This U.S. university cracked down on Greek life. Here’s how it’s going

FILE - Woodburn Hall on West Virginia University downtown campus is shown April, 24, 2015, in Morgantown, W.Va. West Virginia University on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, recommended the elimination of 9% of the majors offered on its Morgantown campus along with a wide-ranging reduction in faculty to address a $45 million budget shortfall. (AP Photo/Raymond Thompson, File)

Inside a nondescript brick house overlooking West Virginia University’s picturesque campus, Nolan Burch stood with his fellow pledges, laughing and joking around as he held a necktie to his eyes. The time had come for the Gamma Phi chapter of Kappa Sigma’s “Big/Little ceremony” – the final rite in a grueling, alcohol-soaked gauntlet the college freshman understood as necessary to join the fraternity – and soon the chapter house’s security cameras captured him blindfolded by his tie, being led out of the house with one hand on the shoulder of the young man in front of him. Then he vanished from view.

When Burch reappeared in the security footage later that night, he was no longer on his feet. A group of fraternity members hauled the passed-out pledge into the house by his arms and legs and laid him face down on a table. He remained still as the others kicked at his side, thrust their hips toward his head and snapped photographs of him. All the while, his body was shutting down: his blood alcohol content was more than six times the legal limit, according to the Morgantown Police Department, the result of downing a bottle of whiskey at the command of his brothers-to-be.

By the time they noticed Burch’s face had turned blue and called 911, it was too late. An outgoing kid from the suburbs of Buffalo, New York, who adored his little sister, Burch never regained consciousness. He had been well-liked growing up, a baseball and hockey player who announced on the drive home from his first campus visit that he wanted to be a Mountaineer. He declared a major in business, but he had years to figure it out, and he had mentioned a budding interest in law to his family. Now he was dead just a week after turning 18.

The 2014 fatal hazing incident, followed by continued reports of sexual assaults and drug and alcohol issues in the school’s fraternities, galvanized administrators to crack down on Greek life at West Virginia’s flagship university. In 2018, then-president E. Gordon Gee announced drastic action: the university was putting a six-month moratorium on most activities for chapters in the Interfraternity Council, while convening a working group to comb over each fraternity and sorority chapter’s history and determine which ones would be allowed back the next semester. The group would also come up with new standards aimed at changing the culture of Greek life on campus.

“We have two paths before us,” the seven-time university leader said at the time. “One is the path that many of our peers have chosen: Shut down Greek life. Or two, work together as partners – the University, students, alumni and our national leaderships – to create real change. I wish to choose the latter.”

Age-old questions about the unholy marriage between higher education and Greek life have been thrust back to the forefront after a former Cornell University student filed a lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by multiple members of Chi Phi at their chapter house in 2024. The Ivy League school’s president, Michael I. Kotlikoff, faces growing demands from some students and faculty to abolish its Greek system; one associate professor, Andrew Moisey, declared to a local news station that “Cornell is in an abusive relationship with fraternities and has been since 1873.” That year, a blindfolded Cornell student fell off a cliff during an initiation ceremony in what is considered the US’s first recorded fraternity hazing death.

Kotlikoff on Tuesday announced a ban on parties and social events at campus fraternity houses for the rest of the academic year as officials review fraternity life at Cornell to determine “whether and how it can safely continue.” He has expressed skepticism about more aggressive interventions, telling faculty and other university leaders in a closed-door meeting, “I have to make the point that this doesn’t only occur in fraternities” and “I worry about pushing this into the shadows.”

‘You can’t yield’

Universities have long grappled with how to manage the Greek-letter organizations that have become synonymous with American higher education over the last two centuries. Every new school year brings new hazing scandals, and research has found fraternity members are more likely to commit sexual assault and their houses are among the most common sites of sexual assaults on college campuses. Yet abolishing Greek life altogether is far from an easy proposition.

The Greek system, founded to offer camaraderie outside the tight control of 19th-century university administrators, is backed by powerful national organizations and by devoted alumni, who populate corporate C-suites and the halls of Congress and donate generously to their alma maters. Advocates of Greek life say fraternities and sororities play an important role in the lives of their members and for the schools that host them, touting benefits like friendships that endure long past graduation and involvement in community service projects. Most fraternities and sororities are associated with philanthropic groups at both the local and national level.

The presence of Greek life on campus, with its stately houses, exuberant social events and starring role in American pop culture, can also be a lure for students, the lifeblood of academia. That’s especially in a time of dwindling enrollment, soaring tuition and stiff competition between schools. Many entering the Greek system are newly experiencing independence as they enter adulthood and, as part of the generation kept home under COVID-19 restrictions, craving opportunities to connect.

Eric Barron, president of Pennsylvania State University from 2014 to 2022, described problematic behavior in Greek life as a significant challenge for administrators, “made more so by the sense that you’re not in complete control.” After sophomore Tim Piazza died in a highly publicized hazing incident in 2017, the university leader’s frustration was palpable in an open letter to the Greek community, where he listed a decade’s worth of unsuccessful efforts to address the issues of sexual assault and excessive drinking.

