Sigma Chi Hazing: Deaths, Lawsuits, and Chapter Shutdowns

Sigma Chi hazing has produced student deaths, a pending wrongful death lawsuit at the University of Texas at Austin, and a run of chapter shutdowns and sanctions at universities across the country. The international fraternity, headquartered in Evanston, Illinois, has written anti-hazing policies and a prevention program, but individual chapters have repeatedly been found responsible for forced drinking, physical abuse, and conduct severe enough to contribute to deaths. The national office has responded by suspending or closing chapters after incidents come to light; families of victims say that response comes too late.

Student Deaths Linked to Sigma Chi Chapters

Sigma Chi chapters have been connected to multiple fatalities. In 2004, Blake Adam Hammontree, a pledge at the University of Oklahoma, was found dead in the fraternity house after an event described as a “bottle exchange.” Four chapter members were charged with felony furnishing of alcohol to a minor, though the coroner ruled the death accidental.¹

In 2016, Brandon Cavazos, a new member of the Sigma Chi chapter at Oklahoma State University, died of alcohol poisoning. The chapter was placed on probation in early 2017, but no hazing charges were filed.¹

The most recent death tied to a Sigma Chi chapter is that of Sawyer Lee Updike, an 18-year-old freshman at UT Austin who died by suicide on January 16, 2024. His parents say months of hazing at the fraternity’s Alpha Nu chapter drove the psychological crisis that led to his death.

The UT Austin Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Updike’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in November 2025 naming Sigma Chi International Fraternity, the Alpha Nu chapter, the Alpha Nu House Corporation, and five individual members, including the chapter president at the time. The family is seeking damages in excess of $1 million and is represented by Ted B. Lyon & Associates.²

The complaint describes a sustained campaign of abuse during Updike’s fall 2023 pledging. According to the suit, he was speared with a fishhook, burned with lit cigarettes, pierced in the hip with a staple gun, beaten, whipped, and forced to consume dangerous quantities of alcohol and illegal drugs including cocaine.² The suit further alleges that chapter members threatened to sexually assault Updike’s girlfriend as a form of coercion, and that on the day he died, members gave him cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms at the fraternity house.³

UT Austin had already placed the Alpha Nu chapter on disciplinary probation in 2022 for alcohol and hazing violations, and sanctioned it again with a deferred suspension for hazing the fall 2024 pledge class.⁴ In May 2025, Sigma Chi International closed the UT chapter and expelled several members, and the university separately issued a cease-and-desist notice ordering the chapter to stop all organizational activities.³

Chapters Shut Down or Stripped of Recognition

Indiana University

Indiana University ordered the Lambda chapter of Sigma Chi to cease all operations for three years after a hazing investigation. The university issued a cease-and-desist order in November 2024, but the investigation found that hazing within the chapter was “systemic, dangerous and egregious,” that members continued hazing even after the cease-and-desist was in place, and that members took active steps to conceal the conduct from investigators.⁵⁶ The chapter cannot return until fall 2028 at the earliest and does not plan to reopen its Bloomington house until 2029. By the time the ban lifts, every current undergraduate member will have graduated. Indiana University had originally sought a five-year suspension.

Washington State University

Washington State University stripped the Sigma Chi chapter of recognition in early 2026 after an investigation that ran from October 2025 through January 2026. The university found that in August 2025 a new member was forced to carry an object at all times, conduct it determined could “create a fear of repercussions,” and that the fraternity co-hosted a party where a minor consumed alcohol with no ID checks.⁷

The chapter lost recognition for two semesters, a penalty that can be shortened to roughly five and a half months if required sanctions, including hazing training, a membership review, and a meeting with WSU’s Center for Community Standards, are completed by April 17, 2026. After reinstatement, the chapter must keep an alcohol-free house for one year.⁸ The chapter had already been in trouble. It was sanctioned in fall 2023 for furnishing alcohol to minors, and in January 2025 members chained the fraternity house’s front doors shut during a party, blocking safe exit in an emergency. The university treated that as reckless endangerment, imposing social probation and mandatory fire code training with the Pullman Fire Department.⁹

