The Mississippi State University Police Department and the Dean of Students Office are investigating Kappa Sigma Fraternity for alleged alcohol violations following a weekend incident.
Dean of students Thomas Bourgeois said the investigation could be finished by the end of the week.
“We’ve done a substantial amount of legwork, but we’re still in investigative mode,” he said. “Once we determine what or if any violations occurred, there could be sanctions for the fraternity and individual members.”
Friday night, MSU Police officers responded to multiple incidents at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house. At 7:17 p.m., a student reported having trouble breathing at the fraternity house and was transported to Oktibbeha County Hospital. At 9:53 p.m., MSU Police officers responded to reports of an unresponsive student who was later transported to the hospital.
MSU Police Department officials, Bourgeois and Vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler declined to elaborate on the specifics of the investigation. Kibler said proper MSU authorities are interviewing fraternity members in order to piece together the events of the night.
“We’re still gathering facts. There is evidence that came to our knowledge that the fraternity could be in violation of how parties are conducted,” he said. “[Bourgeois] has met with a few folks, but we don’t want to speculate about what we will find.”
Kibler said fraternities are responsible for following proper conduct codes whenever they hold events with alcohol at their houses.
“We have a variety of expectations for fraternities when they hold these events,” he said. “They need to have control of their alcohol and assure that everyone is of age. They cannot serve to of-age people excessively. We expect proper risk management.”
Mitchell Wilson, executive director of the Kappa Sigma national fraternity office, said he was alerted to the investigation Monday.
“We are in the process of investigating this as well,” he said. “We’re working with the university and asking our officials to investigate the reports. [I] can’t really say it’s one particular thing we’re looking at; we’re trying to figure out what the facts are and what occurred.”
The Reflector will provide updates on the fraternity investigation as they are released.