Probe Into Miami Fraternity Ends With Suspension After Hazing Video Goes Viral
The hazing clip wasn’t the reason behind the suspension, however.
Reuters/Joe Skipper
A fraternity at the University of Miami which was infamously recorded making its members chug milk until they threw up on each other has been suspended for the spring semester, but not for that gross hazing clip.
Instead, the university announced this week that its chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon was being suspended for violating its conduct and alcohol rules—violations that will bar it from hosting or attending any events until the fall semester.
Those violations were only uncovered by a probe that stemmed from the viral milk-chugging clip, however, reported the student newspaper The Hurricane.
In the video, one of frat’s members is seen stepping into a trash can and crouching down, while others surround him and chug gallons of milk until they spit or vomit onto the shirtless student in the trash can.
The student newspaper said those involved were “likely pledges,” suggesting the bizarre act was likely a hazing incident conducted in broad daylight.
The clip was reportedly taken from the neighboring Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) fraternity house in the fall 2023 semester, The Hurricane reported. It sparked a probe by the university and the fraternity’s national chapter, who said in a statement that the chapter was placed under a “cease & desist” order while the probe was conducted.
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That investigation determined the viral clip did not break the university’s hazing policies. On the UM’s website, it says it considers hazing to be “an action or situation created on or off campus which recklessly or intentionally harms, damages, or endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student.”
In Florida, hazing is sometimes considered a criminal act under its anti-hazing law that was passed in 2005 after Chad Meredith, a freshman baseball player at the University of Miami, drowned in Lake Osceola after his fraternity officers forced him to drink too much.
David Bianchi, an attorney who filed a successful lawsuit that ultimately led to the Chad Meredith Act passing the legislature, told CBS Miami that the latest incident was likely hazing, but was legal under Florida law because there was no reasonable possibility it’d cause personal injury or death.
“Based on what I saw in the video, what they were doing to this guy was not likely to cause serious injury or death,” he said. “There’s not going to be any criminal prosecution against anybody, but the university and the national fraternity will take action because it is hazing and it is a violation of policies.”
The latest hazing saga comes less than two years after the University of Miami shut down one of its fraternities, Sigma Phi Epsilon, after a video leaked that showed members chanting about “raping and murdering women.”
In 2022, multiple women told The Hurricane that they were roofied while attending a party at Sigma Phi Epsilon, which was quickly shuttered once allegations became public.
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