COLUMBIA, S.C. — Fraternities on the University of South Carolina’s flagship campus are setting records for misconduct this fall despite earlier warnings about bad behavior.
The student societies on the Columbia campus racked up 22 misconduct violations this fall, the most in any semester since the school began keeping track of violations online five years ago, The State newspaper of Columbia reported. The previous mark was 14 incidents in 2011.
Almost all of the violations relate to drinking or hazing. Seven fraternities have been charged in all, three of them with hazing.
The university said more students are reporting bad behavior, so infractions are on necessarily on the rise.
After years of problems, South Carolina officials were expecting better from fraternities this semester. Campus officials this year discussed fundamentally changing how fraternities meet, recruit and induct potential new members, activities that recently have landed the groups in trouble for alcohol and hazing.
University President Harris Pastides told fraternities to clean up their acts and said “more significant action” could follow bad behavior. But the school’s president did not indicate during an interview that changes are imminent.
“Even though we have zero tolerance, I think it’s unrealistic to think that zero events, you know, zero arrests, zero (medical) transports is a realistic goal,” Pastides said. “But I think we want to see that we’re heading in the right direction.”
