Authorities at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo have suspended the campus chapter of the largest Asian American fraternity in the country for two years, reports the campus newspaper, Mustang News.
A university investigation found Lambda Phi Epsilon forced its recruits to do knuckle push ups, late night submersion in the ocean, and consumer large amounts of alcohol. Anonymous sources told the paper the activities left them with bloodied knuckles, broken skin and even scars.
The Tribune reports the investigation began September 28 after the campus received anonymous complaints of “systematic hazing of new pledges in recent years,” said campus spokesperson Matt Lazier. The school found the complaints to be accurate and said current and former members of the fraternity maintained the tradition of hazing. Lazier said the national chapter of Lambda Phi Epsilon supports the school’s findings and actions.
“It really sucked in the moment, it was the hardest thing ever … but this is something I think everyone knows about. I know the cultural organizations haze way harder than any [Interfraternity Council] fraternity,” a source who claims to have witnessed the hazing told Mustang News.
According to The New York Times, Lambda Phi Epsilon has been connected to two deaths in the last 13 years- one at Cal Poly Pomona and the other at San Francisco State University.
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