“If new rules can just be ignored, or behavior just goes underground, and if there is no willingness to recognize the adverse impact of excessive drinking, hazing, and sexual assault, then is there any hope?” he asked in the letter.

A short-lived fraternity member himself, Barron told CNN he believes Greek life switched at some point to being a “net negative.” He described facing “incredible pushback” from alumni while trying to rein in problematic behavior. Still, he continues to believe that the best of fraternities and sororities can be recaptured.

“I did feel like it had impact,” he said of his efforts. “But you also can’t yield. This isn’t something where you can relax back.”

‘I … couldn’t understand that’

As a freshman at Cornell in 2023, Caitlin Gallagher reluctantly joined her new girlfriends in rushing a sorority, she said. Once she was in, she was swept up in the excitement – even signing up to live in the Alpha Chi Omega’s Zeta Phi chapter house. But by the end of her sophomore year, she was becoming disillusioned by a system that she told CNN seemed to be “defined by how men view women.”

The breaking point came after university administrators sent a crime alert about the now notorious 2024 Chi Phi sexual assault allegations in the days after getting a report from Jane Doe. As a member of the executive board, Gallagher pressed for her sorority to issue a statement denouncing what allegedly occurred – a move she saw fitting for a group whose philanthropic cause was domestic violence awareness.

She was shocked, she said, when others on the board didn’t want to get involved.

“I wanted us to be the organization to condemn it, but they didn’t even want to do that,” Gallagher said. “And I just – I just couldn’t understand that.”

So she left Greek life behind. Before long, she was questioning the entire enterprise. In an article published by the Cornell Sun before her graduation last spring, she pointed out that results from a campus Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct survey showed 20% of instances of nonconsensual sexual contact reportedly occurred in fraternity chapter houses or annexes. “What percentage of sexual assaults,” she asked, “have to be linked to fraternity houses until Cornell eliminates them from campus entirely?”

As outrage mounted after Jane Doe’s lawsuit brought the Chi Phi allegations to national attention, Cornell’s chapter of Alpha Chi Omega released the kind of statement Gallagher wanted to see two years earlier.

“The sisters of Alpha Chi Omega’s Zeta Phi chapter at Cornell University stand with survivors of sexual and domestic violence,” it began.

During a recent town hall at the Ivy League school, one student raised the question of a Greek life ban, asking student organizers if taking that step might improve the culture on campus.

Reaction was mixed, with one organizer raising the importance of Black fraternities and sororities on campus. Cornell is home to the first intercollegiate historically African American Greek-letter fraternity. Another student said she worried the Greek system creates a “party culture” and helps feed “toxic masculinity.”

‘It’s not right; it’s not normal’

Greek-letter organizations have been run out of some private liberal arts schools, like Swarthmore College, where administrators announced a ban in 2019 amid a backlash over leaked documents containing racist and misogynistic comments allegedly written by past fraternity members. For public institutions, though, the right to freedom of association essentially takes that option off the table, according to Adam McCready, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut who studies Greek life and belonged to Theta Delta Chi as an undergraduate at George Washington University.

“The challenge for public institutions,” he said, “is you can choose not to recognize these groups. But then they continue to exist off campus without any oversight or resources – which may only exacerbate the problems.”

At Katy Love’s small private school, Drake University, “everyone was Greek,” she said. Through Delta Gamma, she met friends she’s still in touch with today, 24 years after graduating. She married a guy from the fraternity next door, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen were her sorority sisters and his fraternity brothers. The two have since divorced, but she looks back on the experience fondly.

Now a mother of five kids, including a daughter who is eager to rush when she heads off to college next year, she has now found herself wondering, in the wake of the Cornell case, whether Greek life has a future in her family.

“It was just this legacy to hand down to my children,” said Love, who shares parenting advice on her Instagram account. “And now I’m really second-thinking it.”

Nolan Burch’s parents were never part of Greek life in college. When their son told them he was joining a fraternity, TJ and Kim Burch thought of it like any other student organization. Only later did they learn that Kappa Sigma’s national office had pulled the West Virginia chapter’s charter two days before the “Big/Little” ceremony, a familial ritual connecting each incoming member with an established one. It was then, after Nolan’s death, that they started to realize he had shown telltale signs of hazing during the pledge process. He didn’t look like himself; he wasn’t smiling. Asked about it, he told his parents he was tired and just had to get through a few more weeks before rush would be over.

“Never in our wildest dreams would we think sending our kid off three months into his freshman year we would be bringing him home and planning a funeral,” his mother said. “It’s not right; it’s not normal. It’s devastating, is what it is.”

‘Work smart, play smart’

After Nolan was taken off life support, West Virginia University administrators suspended Greek activities. Kappa Sigma’s national headquarters issued a statement saying the organization was “distraught and saddened by the news” and that it had notified the university and chapter two days before the ceremony that its charter was withdrawn following “previous, unrelated violations” of its code of conduct.

