Eight students at California State University at Chico were charged March 3 with various crimes after a student was killed during a fraternity’s “Hell Week.”
According to Chico State Director of Public Affairs Joe Wills, junior Matthew Carrington died Feb. 2 at Enloe Medical Center. Unlike most hazing fatalities, Carrington was not killed by alcohol poisoning.
Rather, Carrington was taken into the basement of the fraternity Chi Tau, where he was ordered to do calisthenics on one foot while other members repeatedly dumped gallons of water on him and large fans blew air. Windows in the basement were also left open to make the temperature colder. Additionally, Carrington was asked to drink from a five-gallon jug when he incorrectly answered various trivia questions members gave him.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Carrington collapsed midway through a push-up and died two hours later as both hypothermia and water intoxication took hold.
The incident was not Chi Tau’s first act of misconduct. According to Wills, Chi Tau was a “rogue fraternity” and had not been recognized by Chico State since 2002, when the university refused to recognize the fraternity any longer.
At the time, Chi Tau was Delta Sigma Phi, and had been accused of assaults, fighting, noise complaints, alcohol violations and police calls to the fraternity.
Additionally, Delta Sigma Phi stripped the group of its local-chapter status. As a result, the fraternity took the name Chi Tau, a former name for Delta Sigma Phi.
“Their neighbors in downtown Chico were very disheartened to see the way this group was operating,” Wills said. “People were disgusted.”
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey filed four acts of involuntary manslaughter and four acts of hazing. Three of the four students charged with involuntary manslaughter were not Chico State students, and three of the four students charged with hazing were Chico State students.
Ramsey, whose best friend was killed in a high-school hazing incident, said he took the case personally.
“No one obviously intended this to happen,” Ramsey said. “[But this was] a stupid and criminal act. People need to bear the responsibility for this death.”
However, some believe it was not all too unreasonable to see why Carrington went through with the hazing.
University of Wisconsin professor of human development Brad Brown said people vary in the extent of how group-oriented they are and how varied they are in their tolerance for pain.
“There is a natural inclination of human beings to associate with other human beings,” Brown said. “There’s also a natural inclination to survive. At some point, individuals are loathed to go through rituals that don’t show good cost-benefit analysis.”
Fortunately, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is not as vulnerable to such groups.
Ed Mirecki, UW fraternity and sorority advisor, said Madison has policies intended to prevent incidents like those at Chico State from happening.
However, the concept of underground fraternities is not new.
“They’re not official and they continue to exist,” Mirecki said. Additionally, UW has never experienced a situation like that present at Chico State.
“It’s amazing that could happen on any college campus,” Mirecki said.
