By MAC SMITH

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Last semester, the Oct. 15, 2024 hate crime incident and subsequent arrest of fifteen Salisbury University students was a hot topic that engulfed the attention of the community. 

Most students involved in the crime, nine of whom were sentenced with charges of either false imprisonment or second degree assault on Jan. 29, were a part of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. 

Throughout the SU community, several students engaged in discussions about what exactly occurred on Oct. 15, the date of the incident. There have even been claims that confronting middle aged men who have been lured under the pretense of underage sex, similar to the incident that was recorded, is a facet of hazing culture. 

“I heard that they were going to meet [a] pedophile that they found on grindr by posing as a sixteen-year-old to [confront] him at Walmart and just yell and harass him,” Emma C., an SU Freshman, said. 

“Many of the boys were told to meet at the apartment before going to Walmart, but it turns out the pedophile was going to the apartment… the others did not know that was happening,” claimed Fallon I., a Salisbury University Freshman who stayed attuned to details students discussed regarding the incident. 

The term “blindsided” is an appropriate term for this incident: many of the fraternity men were supposedly unaware of what the original plan comprised.  Some were told to meet at Walmart, whereas some were told to meet back at the apartment. 

Eventually, the group made their way back to the apartment where they started the beating, which sources indicate was part of a hazing ritual.  

Although SU is no longer inundated with daily updates regarding the incident, the culture of fraternity hazing is an issue that persists.

By definition, pledging is the act of forcing “Newbies” in the fraternity to do a hazing act.  

There are fraternity pledging rituals in several other schools across the country that are on a whole different and more sadistic level. 

Ohio State University has on record that their fraternities are known for pressuring and rushing students upon first entrance. In Oct. 2024, a report was released that former fraternity leaders were jailed because of a student’s death due to hazing. The student drank eighteen drinks of an alcoholic beverage in less than two hours as part of their pledging.  

In 2019, another student pledging a fraternity at Miami University in Ohio says he pleaded with a fraternity member.

“Call 911, I feel like I’m going to die,”  said the hazing victim. This hazing act left the Miami University student with a traumatic experience after a five-hour ordeal during which he was reportedly forced to drink large amounts of alcohol and was subsequently beaten with a paddle that had “spikes and grooves.”

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Featured image courtesy: The Bury Post