Whenever viral videos of college kids doing idiotic things come across our social media feeds, rarely do we contemplate the consequences of what could have happened off-screen.
Frat bro Swanton bombs himself through a table? Hilarious, sure, but what about the broken ankle he now has and the bills he has to pay?
Hilarious video of someone drunken fool having dicks drawn on his face? What if that kid had an interview the next morning? You get my point: everyone usually watches the video, chuckles for 3.5 seconds, then moves on with their lives.
However, this video is different. This video caused everyone who watched it to immediately notice the potential consequences of this fraternity’s actions because if they weren’t so lucky, they would have literally killed someone.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BksVTN6hNNY/?taken-by=fouryearparty
Following the instant virality of this video, the University of Wisconsin-Madison has suspended the responsible fraternity. The university announced the suspension on Thursday, July 5.
via The Star Tribune:
The national Kappa Sigma fraternity has terminated its University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter’s charter after people pushed a television off the chapter’s balcony and nearly hit a woman. Police believe the incident took place sometime this past weekend.
Instagram videos show people pushing a cathode-ray television set off Kappa Sigma’s Madison fraternity house’s balcony while a crowd looks on from the ground. The television plunges to earth and barely misses a woman walking beneath it. The crowd cheers and begins stomping on the wrecked TV.
UW-Madison officials announced Thursday that the national fraternity had terminated the Madison chapter’s charter on Tuesday. A message left at the fraternity’s national headquarters Thursday wasn’t immediately returned. University officials also said Thursday that they have suspended the fraternity pending an investigation.
This is the latest major Greek life suspension, expulsion, or overhaul in the last year, as schools such as Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Texas State, Florida State, Ball State, Louisiana State and Penn State have all suspended fraternities in the wake of hazing and alcohol deaths.
These reports come amidst similar allegations that have been made against fraternities nationwide, including Sigma Alpha Epsilon at East Carolina University, who was shut down for hazing and the Lamda Chi Alpha chapter at the University of Arkansas which has been accused of taking sexually explicit photographs of women without their permission.
In response to incidents like these, fraternities such Phi Kappa Psi have made numerous changes to their code of conduct in an effort to address the issues that have arisen.
