Two years ago Clemson University temporarily shut down fraternity and sorority events on its campus after the death of a pledge. Now a new state law that is named for that student positions South Carolina as a pioneer in focusing more public scrutiny on the issue of misconduct by fraternities and sororities.
Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, last week signed into law the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act, which will require the state’s public colleges and universities to publish reports on student-conduct violations by Greek organizations.
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Two years ago Clemson University temporarily shut down fraternity and sorority events on its campus after the death of a pledge. Now a new state law that is named for that student positions South Carolina as a pioneer in focusing more public scrutiny on the issue of misconduct by fraternities and sororities.
Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, last week signed into law the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act, which will require the state’s public colleges and universities to publish reports on student-conduct violations by Greek organizations.
The law is the first of its kind, said Suzanne Hultin, a higher-education-policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures. It is also unique, she said, because it focuses attention on a specific type of student organization that has long been associated with dangerous drinking, hazing, and other problems.
Its namesake, Tucker Hipps, a Clemson sophomore, was found dead, floating under a bridge, after he and his fraternity brothers went for a predawn run in September 2014.
His family later filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, asserting that his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, three fraternity brothers, and the university were at fault. All of the defendants have denied that they had anything to do with Mr. Hipps’s death.
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State Rep. Joshua A. Putnam, a Republican who was one of the bill’s sponsors, said he had drafted the measure after speaking with Mr. Hipps’s family, aiming to create a law that might have helped prevent the student’s death.
He said he had learned that several colleges were already keeping such records on misconduct, and some campuses even made them public. Clemson, the University of South Carolina at Columbia, the College of Charleston, and Lander University all confirmed that they kept records of student-conduct violations before the measure was enacted.
The difference is that, under the new law, the reports must be published. It will require universities to place the reports in a prominent location on their websites, to release them under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, to make them available at student orientation, and to submit them to the Commission on Higher Education before the reports are updated each semester. The law takes effect this fall.
Holding Campuses Accountable
George N. Smith, an associate vice president for student affairs at Clemson, said the university had reported statistics on student-conduct violations since the 2013-14 academic year. Clemson has also published separate reports on Greek-organization misconduct since 2014. Despite the controversy over Mr. Hipps’s death, Mr. Smith said there had not been an increased demand to see the reports in recent years.
The University of South Carolina at Columbia has published student-conduct reports on fraternities and sororities since the 2011-12 academic year.
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Gentry R. McCreary, an affiliated consultant with the Ncherm Group, a consulting firm that advises colleges on hazing, problem drinking, and other issues, said the law carries the potential to change campus cultures around hazing.
It will provide “consumer protection” by giving students more information about organizations before joining, Mr. McCreary said.
This is less about the fraternities themselves than it is about the campuses’ being honest and holding themselves accountable.
“This is less about the fraternities themselves than it is about the campuses’ being honest and holding themselves accountable to addressing hazing and not just sweeping it under the rug,” Mr. McCreary said. “It has the potential to make the campuses safer.”
Under the law, reports must include a general description of each incident as well as the date of the incident, of the investigation’s start, and of the resolution of the inquiry. The reports must also identify the misconduct charges, list findings, and specify sanctions placed on the organization.
Some of the current published reports lack detail and paint only a general picture of misconduct. For example, entries on a web page at the University of South Carolina at Columbia list fraternities that have been punished for such vague violations as “Alcohol — common containers,” “Disorderly Conduct — Noise,” and “Abusive Conduct — Hazing.”
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Mr. McCreary said the law may eventually encourage people to demand more specifics on sanctions and charges.
Beyond Greek Chapters
While the law is unique in that it is a step toward increased transparency for fraternities and sororities, it raised eyebrows among some state lawmakers who said that it would unfairly single out those groups. Some national Greek organizations said that they supported the law, but expressed similar concerns.
Heather M. Kirk, a spokeswoman for the North American Interfraternity Conference, wrote in an email that it supports the legislation, but she said that the measure should cover all student groups.
Dani Weatherford, executive director of the National Panhellenic Conference, wrote in a statement that a shift toward more transparency was “at least one key way to hold organizations accountable.” But she expressed concern that “the value of transparency extends beyond Greek chapters.”
Students and families should be able to access this information for all student organizations.
“Students and families,” she continued, “should be able to access this information for all student organizations.”
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Mr. McCreary said that in order to change a campus’s culture, all groups — not just Greek organizations — must appear in the reports.
“It makes a lot of sense for any group that is found responsible for hazing to have that information disclosed publicly,” he said.
Mr. McCreary and Ms. Hultin of the National Conference of State Legislatures agreed that similar measures may catch on in other states, and potentially in the U.S. Congress.
“It’s a step forward,” he said, “and it’s something that I hope other states will emulate to the point where, eventually, the federal government takes action and establishes a unified definition of hazing.”
Fernanda is the engagement editor at The Chronicle. She is the voice behind Chronicle newsletters like the Weekly Briefing, Five Weeks to a Better Semester, and more. She also writes about what Chronicle readers are thinking. Send her an email at fernanda@chronicle.com.