Two years, four months and four days after Jacob Stiles was found dead in his bedroom in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, SMU officials decided to take action against the organization. The incident is no longer considered “isolated.”
In a letter to the parents of SAE fraternity members, Lori White, Vice President for Student Affairs said: “The use of illegal drugs by members of the fraternity was not isolated to the student who died. Statements made by several SAE members indicate there was drug use by additional fraternity members in the SAE house or as part of fraternity activities. Following the death, some members of the fraternity did not fully cooperate or were not forthcoming with SMU officials, and such actions have hampered efforts to investigate this tragedy.”
The fraternity has been placed on deferred suspension until Nov. 1, 2009. During this time the organization may not hold any social events, with or without alcohol, on or off campus. The group must participate in a community service project as well as pay to have its members take a “Training for Intervention Procedures” class, according to SMU officials.
If SAE fails to meet the requirements of the suspension, it will be subject to removal from the university.
SAE advisor Don Donnally was unavailable for comment.
The fraternity was put in the spotlight after Stiles, who had recently been named Mr. University in a sorority event, overdosed on the prescription drug Fentanyl on Dec. 2, 2006. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, it is 50 times more potent than heroin and is used as a pain reliever for cancer patients.
This came just one month after another member of the fraternity, Clark Scott, overdosed on drugs and alcohol and was hospitalized at an away weekend in Galveston. When officers arrived to the hotel where the members were staying, Scott was unconscious, according to Galveston Police reports.
But after both overdoses, fraternity and SMU officials alike insisted that Stiles’ death was an “isolated incident.”
“If something was really wrong, our national fraternity wouldn’t put up with it,” said Donnally in an earlier interview with The Daily Campus.
But the Texas Delta chapter of SAE is not the only one that has been in the news recently.
On Nov. 17, 2006 Tyler Cross, an SAE at the University of Texas, fell from a fifth floor balcony after reportedly being hazed by fraternity brothers, according to The Daily Texan. New members were given half-gallon bottles of liquor, and Cross’ blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit. Cross’s family was awarded $16.2 million in damages from the fraternity in 2008, but a Texas judge overturned the ruling.
On Dec. 2, 2008, exactly two years after the death of Stiles, Carson Starkey, a SAE at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, was found dead after a fraternity party. The university immediately suspended the chapter pending investigation, according to The San Luis Obispo Tribune.
And on March 7, 2009, Jason Wren, a freshman at the University of Kansas, was found dead in the SAE house after a night of heavy drinking. Wren had been living in the fraternity house for two weeks, according to The Denver Post.
SMU officials said that the investigation into Stiles’ death has been “ongoing,” and a culmination of information since the death has led the school to put the fraternity on deferred suspension.
“The university still continues to support Greek life at SMU,” said White. “We want all of our students to live up the student code of conduct.”
