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news
Hazing investigated
on campus
By Greg Smith
On-line Forty-Niner
Last year, Gilbert
Lopez, a 21-year-old junior business major, decided he was
going to rush a fraternity at Cal State Long Beach. Two of
his friends from high school were members of Delta Sigma Chi,
a co-ed Hispanic fraternity and Lopez said he felt this fraternity
suited him best. While Lopez was looking for brotherhood and
friendship, he found only pain and humiliation.
Lopez said Delta
Sigma Chi member Emiliano Torres, a senior theater major,
asked him to come to his off-campus apartment one night last
April. While he was there, Lopez says he was beaten nearly
100 times with a three-foot long, six-inch thick wooden paddle
about his entire body. He said that Torres performed the majority
of the beating while two other fraternity members sat quietly
and played video games.
"He would
make me recite the Greek alphabet and for every letter he
would hit me on one side and then he would switch to the other
side," Lopez said.
Over a two-hour
period, Lopez was beaten, verbally berated and forced to eat
food off the floor. Torres then forced him to go on a scavenger
hunt. Every time he failed to bring back the proper item in
the designated time he was paddled more.
"[Torres]
just wanted to inflict pain with the paddle," Lopez said.
While on the scavenger
hunt, Lopez crashed his car--the pain in his battered arms
was so great that he couldn't turn the steering wheel and
he hit another car while trying to make a left turn.
Hazing is usually
justified by members of fraternities and sororities as a way
to promote brotherhood and sisterhood among the pledges. The
idea being that they go through the hazing together and build
bonds while supporting each other.
Of the three Delta
Sigma Chi pledges that semester, Lopez was the only male and
was the lone pledge present the night of hazing incident.
He didn't understand what Torres was trying to accomplish
with the excessive hazing.
"What makes
me want to be friends with you after you do something like
that," Lopez said.
After that night,
Lopez reported the incident to University Police as well as
the University administration but nothing happened. He said
that the police report was filed as assault with a deadly
weapon, a charge punishable by dismissal from the university.
"[The fraternity
members] got really mad when I told the University Police
and my parents. They wanted to keep it among themselves,"
Lopez said.
Out of frustration
from the lack of action by police and university administration,
Lopez wrote a letter that appeared in the Oct. 24 issue of
the Long Beach Union newspaper. Almost all of the Union issues
containing the letter were stolen from their racks just days
after distribution. Soon after his letter was published, school
administration began to take action, Lopez said
The Judiciary Review
is currently investigating the incident Lopez said, but Director
of Judicial Affairs Steve Katz said he is not allowed to discuss
any cases the committee is investigating. In a meeting with
Dean of Students Mike Hostetler, Lopez was told that a ruling
should be reached by the end of the month.
Emiliano Torres
was reached, but declined to comment.
"I am not
in a position where I can expose confidential information
because the case is still pending," said Torres.
Delta Sigma Chi
president Louie Rodiles emphasized that the incident was in
no way condoned by the fraternity.
"On behalf
of the fraternity, we feel very sorry for the horrific event
that our brother Gilbert endured. It was not sanctioned by
the fraternity and all proper measures have been taken so
that this does not happen again," Rodiles said.
A.S.I. Vice President
and former Delta Sigma Chi president Danny Vivian said that
the beating was an isolated incident and that the fraternity
imposed a lifetime suspension on Torres.
"We took all
necessary precautionary steps," said Vivian, citing the
suspension and anti-hazing workshops that the fraternity held.
One problem that
may hinder punishment of the fraternity is the fact that the
Inter-Fraternity or Panhellenic Councils, who regulate nationally
recognized fraternities and sororities, do not recognize it.
While fraternities and sororities that are a part of these
organizations are subject to strict laws regarding hazing,
Delta Sigma Chi is not.
According to it's
Web site, Delta Sigma Chi was formed in 1989 by Latino students
attending CSULB who felt a need for a Hispanic based fraternity
on campus. Since its inception, Delta Sigma Chi now has five
chapters in the Southern California area.
Since the incident,
Lopez and his two friends from high school have quit Delta
Sigma Chi. He believes the fraternity is going down hill and
doesn't associate with any members.
"The things
they do, after going through it--when you're a pledge you
don't think about it, when you're going so far along--you
get brainwashed basically," Lopez said. "Other fraternities
have been around so long for a reason. They know what they're
doing. These guys in Delta Sigma Chi, they have no tradition,
they don't know what they're doing."
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