UT approves provisional return of two suspended groups
The University of Texas at Austin has approved the provisional return of two student groups suspended for hazing violations, including one which was discovered to be hazing students at a weekend retreat just hours before a car crash led to a student's death.
Institution officials said they approved the applications of the Texas Cowboys spirit organization and Pi Kappa Phi fraternity to conditionally return to campus. The decision comes as part of the university's new Nine Dimensions of Successful Student Organizations program, which began in August with an end goal of preventing and correcting high-risk behavior in official student organizations.
“Our work centers around the safety, well-being and success of our students, and this includes the success of all our student organizations,” said Soncia Reagins-lilly, vice president of student affairs and dean of students. “This has the chance to be a game changer. The program is designed to change the expectations we have of our student groups and, more importantly, the expectations they have of themselves.”
The program creates a pathway for at-risk organizations to correct their behavior, and for groups removed from campus to have the ability to return over time, according to the university. The two suspended groups now are required to begin working on the program's curriculum, which includes creating governance and oversight procedures for membership and recruitment.
Pi Kappa Phi was suspended in 2019 after a university investigation found a series of hazing violations in its new member induction processes, according to the Daily Texan. Some members reported that pledges had been forced to eat soup laced with ghost pepper and cat food, stand in ice while being interrogated by active members and wear black bags on their heads while being driven around campus for up to two hours.
The Texas Cowboys, an allmale service organization known especially for firing “Smokey the Cannon” at football games, was hit with a six-year suspension that same year.
Ut-austin found that students were hazed at a fall 2018 retreat, concluding that the hazing included “physical brutality, physical activity, forced ingestion of unwanted substances, coerced consumption of alcohol, and degradation,” according to a
report issued by the university's Office of the Dean of Students.
All of those behaviors violate university policy; Cowboys members also allowed underage students to drink alcohol, violations of both university policy and state law.
According to the report, students alleged that new members were paddled and “forced or coerced to ingest unwanted substances,” ranging from a gallon of milk to cat food, hot sauce or whole onions. In one instance, a new member bit off the head of a live hamster, which had been an initiation tradition since before
2015, students told the university.
Many of the findings corroborated with reports from Shawn and Sylvia Cumberland, the parents of Nicky Cumberland, a former UT student and new Cowboy member who died in October 2018 after injuries sustained from the accident the morning after the retreat. The investigation came after the parents alleged to the university that their son was hazed and the student driving the car was sleep-deprived.
The Texas Cowboys' first two membership cohorts and Pi Kappa Phi's first membership cohort will each be limited to 25 members, according to the university. The first cohorts must complete the Successful Student Organizations curriculum before the next cohort is recruited, and subsequent cohorts will receiving onboarding and training.
University officials said the groups additionally have to conduct routine check-ins with the Office of the Dean of Students for one year after completing the curriculum.
Neither group can represent the university in an official capacity during the respective provisional return periods — the Cowboys can only do so after spring 2024 at the earliest.
More conditions include having an adviser present at all events and submitting a calendar of all activities to the Office of the Dean of Students for approval two weeks prior to the start of each term during the probationary period.
The provisional return ends after the organizations successfully complete all requirements of the Successful Student Organizations program.
“We want to give students the tools to move the organization forward with better skills and management and reduced risk,” said Katie Mcgee, executive director for student conduct and academic integrity.