Frats thrive as hazing trauma fades
The importance of Gordie Bailey’s story was easy to convey a decade ago.
A good-looking, funny kid from Dallas, the captain of the high school football team, pledged the Chi Psi fraternity at the University of ColoradoBoulder. One night, he drank too much and died at 18.
Even Bailey’s parents admit that the story, once a timely call to action, has become dated. Although their fierce fight to shine a light on the hazards of hazing and drinking may have saved lives, stories like Bailey’s continue to happen, year after year.
Since Bailey’s death Sept. 17, 2004, 29 other pledges have died in alcoholrelated hazing incidents across the country, hazing expert Hank Nuwer said. This year, fraternity chapters closed or were suspended at Penn State, Louisiana State, Florida State and Texas State after pledge deaths — and universities found themselves grappling with
how to respond. Many campuses — not just those where deaths occurred — temporarily shut down Greek life activities.
There’s a familiar pattern to fraternity deaths, Nuwer said: A pledge dies, there’s a big reaction, new students come in, people forget the name and the fraternity returns to campus.
Bailey’s parents, Leslie and Michael Lanahan, experienced the common rhythms of a fraternity death: the earth-shattering phone call, the discussions with administrators, the criminal and civil court proceedings, and finally the rebirth of the chapter. They vowed to move mountains, to push institutional changes that would save others.
Years later, they’ve become accustomed to the stories. “It’s just sad to think of a family going through that absolute nightmare that we went through,” Leslie Lanahan said. “I see those moms on TV, and I know exactly how they’re feeling.”
‘ This is ancient history’
Around the CU-Boulder campus, few people have heard of Gordie Bailey.
Most college-age students were just starting elementary school when Bailey and other pledges were blindfolded, taken to the woods and told to drink copious amounts of whiskey and wine. Bailey passed out that night, and fraternity members drew slurs all over his body. He was found facedown on the floor of the Chi Psi house the next morning with a blood-alcohol level of .328, more than four times the legal driving threshold in Colorado. He died of an alcohol overdose.
“Gordie will always be part of the story of the University of ColoradoBoulder, especially in Greek life, but you’ve reached the point where new kids coming in — this is ancient history,” said Marc Stine, the adviser of the independent Interfraternity Council (IFC) in Boulder, which oversees 21 fraternity chapters. “It’s like the names of the guys who died in World War II that are up on the marble plaque.”
The Chi Psi chapter at Boulder, which had 107 members as of last fall, was named by the national organization as its top chapter in 2016-17. It’s still in the same house where Bailey was found 13 years ago.
Since Bailey died, the chapter has been subject to judicial actions by the IFC, which punishes organization violations. Stine said the issues were minor and not related to hazing, alcohol or sexual assault. Boulder police records show officers responded to the Chi Psi house 36 times since the beginning of 2016 over a range of incidents, including noise complaints, theft and a report of a drunk person.
Boulder Police Chief Greg Testa said the work of the university and the community has driven down problematic activity in the city. CU-Boulder fraternities and sororities each have an assigned police officer who attends regular meetings with students.
“I think we have a good relationship today,” Testa said. “That’s not something I would have said years ago.”
The fallout
Bailey’s death served as a “tipping point” for the university, said Stephanie Baldwin, CUBoulder’s assistant director for Greek life.
In 2005, months after Bailey died, the university asked its sororities and fraternities to agree to two big safety changes: delaying member recruitment to the spring and welcoming live-in house directors.
The ideas were accepted by sororities but panned by the fraternities, which instead launched their own independent system, the Undergraduate Interfraternity Council at the University of Colorado, which has no affiliation with the university.
The Interfraternity Council is a notfor-profit corporation run by CU-Boulder fraternity brothers. Its Judicial Board, made up of fraternity members, investigates, tries and doles out punishment for violations related to hazing, alcohol and sexual assault.
Stine, who advises the independent IFC as its Greek advocate, said claims of hazing, sexual assault and alcohol violations have decreased across CU-Boulder fraternities since the split. The organization does not release details of Judicial Board activities.
It has expelled three fraternities from its ranks since Bailey died, all for violations related to hazing and alcohol.
Delta Chi was booted in 2008 after an alcohol-related hazing incident caused “major damage” to an Estes Park, Colo., motel, Stine said. Sigma Pi was expelled in 2013. Kappa Sigma, which was linked to sexual assault, was removed in 2015. The final straw for Kappa Sigma, Stine said, was when members, upset about sanctions, showed up at the IFC president’s house in the middle of the night and demanded he come out and fight.
Despite the expulsions, the Sigma Pi and Kappa Sigma chapters are still listed on their national organizations’ websites and remain in operation in Boulder, despite not having affiliations with the university or the independent IFC.
The university does not track hazing reports, but it hands down discipline on the “rare occasions” hazing does happen, spokesman Ryan Huff said in a statement. University crime statistics for 2016 show drugs and alcohol contributed to nearly 600 arrests and citations and almost 2,500 disciplinary referrals at CU-Boulder.
Pushing for change
The Lanahans teamed up with Douglas Fierberg, a premier attorney in fraternity death cases, in its lawsuit against Chi Psi. The Lanahans were given a monetary settlement, which was substantially impacted, Fierberg said, by a Colorado law capping non-economic damages. At least 10 members of Chi Psi pleaded guilty to charges of providing alcohol to a minor.
The Lanahans directed the entire settlement to the Gordie Foundation, which joined with the University of Virginia to create the Gordie Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. The Gordie Center aims to reduce hazardous drinking and hazing through education.
Michael Lanahan, Bailey’s stepfather, said real change will come only when colleges and fraternities experience financial pains by losing students and members after pledges die. “I think every university president wakes up on a Sunday morning and just hopes the police don’t call them,” he said.
Sean Rossman reported from McLean, Va. Trevor Hughes reported from Boulder. Contributing: The Associated Press