Last week, the University of South Carolina lost a local, homegrown kid named Charles Terreni Jr.
Charlie was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, and while there are still questions surrounding his death, the local PIKE chapter has suspended operations, and there is certainly a connection between the organization and Charlie’s death.
In his “New Rules” segment, Bill Maher called college fraternities “American’s last bastion of societal-approved racism.” But this discussion goes past racism, and it goes past the long-running discussion on hazing. The point of emphasis is that fraternities may have had a place in our society 100 years ago, but not anymore.
Last year, Clemson student and Sigma Phi Epsilon pledge Tucker Hipps was found dead in Lake Hartwell. The investigation into Hipps’ death is still ongoing, and while there is a lack of concrete evidence connecting fraternity hazing and his death, it is obvious that Sigma Phi Epsilon had failed in their duties toward Hipps.
Fraternities are supposedly bonds of brotherhood between young men, yet those young men left Hipps to die in Lake Hartwell on an early morning run.
The deaths of Hipps and Terreni are just two in-state examples of a larger national problem. Young men in the prime of their lives are dying, and many of them are members of fraternities.
Stretching back to the 1970s, there has been about one death per year from fraternity hazing, not to mention other fraternity related deaths that go untracked. People will say that you can't blame an organization for the actions of an individual, but when those organizations are tasked with bonds of brotherhood and promise parents they will foster their children into adulthood, then the blame does fall on them, no matter the circumstance.
The prevailing sentiment toward fraternities since their first occurrence is that they should be allowed to police themselves. The current system allows the fraternities to worry about their houses and their brothers, and leaves oversight to the national chapters.
This system has failed. The failure can be counted in deaths and can be seen in the continued segregation of these organizations.
While universities as a whole have moved forward in a century, fraternities have largely remained the same or, in some aspects, moved backwards. There are no racially segregated universities left in the U.S., but can the same honestly be said about fraternities?
No matter how you feel about this column, it is undeniable that there was a tragedy last week. A young man lost his life in his prime. Terreni was in a fraternity, and he passed away in a fraternity house. Something needs to change because young men are dying, and fraternities share a large stake of the blame.
There are plenty of excuses that can be made, and I doubt that last week’s tragedy will change something that has been so embedded into our culture.
But there is a point in time when traditions need to be re-evaluated on their current face value and not looked at in a historical context. Many traditions have outlived their acceptance in society and therefore been left behind.
I contend that fraternities may need such a re-evaluation.