Penn State

Sigma Chi at Penn State was suspended through August 2024 for “failure to comply with a directive or condition and other University policy violations,” and then chose not to return to recognition. The chapter now operates independently from the university.¹⁰ A 2026 campus hazing transparency report documented evidence of continued hazing at the unrecognized chapter, including individuals with tape and plastic covering their faces, individuals being painted with rollers, people placed face-down with their faces in food or vomit, and one person placed in a wire dog kennel with unknown substances poured over them.¹¹ Because the chapter is unrecognized, the university did not impose organizational sanctions, though it held one individual student accountable through its conduct process.

Other Recent Investigations and Sanctions

University of Georgia

In August 2025, UGA received an email complaint alleging “gross student misconduct and abuse” involving Sigma Chi, specifically that incoming freshmen were punched and forced to drink large amounts of alcohol between August 9 and 10, 2025. The university paused all new member activity for the chapter, and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department opened a parallel criminal investigation because the fraternity property is off-campus.¹² Sigma Chi’s international headquarters said it was collaborating on an internal investigation, with Executive Director Michael Church saying, “We will hold any members accountable who are found to be in violation of our policies or principles.”¹³

University of Alabama

A fall 2023 investigation at Alabama found that Sigma Chi had subjected new members to personal servitude, forced them to stay at the chapter house for long periods, required them to buy tobacco and alcohol, made them consume unknown food and non-food items, and intimidated them with threats of retaliation. The chapter was placed on disciplinary probation through December 2024 with required hazing prevention education, a prevention speaker for the full Interfraternity Council community, creation of an Alumni Advisory Board, and a membership review.¹⁴

San Diego State University

SDSU found in June 2025 that the Delta Xi chapter had engaged in hazing during spring 2025, including the use of “dare cards” and forced calisthenics imposed on new members. The chapter was also cited for risk management failures during its “Derby Days” philanthropy events in both 2024 and 2025, and was placed on probation with stipulations through October 2025.¹⁵ It was not the chapter’s first sanction; it had already been on probation with stipulations through March 2024.¹⁶

University of Houston

In January 2015, Sigma Chi International received reports of “inappropriate pledging activities” at the Epsilon Xi chapter at the University of Houston and suspended it indefinitely.¹⁷ The University of Houston Police Department opened a criminal hazing investigation, and five students accused of carrying out the hazing were suspended by the university. UHPD referred its findings to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office; available reporting does not say whether criminal charges were ultimately filed.¹⁸

UNC Chapel Hill

In November 2006, UNC’s Sigma Chi chapter pleaded guilty to six hazing violations and was found guilty of one more after an anonymous email from a pledge’s parent triggered an investigation. The charges included forced consumption of alcohol, verbal harassment, and assigning illegal tasks. The Carolina Greek Judicial Board suspended the chapter until 2009.¹⁹

What the National Fraternity Does About Hazing

Sigma Chi’s primary anti-hazing program is the Jordan Initiative, which the fraternity describes as both a prevention tool and a rehabilitation framework for chapters where hazing has occurred.²⁰ At the chapter level, the Magister, the officer in charge of new member education, is tasked with enforcing the fraternity’s “prohibition of hazing or any activities that are embarrassing, trivial, deceptive, demeaning or contradictory to academic responsibilities.”²¹ The organization maintains a code of conduct, a pledge education policy, a Good Samaritan policy encouraging members to seek help during medical emergencies, and resources tied to the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act.²²

The gap between those policies and chapter behavior is what the incidents keep showing. At Indiana, hazing continued after a cease-and-desist. At Penn State, severe hazing persisted after the chapter left university oversight entirely. At UT Austin, the chapter was already on probation for hazing when the conduct described in the Updike lawsuit allegedly took place. The national office has reacted to major incidents by suspending or closing chapters and expelling members. Families of victims say those responses treat the symptoms after the harm is done.

