Fraternity Silence Questioned After Ole Miss Deaths, Penn State Case

“If you’re trying to build an organization that functions essentially like a criminal enterprise, you need a code of omertà,” Andrew Lohse said.

Lohse was referring to fraternities. Now 36, he survived fraternity hazing and later wrote Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy about his experience.

While attending Dartmouth, Lohse became a whistleblower, describing the disturbing initiation rituals he said he experienced as a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

The recent deaths of two University of Mississippi students—one of whom belonged to a fraternity—along with allegations of a cocaine distribution operation near Penn State, brought Lohse back to his own days inside fraternity life.

“For the last 10 years, whenever someone dies in a fraternity, that’s when my phone starts ringing,” Lohse told News Media.

Ryan Strang, one of the Ole Miss students found dead this week, was a member of Phi Delta Theta. He was discovered at an off-campus residence. Investigators found packages of kratom—a commercially available substance sometimes labeled “gas station heroin”—at both locations, though authorities had not determined whether the drug played a role in either death.

Phi Delta Theta has not been accused of wrongdoing.

“The loss of two young lives is a profound tragedy,” the fraternity said in a statement. “Phi Delta Theta joins the University of Mississippi and the broader Ole Miss community in mourning Robert and Aidan Hamilton and extending our deepest sympathies to their families, friends, chapter brothers, classmates and everyone who knew and loved them.”

“These losses reinforce the importance of a collective commitment to health, safety and well-being on college campuses today. We encourage the Phi Delta Theta community to keep the Strang family, the Mississippi Alpha Chapter and all those affected by these tragic losses in their thoughts.”

Lohse said the drug landscape facing today’s college students is far more dangerous than the one he knew.

“There was no kratom, no tranq, no smoking bath salts, no fentanyl,” he said. “Back then, cocaine was more or less just cocaine. It wasn’t the case that every time someone used it, they could die.”

In Pennsylvania, prosecutors allege in court filings that pledges were pressured into cutting and packaging cocaine as part of an organized drug operation allegedly run by former Sigma Chi member Agostino Abbatiello.

“When I read that pledges were allegedly working in the background, I thought it was astonishing—in a terrible way—but also extraordinarily brazen,” Lohse said.

Fraternity hazing also came under scrutiny in Madison, Wisconsin, where police said they found about 30 partially clothed young men crammed into a sweltering basement. The men were reportedly covered in food, condiments and other liquids, while several pledges appeared to have suffered physical assaults.

Madison police said officers responded to the Alpha Epsilon Pi house Wednesday night and launched an investigation into the alleged hazing. Two people were arrested.

“AEPi Headquarters takes the allegations involving our Pi Chapter in Madison, Wisconsin, extremely seriously,” Jonathan Pierce, the fraternity’s chief communications officer, said in a statement. “We will cooperate fully with the authorities investigating this matter.”

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“Hazing is a betrayal of everything our fraternity stands for. There is no place for it in AEPi,” he added. “No exceptions. No excuses. We educate our members about their responsibility to ‘Be Your Brothers’ Keeper.’ This is not an optional value.”

‘Sad moment’

“It’s a sad moment, for society, civilization,” Lohse said about some of the recent headlines involving fraternity behavior. “These organizations should be forces of good. Young men need it more than ever. Young men are more adrift than ever, there’s no moral leadership.”

“There’s a vacuum in the center of higher education and American society that used to be filled by God, by religion, by the church,” he said, adding that it’s “totally vacant now.”

During his time as a brother at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, he said he was forced to “swim in a kiddie pool full of vomit while being urinated on,” and “chug” vinegar or milk to the point that he and his fellow pledge brothers “would vomit” in a room covered with tarps.

He also said he was forced into a small basement crawl space for a period of time. This was all in addition to constant coerced binge drinking, he said.

“We’re talking like 10, 15 plus drinks,” he said.

He said the unwritten “code of silence” or “omertà” contributes to these repeated hazing or drug-related issues within frats.

“The original 19th-century concept of the American fraternity is not what exists today,” Lohse said.

“Essentially, you can look at a modern fraternity like a criminal organization. In most states, the unique behavioral attributes of a fraternity cross into criminal statutes—whether misdemeanor hazing or serious felony drug trafficking. You need a code of silence to protect that.”

He went on to say, “the organization forces the individual to compromise their own identity for the collective, taking something from its members to ensure the system perpetuates itself over time.”

Following the hazing incidents during Lohse’s time as a student, SAE was suspended from Dartmouth for the last 10 years and re-recognized in August, The Darmouth student-run paper reported.

When asked what advice he would offer students considering Greek life at major universities, Lohse stopped short of telling students flatly to avoid fraternities. Instead, Lohse urges young men to calculate the “opportunity cost” before pledging.

“Consider that the upside benefit, while maybe not zero, pales in comparison to the downside risk,” Lohse said, advising incoming students to reflect on what they truly want out of higher education.

“Think about what you actually want out of college. Who do you really want to be around, and who is actually going to be there to help you? I think you’ll find that a fraternity isn’t going to provide that.”

Judson Horras, president and CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, told News Media that “student safety is our members’ highest priority. The NIC has adopted enhanced health and safety guidelines and co-led advocacy to pass tougher anti-hazing laws in more than a dozen states, as well as the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act.”

Regarding the Ole Miss students’ deaths, Horras said: “We are heartbroken by the loss of two University of Mississippi students, one of whom was a fraternity member. Our sympathies are with both families and the Ole Miss community. We will continue working with universities and families to keep every student safe.”

News Media has reached out to Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta and Abbatiello’s attorney for comment.