FSU shuts frats; booze suspected in death
All Greek life suspended after student from South Florida dies
The death of a 20-year-old fraternity pledge from Lighthouse Point led Florida State University to shut down all Greek life activities Monday.
Alcohol is suspected of playing a role in the death of Andrew Coffey, whose body was found Friday — the morning after a party more than 50 people attended at a single-family home near campus, officials said Monday.
Coffey was a civil engineering student at FSU who graduated from Pompano Beach High School in 2015.
Reacting to his death, the university on Monday indefinitely suspended all 54 fraternities and sororities, said Florida State University President John Thrasher. As part of Thrasher’s announcement to suspend Greek life, he also cited an unrelated case Monday, where a 20-year-old member of another fraternity was arrested on cocaine-trafficking charges.
“For this suspension to end, there will need to be a new normal for Greek life at the university,” Thrasher said. “There must be a new culture, and our students must be full participants in creating it.”
He also banned alcohol at student events, which includes those run by more than 700 organizations outside the Greek community.
“Frankly, if you drive down College Avenue on Friday night, I don’t think you have to be a rocket scientist to know that there are some things going on,” he said. “But I also recognize that we have got, as an administration, to see that this is a safe place for our students.”
Coffey was trying to become a full member of the FSU chapter of Pi Kappa Phi. The fraternity has faced disciplinary action in the past five years for hazing, alcohol violations and unspecified misconduct, according to disciplinary logs maintained by the national fraternity.
In 2012, the fraternity’s national office sanctioned the chapter for hazing, and in 2014 the chapter faced university sanctions for un-
specified conduct that violated university policy.
The circumstances of Coffey’s death have remained a mystery.
“Although there are indicators that alcohol may have been a factor in this case, we are waiting for the results of an autopsy, so no cause of death has been determined,” Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said Monday.
Police reportedly collected beer bottles from the porch as evidence.
Authorities found Coffey unresponsive at 10:23 a.m. Friday at a home on Buena Vista Drive off High Road about a mile from campus, Tallahassee police said.
Police said Monday they have interviewed more than 50 people and have more interviews planned.
Pi Kappa Phi’s national office suspended the FSU chapter’s operations after the death, said Todd Shelton, a spokesman for Pi Kappa Phi.
In 2015, the chapter had to enroll in a remedial program for an alcohol violation. But in the past year, in which the national disciplinary log recorded 60 misconduct allegations against chapters around the country, there were none involving the FSU chapter.
The fraternity’s FSU chapter web, Twitter and Facebook pages have been taken down.
Coffey was a high school athlete and junior ROTC member who often smiled, said George Edmunds, a friend and fellow FSU student.
FSU Vice President for Student Affairs Amy Hecht said her division will create new rules in the coming weeks “to ensure the future of fraternity and sorority life.”