Kappa Sigma would remain dormant at WVU. Two of its former members – Nolan’s fraternity big brother and the master of ceremonies for the event that killed him – were arrested on misdemeanor hazing charges. They entered pretrial diversion agreements which required completing community service and serving two years of probation. The Burch family sued the university, Kappa Sigma Fraternity, the Gamma Phi chapter, the two charged fraternity members and others, eventually settling for $3 million, the bulk of which was paid by the two ex-fraternity members, according to student newspaper the Daily Athenaeum.

Gee, the university president and himself a Pi Kappa Alpha alum, called on the Greek community to “work smart and play smart.” But when problems persisted even four years later,he announced the fraternity crackdown. In an interview with CNN, he said what happened to the student was “just appalling to me.” But as a believer in the freedom of association and in fraternities and sororities as a way of finding community if done right, he did not see an outright ban as the right path.

“First of all, we exist because of students at university and second of all, we need to understand our students and make them our partners,” said Gee, who retired last year after 45 years in higher education leadership. “And by and large when you do that – when you treat them as adults and as partners – they act that way.”

The university raised the minimum GPA requirement for Greek life participation, shortened the new member initiation period, placed new limits on social events and pushed recruitment to the spring semester, according to a report and recommendations released at the time. The working group of administrators and Greek life representatives created action plans for each chapter to resume operations in fall 2018 based on a blind review of their previous four years.

But five fraternities facing sanctions broke off from the university rather than getting into compliance. The organizations, which maintained recognition from their national groups, created their own fraternity council. An incensed Gee announced they would be banned from campus for at least 10 years. He said the university would take other drastic steps: notifying parents and students of the chapters’ lack of recognition, encouraging other recognized student organizations not to associate with them and prohibiting them from using university resources or logos.

‘Some oversight is better than zero’

“This is not the wild west,” Gee told a Morgantown radio show at the time. “The old days of a fraternity being able to do anything they want to is not what should happen — nor should it happen with any organization.”

Leaders of the breakaway organizations claimed their due process rights were being violated – an argument backed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which wrote the university arguing that the fraternities had not been given enough notice or opportunity to contest the sanctions. Gee refused to budge, saying the 10-year ban was firm and accusing the national organizations of encouraging the break.

Barred from using the university’s name, the spinoff fraternity council’s social media profile offered this description: “The new and improved Independent Interfraternity Council in Morgantown, WV.”

Eight years later, at the start of this academic year, West Virginia University announced that three of the disaffiliated fraternities – Kappa Alpha Order, Phi Sigma Kappa and Delta Chi – were on their way back to the university fold. The trio is now listed on a university webpage for “upcoming expansions.” They join 19 registered fraternities, up from the eight that remained after the 2018 crackdown.

Leadership at the university turned over last year, with the president, the dean of students and the director of Greek life all departing. Kyle Shatto, WVU’s interim director of Fraternity and Sorority life, told the student newspaper he hopes to reengage students in Greek life and reverse low membership trends in fraternities. He forwarded a CNN interview request to a university spokeswoman, who declined to make officials available and did not provide answers to a list of questions.

“The three fraternities that are now registered organizations — Alpha Sigma Phi, Sigma Chi and Theta Chi — have worked with new University leaders to meet the requirements for full recognition,” West Virginia University spokeswoman Shauna Johnson said in an emailed statement, adding that the school “does not condone hazing or any dangerous activities that threaten student safety or well-being.”

Gee, who used to pop into fraternity parties unannounced to keep tabs on them, said he is not bothered by the reintegration of the three formerly rogue organizations. Instead, he described it as part of a “success story.”

“I think that these disaffiliated fraternities discovered that without university support, many of them started to dwindle on the vine,” he said.

Nolan Burch’s parents also welcomed news that the fraternities would once again be affiliated with the university, with his father saying “some oversight is better than zero.”

But the oversight hasn’t prevented all allegations of wrongdoing. Just last week, West Virginia placed Lambda Chi Alpha on an interim suspension after receiving multiple anonymous reports of hazing. The school did not release details of the claims, and the chapter did not respond to a request for comment. The national organization told CNN Lambda Chi Alpha “strictly prohibits hazing and takes all allegations seriously” but was unable to comment on specifics because of an ongoing investigation.

‘It’s like a sucker punch’

TJ and Kim Burch, whose son would have turned 30 this year, remain frustrated by what goes on inside fraternities. But they fault the national organizations more than the universities.

“It’s been going on for years before Nolan, and still years after Nolan,” TJ said. “And they’re not doing anything about it.”

“I think they’ve lost sight of what they’re supposed to be about,” Kim said. “It seems like it’s a free-for-all. And it just keeps getting worse.”

For the past 12 years, the couple has tried to teach students to recognize when someone is at risk and step in, through a documentary about their son’s death, through a speaking tour of middle and high schools and through the Remember Nolan Project. Hearing of cases where no one intervened – where other young men died while pledging, where a young woman said multiple fraternity members joined in her assault – can make them wonder what the point is.

“It’s like a sucker punch,” Kim Burch said. “You know, you turn the news on, and here we go again. And you’re out there fighting constantly, and you feel like you’re not making a dent.”

But trying, she added a moment later, “is all we can do.”

CNN’s Avery Wang, Jeff Winter, Gloria Pazmino and Taylor Galgano contributed to this article.