Richmond Times-Dispatch | February 25, 2023 | Eric Kolenich

On February 27, 2023, Virginia Commonwealth University will install a plaque in its student center recognizing Adam Oakes and marking the two-year anniversary of his death in a fraternity hazing incident.

Since Oakes’ death, VCU has made numerous changes to fraternity and sorority life, limiting when alcohol can be consumed and controlling how it is purchased.

And a new state law named for Oakes requires universities to train student members on the dangers of hazing and to publish student group violations.

But VCU declined recommendations to overhaul Greek life. The university chose not to ban alcohol at all fraternity events, to eliminate the “big brother night” that experts call dangerous, or to attempt to erase the power dynamic between senior members and new members.

It’s unclear why VCU chose to make some changes and not others. A spokesperson from the university did not directly address the question.

The university does not shoulder all the blame, said two former members of Oakes’ fraternity. Fraternity members often behave recklessly, and the fraternity headquarters provided little leadership, they said. Those groups are culpable, too.

Universities do not have absolute authority over fraternities and sororities, which often consider their traditions hallowed. VCU does not own the roughly 35 organizations, which have more than 600 student members, or their off-campus houses.

Still, VCU did not do enough to keep student members safe, said one recent graduate who worked on fraternity reform at the school.

Making ‘big-little night’ less treacherous

Perhaps the most significant change VCU implemented was to ban alcohol at any fraternity or sorority event that new members attend. A student is considered a new member for roughly one month and is most likely to be hazed during this period.

Experts have identified “big-little night” as one of the most dangerous nights in the fraternity calendar. It’s the night when a new member is introduced to his big brother or her big sister.

The night Oakes died, he attended a big-little party for his fraternity, Delta Chi. The fraternity assigned Andrew White as his big brother. Chapter tradition dictated they share a “family drink” – in this case, Jack Daniel’s whiskey splashed with Coca-Cola. White told Oakes it was tradition that Oakes consume the entire 1-liter bottle.

Another change was to restrict how student groups purchase alcohol. No longer can a student visit a grocery or liquor store to stock up. Now, groups must buy alcohol from approved third-party vendors so the university can track purchases.

VCU also added a rule that students cannot join fraternities and sororities until after they have been on campus for a semester, when they are slightly older and more familiar with their community. Students now must have a minimum 2.7 grade-point average to join.

After Oakes’ death, VCU contracted a firm, Dyad Strategies, to investigate the university’s Greek culture. The investigation determined VCU’s office of Fraternity and Sorority Life suffered from frequent turnover, struggled to investigate claims of hazing consistently and did not respond to student emails for days.

In response, VCU hired three new employees, including a director of Fraternity and Sorority Life and a hazing prevention coordinator. It contracted a new software provider called Maxient, which tracks student conduct at colleges.

VCU moved the investigation of violations to its Student Conduct and Academic Integrity office, so that employees tasked with connecting to student organizations were no longer the same ones punishing them. VCU says it now has better communication and accountability between employees and student leaders.

In 2021, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed Adam’s Law, which requires students in Greek organizations throughout the state to undergo hazing prevention training. It also requires universities to publish on their websites the violations of its student organizations.

Since the fall of 2021, VCU has cited 24 organizations for misconduct, including hazing, underage drinking and damaging neighborhood property. Nearly every violation involved alcohol.

Five groups were found responsible for hazing, including giving new members alcohol and making them do pushups and wear blindfolds. Punishments ranged from disallowing new members to multiyear suspensions.

The Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, which gave new members alcohol and instructed them to run and wear blindfolds, was suspended four years. Fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, which was found responsible for similar violations, received a two-year suspension.

The Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity, whose violations did not include hazing, hosted an event with underage drinking where a partygoer urinated on a neighbor’s door. The fraternity received the harshest suspension of all – eight years.

At VCU, misconduct by student organizations has gone up.

“While reports of hazing or concerning organizational behavior have increased, reporting is a goal of increased awareness,” said VCU spokesperson Michael Porter. “More reporting is viewed as a sign that training surrounding reporting has been effective.”

Before Oakes’ death, VCU did not keep a comprehensive record of fraternity violations, making it difficult to quantify the increase in bad behavior.

‘A Band-Aid on a cut that requires stitches’

Matt Wixted, a 2021 VCU graduate who was chapter president of Theta Delta Chi, said these changes were not enough. Wixted served on a workgroup in 2021 that proposed fixes to Greek life.

“Adding the required training is like putting a Band-Aid on a cut that requires stitches,” Wixted said.

VCU conducted its own investigation and recommended banning alcohol from all fraternity and sorority events. Greek life had become too much about the parties and not enough about student development, the report stated. And most members are younger than 21.

But VCU convened five workgroups of employees, students and others to suggest improvements, and one workgroup determined that dangerous activity was not happening at registered events such as formals and date nights.

“High-risk behavior occurred in informal settings,” the workgroup said. In other words, students were more likely to drink dangerously at unregistered parties.