The Legal Framework for Hazing

Hazing is governed mostly by state law, and the landscape is uneven. At least 44 states and the District of Columbia have anti-hazing statutes; Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming have none. Most states treat hazing as a misdemeanor, but at least 15 elevate it to a felony when the conduct causes serious bodily harm or death, and many statutes say a victim’s consent is not a defense.²³

Several states have strengthened their laws after fraternity deaths. Louisiana’s Max Gruver Act, passed in 2018 after the death of an LSU student at a Phi Delta Theta event, set a statewide definition of hazing, mandated reporting, and made hazing causing serious harm or death a felony punishable by up to five years.²⁴ Kentucky’s Lofton’s Law, enacted in 2023, makes fatal hazing a Class D felony. Washington’s Sam Martinez Stop Hazing Law, also from 2023, created a felony category for hazing causing substantial bodily harm.²³ Florida classifies hazing resulting in permanent injury, serious bodily injury, or death as a third-degree felony, and its Andrew’s Law gives limited immunity to witnesses who call 911 and stay on the scene during a hazing emergency.²⁵

At the federal level, the Stop Campus Hazing Act was signed into law on December 23, 2024. It amends the Clery Act and requires every college and university receiving federal student aid to collect hazing statistics, publish a Campus Hazing Transparency Report updated at least twice a year, and run research-informed prevention programs. The transparency reports must name any student organization found in violation, describe the conduct, list sanctions, and give the dates of the incident, investigation, and finding. The first transparency reports were due by December 23, 2025, and the first annual hazing statistics must appear in campus security reports by October 2026. Enforcement runs through the existing Clery framework, which lets the U.S. Department of Education fine schools that do not comply.²⁶

1
HankNuwer.com. Hazing Destroying Young Lives
2
Campus Safety Magazine. UT Austin Sigma Chi Fraternity Sued Over Pledge’s Suicide
3
Fox 7 Austin. Texas Fraternity Wrongful Death Lawsuit: Parents Allege Hazing Led to Son’s Death
4
The Daily Texan. Parents File Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against University, Fraternity
5
Fox 59. Indiana University Fraternity Ordered to Shutter Operations for 3 Years Following Hazing Investigation
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WDRB. Indiana University Fraternity Suspended for 3 Years Following Hazing Investigation
7
Pullman Radio. WSU Fraternity Loses Recognition for One Year for Hazing and Alcohol Violations
8
NBC Right Now. Washington State University Sanctions Sigma Chi Fraternity for Hazing
9
Daily Fly. WSU Fraternity Shut Down for 5 Years Over Hazing, Another Sanctioned After Chaining Doors Shut During Party
10
Penn State University. Suspended and Unrecognized Organizations
11
Penn State University. Campus Hazing Transparency Report
12
ABC News. University of Georgia Sigma Chi Fraternity Alleged Hazing
13
The Red and Black. Sigma Chi’s Headquarters Join UGA in Hazing Investigation
14
University of Alabama. Sigma Chi Hazing Transparency Report, Fall 2023
15
San Diego State University. Sigma Chi Decision Letter
16
San Diego State University. Fraternity and Sorority Life Judicial Reports
17
Sigma Chi International Fraternity. Statement on Chapter at University of Houston
18
Houston Public Media. Sigma Chi Fraternity Suspended for Hazing at UH
19
UNC General Alumni Association. Sigma Chi Found Guilty of Hazing, Tries to Suppress the News
20
Sigma Chi International Fraternity. Jordan Initiative Aims to Prevent and End Hazing
21
Sigma Chi International Fraternity. Leadership Resources
22
Sigma Chi International Fraternity. Policies
23
Stateline. It’s Hazing Season on College Campuses. State Safeguards Are Uneven
24
Max Gruver Foundation. Max Gruver Foundation
25
Florida Legislature. Florida Statute 1006.63
26
Clery Center. SCHA: What You Need to Know