Frat House of Horrors

A student flagged down a University of Arizona Police Department officer on Feb. 3 inside the Student Union Memorial Center to report his experiences with hazing while rushing the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.

Alpha Sigma Phi was officially kicked off campus last semester and is no longer associated with UA. 

The student told the officer that earlier that week, he received a call asking if he would accept a bid from the fraternity. He accepted and was instructed to arrive at the fraternity at exactly 8 p.m.

According to the student, pledges who arrived slightly late were met with verbal harassment and made to take long drinks of hard liquor. 

The fraternity members then made all the pledges shotgun beer while they threw full beer cans at them. Multiple pledges were forced to clean their own vomit. 

The student came back the next day. When he refused to follow an order, one frat member called him a homophobic slur and threatened to fight him. 

As he was walking away, another member asked him to come back. The student told him he was no longer interested in joining the fraternity.

The officer told the student that because Alpha Sigma Phi is no longer associated with UA, any criminal complaints would have to be made with the Tucson Police Department. The student said he would think about it.

An FYI notice was sent to the Dean of Students in reference to the fraternity and the actions of its members, who are current UA students.

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Good Knife, and Good Luck

An interaction between two Yavapai Residence Hall residents turned dangerous enough to warrant police intervention when one student pulled a knife on another.

Around 8 p.m. on Feb. 8,  a UAPD officer responded to reports of threats made against a male student.  

According to the student, two weeks earlier he was hanging out in the Yavapai basement with the goal of being more social this semester. 

He made a comment to another male student about them having similar sunglasses. The other student gave him a look of contempt and stated, “I’m going to get a knife.”

When he returned, he looked the reporting student in the eye and brandished a knife, flipping open the blade. He put the knife away, but stayed close to the student. 

The student eventually told his friends, who encouraged him to report the incident to his RA. The student had no intent to prosecute. 

The officer met with the other student in the Yavapai basement, after listening to the reporting student’s account.

He admitted to the officer that he had a knife in his bag. The knife did not match the description of the knife given by the student. 

He told the officer that he had never showed it to anyone in a threatening manner and that his RA had said the knife was okay to have. The RA denied giving him permission.

The officer referred the student with the knife to the Dean of Students.

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