The University of Miami has suspended the fraternity caught on a viral video showing members chugging milk and spitting it up on a student in a trash can — but claims the action did not break the school’s hazing policies.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon was punished for violating the school’s conduct policy and will remain suspended for the remainder of the Spring semester, which ends on May 15.
“While the investigation did not uncover a violation of the University’s hazing policy, it did uncover other conduct violations,” the school told the Miami Herald in a statement.
“As a result of the investigation, the chapter has accepted responsibility for violating the University’s disorderly conduct and alcohol policies.”
The fraternity will be allowed to resume hosting and attending events next fall semester in August under probation.
The viral video, published by the university’s newspaper in late February, showed a student crouching into a grey trash can while three others around him begin to chug what appears to be gallons of milk.
The three men then allegedly spit up and vomit the liquid onto the student as he’s tucked away shirtless in the trash can, leaving a nasty trail of white streaming down his back.
“That’s nasty,” said the person filming the video.
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity has been on the University of Miami’s campus since 2002.
While the university’s investigation determined that the frat was not a hazing ritual, attorney David W. Bianchi — a Miami-based lawyer with over 40 years of experience handling hazing litigation — thinks otherwise.
“I cannot imagine that anybody would voluntarily get into a garbage can and allow other pledges to vomit or spit on them unless it was a hazing event,” Bianchi told the outlet.
“There needs to be consequences if you want to stop inappropriate fraternity conduct in the future.”
Florida State Law defines hazing as any action that “recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student” who is seeking “admission into any organization,” “affiliation with any organization,” or “tradition or ritual” associated with an organization.
If found guilty of hazing, students in Florida could face punishment from the school and be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor or third-degree felony.
The University of Miami cites hazing as “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,” according to its website.
Any student found breaking the school’s hazing policy could face suspension or expulsion.
Though, in this instance, the fraternity and its members were not charged with hazing, an incident involving the university itself is one of the reasons for the strict hazing laws in Florida.
In 2005, the state passed the anti-hazing law after one of the school’s students, Chad Meredith, died while trying to swim across a lake drunk four years earlier, according to NBC South Florida.
A civil jury ordered the fraternity Kappa Sigma to pay Meredith’s parents $12 million, but no criminal charges were ever filed.
