Wednesday, October 10, 2001

California university investigates hazing incident
By Greg Smith
Daily Forty-Niner

LONG BEACH, Calif. (U-WIRE) — Last year Gilbert Lopez, a 21-year-old junior business major, decided to rush for a fraternity at California State University-Long Beach. Two friends from high school were members of Delta Sigma Chi, a co-ed Hispanic fraternity, and Lopez said he felt the fraternity suited him best. But while Lopez was looking for brotherhood and friendship, he found only pain and humiliation.

Lopez said Delta Sigma Chi member Emiliano Torres, a senior theater major, invited him to his off-campus apartment one night last April. While he was there, Lopez said, he was beaten nearly 100 times with a 3-foot long, 6-inch thick wooden paddle over his entire body. He said Torres performed a majority of the beating, while two other fraternity members sat quietly and played video games.

“He would make me recite the Greek alphabet and for every letter he would hit me on one side and then he would switch to the other side,” Lopez said.

Over a two-hour period Lopez was beaten, verbally berated and forced to eat food off the floor, he said. Torres then forced him to go on a scavenger hunt. Every time he failed to bring back the proper item in the designated time he was paddled more, he said.

“[Torres] just wanted to inflict pain with the paddle,” Lopez said.

While on the scavenger hunt Lopez crashed his car; the pain in his battered arms was so great he couldn’t turn the steering wheel, and he hit another car while trying to make a left turn, he said.

Hazing usually is justified by members of fraternities and sororities as a means of promoting brotherhood and sisterhood among pledges, as they build bonds while supporting each other through the hazing.

Of the three students who pledged Delta Sigma Chi that semester, Lopez was the only male. He also was the only pledge present on the night of the hazing incident.

He said he didn’t understand what Torres was trying to accomplish with the excessive hazing.

“What makes me want to be friends with you after you do something like that?” Lopez asked.

After that night, Lopez said, he reported the incident to University Police and university administration, but nothing happened. He said the police report was filed as assault with a deadly weapon, a charge punishable by dismissal from the university.

“[The fraternity members] got really mad when I told the University Police and my parents. They wanted to keep it among themselves,” Lopez said.

Frustrated by the lack of action by police and University administrators, Lopez wrote a letter appearing in the Long Beach Union. Nearly all copies of the Union containing the letter were stolen from their racks just days after distribution. Soon after his letter was published school administrators began to take action, Lopez said.

The Judiciary Review currently is investigating the incident, Lopez said, but Director of Judicial Affairs Steve Katz said he is not allowed to discuss any cases currently under investigation.

In a meeting with Dean of Students Mike Hostetler, Lopez was told a ruling should be reached by the end of October.

Torres declined to comment.

Delta Sigma Chi President Louie Rodiles emphasized the incident was in no way condoned by the fraternity.

“On behalf of the fraternity, we feel very sorry for the horrific event that our brother Gilbert endured. It was not sanctioned by the fraternity, and all proper measures have been taken so that this does not happen again,” Rodiles said.

ASI Vice President and former Delta Sigma Chi President Danny Vivian said the beating was an isolated incident, and the fraternity imposed a lifetime suspension on Torres.

“We took all necessary precautionary steps,” Vivian said.

The fraternity also has held anti-hazing workshops, Vivian said.

However, the Inter-Fraternity and Panhellenic councils, which regulate and administer punishments to nationally recognized fraternities and sororities, do not recognize Delta Sigma Chi. While member fraternities and sororities are subject to the organizations’ strict laws regarding hazing, Delta Sigma Chi is not.

According to its Web site, Delta Sigma Chi was formed in 1989 by CSULB Latino students who felt a need for a Hispanic-based fraternity on campus. Delta Sigma Chi now has five chapters in Southern California.