Too often, Wixted said, senior members of fraternities are irresponsible and do not take care of younger members’ inexperience with alcohol.

Another workgroup suggestion was to eliminate the big-little night altogether. The workgroup said “these events create opportunities for high-risk behavior and involve a power dynamic when they occur during the pledging process.”

A separate workgroup suggested eliminating the words that reinforce those power dynamics between old and new members, such as “pledge,” “colonies” and “rush.” Wixted’s fraternity removed “pledge” from its lexicon and replaced it with “new member.”

But VCU did not take either suggestion.

‘There’s a lot of blame to go around’

Jason Mulgrew, who was chapter president of Delta Chi, said the blame goes beyond VCU.

Last year, Mulgrew pleaded no contest to a charge of misdemeanor hazing. He received no jail time but is required to speak at 10 hazing prevention seminars.

Mulgrew acknowledged he is partly responsible for Oakes’ death. But other members of the fraternity, the university and the fraternity headquarters are at fault, too, he said.

“A 19-year-old not waking up, the next morning dead, there’s a lot of blame to go around,” he said in an interview. “A lot.”

The Oakes family settled with VCU for nearly $1 million. It has sued the fraternity, 12 members of the local chapter and its adviser for $28 million.

After he became chapter president, Mulgrew received no guidance on how to lead a fraternity, he said. He communicated regularly with a university employee, but the conversation usually centered around filling out paperwork and completing tasks.

The Delta Chi headquarters was unprepared for handling an emergency, he said. The morning Oakes was found dead, Mulgrew called the leadership of the fraternity, which is headquartered in Indianapolis.

The employee on the other end of the phone told Mulgrew to take the chapter out of the public eye – don’t wear the fraternity’s letters, take down the letters anywhere they’re visible and delete the chapter’s social media accounts.

“Delta Chi does not exist at VCU right now,” said the staffer, whom Mulgrew did not identify. The executive director of Delta Chi fraternity did not respond to a request for comment.

Student members, who are almost all adults, need to take responsibility and break the cycle of traditions, Mulgrew said. Instead of older members telling new members to finish a bottle of alcohol, maybe new members should choose the activity.

Andrew White, who was Oakes’ big brother, said the problem is bigger than universities and fraternities. Teenage and young-adult males are too reckless, too interested in acting tough and too likely to consume drugs and alcohol.

“We think we’re invincible,” White said in an interview. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor hazing and was sentenced to community service and speaking at five hazing prevention events.

Susan Lipkins, a psychologist and author of a book about hazing, said ending hazing will require a wide grassroots movement, similar to Black Lives Matter or #MeToo.

Ultimately, a university’s ability to police fraternities and sororities is limited. VCU does not own the organizations, their houses are off campus, and VCU does not have the ability to disband them.

VCU can expel them from campus, but that does not stop the organizations from going rogue and operating away from the university. That’s why Dyad Strategies suggested VCU take either an “all in” or “all out” approach to enforcement.

According to Dyad’s report, VCU was in the awkward position of being “half in” – invested enough to be aware of the risks fraternities pose but not invested enough to fully manage those risks.

For years, VCU tried to rein in Delta Chi. The university issued the fraternity a four-year suspension in 2018, but Delta Chi hired a lawyer to fight back. VCU relented and reduced the suspension to one year.

Since Oakes’ death, VCU has moved in the direction of “all in.”

Wixted, the former chapter president of Theta Delta Chi, said that while fraternities at VCU are beginning to be held accountable for their actions, fewer students have shown interest in joining.

The number of VCU students in fraternities and sororities has dropped from about 1,200 in 2021 to more than 600 last month. That number likely will grow this semester as new students are allowed to join.

“If VCU wants to keep Greek life afloat, they need to start working on how to change the stigma around Greek life and show that we are a non-hazing school that focuses on the development of young men and women,” Wixted said.

Oakes family focuses on reform

The Oakes family continues to focus on education and reform. It started a nonprofit called the Love Like Adam Foundation determined to prevent another hazing death.

Adam’s father, Eric Oakes, and his cousin, Courtney White, have traveled across Virginia giving presentations to college students. Courtney White, a doctoral student at Marymount University in Arlington, is writing a dissertation on hazing prevention.

At a recent hazing prevention seminar, White shared her cousin’s story and explained why hazing happens – often, older members believe that because they were hazed, the new members should be hazed, too. Plus, hazing weeds out the weak, and it bonds together the members who persevere.

She explained the signs of alcohol intoxication – vomiting, slow breathing, blue skin and inability to wake up. And she encouraged the students not to be bystanders.

“Don’t let fear stop you from saving someone’s life,” she said.

Alongside Courtney White were Mulgrew and Andrew White, who attended as part of their plea agreements, answered questions from students and spoke candidly about their roles in a hazing death.

After the event, a group of female students approached Courtney White. The students had never talked about hazing in such a meaningful and personal way, they said.

Today, the Oakes family will return to the VCU campus for the unveiling of Adam’s memorial. VCU has designated Feb. 27 as an annual day for preventing hazing and remembering Adam Oakes.