A Florida jury recently ordered two fraternity members to pay damages to the family of a fraternity pledge who drowned at the University of Miami at Florida in 2001.
The lawsuit stems from a 2001 incident at UM where two fraternity brothers from Kappa Sigma were swimming with a pledge, Chad Meredith, in a nearby lake. Meredith drowned, and his family sued on the grounds that he was a victim of hazing. An autopsy on Meredith’s body showed he was intoxicated at the time of his death.
According to an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Travis Montgomery, president of Kappa Sigma at the time, and David May, a member of the fraternity, were each ordered to pay Meredith’s family $6.3 million. The jury found that swimming in the lake was a fraternity-related event, and Montgomery and May failed to help Meredith while drowning. The lawyer for the Kappa Sigma members said he planned to appeal the verdict. The University of Miami was not a defendant in the lawsuit.
Margot Winick, a University of Miami spokesperson, said UM had no comment on the lawsuit or the verdict, but said she could not recall any hazing incidents involving Kappa Sigma.
“All of UM’s publications to the Greeks stress our zero-tolerance hazing policy,” Winick said. “Hazing is considered a felony in the state of Florida.”
Winick also pointed out an investigation by UM that found hazing was not involved in the incident. Montgomery and May were disciplined by the university for swimming in the lake, which was prohibited after a student drowned in the lake in 1980.
Thirteen percent of UM’s full-time students are involved in the Greek systems; UM had 9, 600 students enrolled full-time in the fall 2003.
Barbara Kautz, University of Wisconsin’s Fraternity and Sorority Program Advisor in the Student Organization Office, said UW also has a strict zero-tolerance policy. Hazing is against Wisconsin state laws, Kautz said.
Ed Mirecki, UW’s Fraternity and Sorority Advisor, said UW’s last hazing occurrence occurred in 1996, when fraternity pledges were burned in an incident involving a fireplace. Mirecki declined to name the fraternity.
“In terms of a college community, [the 1996 incident] is almost three generations removed,” Mirecki said. “I don’t want to cast a bad light on that fraternity by naming it, because that incident does not reflect the current members.”
Mirecki described the steps UW takes to ensure hazing does not occur.
The new-member educators, who are fraternity and sorority members responsible for the new members, attend a workshop on hazing every semester.
Fraternity and sorority advisors meet with the new members to discuss with them what to expect in the Greek system, any questions about activities within their respective organizations, what constitutes drug and alcohol abuse, sexual-assault prevention and academic success.
The Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association, made up of Greek student representatives, “police the community and investigate questionable situations.”
“We try to take the position that student leaders are responsible for what occurs in their organization,” Mirecki said. “We try to load up education on the front end and follow through with monitoring and accountability.”
