-campus and off-campus social events of chapters in all four Greek councils, including the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council and College Panhellenic Conference.
The university also is working with Dyad Strategies, a consultant specializing in universities’ management of fraternities and sororities, to assess the future of all fraternity and sorority life on campus, and Rogers created a new working group focusing on implementing the recommendations.
Rogers said he also supports proposed legislation Senate Bill 126, known as “Collin’s Law,” which would increase penalties for hazing and create the new crime of aggravated hazing, a second-degree felony.
The bill is sponsored by state Sens. Stephanie Kunze (R., Hilliard) and Theresa Gavarone (R., Bowling Green). Its nickname refers to Collin Wiant, an Ohio University freshman who died during an alleged fraternity hazing incident in 2018.
“Proposed state and federal legislation are steps in the right direction but university presidents must make serious and significant changes to eliminate hazing from the culture,” a previously released written statement on behalf of the Foltz family said.