The State
University of South Carolina
Omega Psi Phi has been kicked off the University of South Carolina campus after
nine people affiliated with the fraternity were charged in an attack
on members of another fraternity.
Six of the nine people charged by the university’s police have been removed from university student housing, said USC spokesman Russ McKinney.
According to warrants, the nine Omega
Psi Phi affiliates broke into the Alpha Phi Alpha residence
hall Oct. 22, taunted and attacked residents, and
caused about $2,300 damage. One resident was sent to the hospital for treatment.
University officials said the incident will not interfere with Omega Psi Phi’s plan to build a $2 million fraternity house in USC’s new Greek village.
Efforts to reach the nine arrested
were unsuccessful. USC officials said all but one had appeared in court, and
the ninth was expected to do so
Monday. None has been jailed pending a trial on the charges.
McKinney said the victims of the attacks sought the investigation; the charges were filed in consultation with state prosecutors.
The university’s administration
is reviewing the status of Omega Psi Phi. “They will have to convince USC
they have taken steps to ensure it won’t
happen again,” McKinney said.
That typically means reaching out
to the national parent organization and to local alumni of the group to craft
a plan to purge the membership,
recruit new members, and ensure the local chapter understands its obligations
to the university.
The charges in the Oct. 22 incident involved eight students and one USC graduate, said Dennis Pruitt, vice president for student affairs.
“Rivalries among college groups
can be spirited, but when the actions of individuals do harm to other students,
they have crossed the line of
acceptable behavior and the university community will not tolerate it,”
he said.
McKinney said he was not aware of a previous comparable incident between to fraternities at USC.
Pruitt said the Omega fraternity
had complied with everything the university had asked it to do to regain status,
including suspending all
campus activities and suspending six students from its membership.
“My impression is this group
will regain their active status, albeit with new members and conditions or probational
terms for some period of time,”
Pruitt said.
The Omega chapter has had no other suspensions in the period that the Greek office keeps active records, since the 2000 school year. No other Greek organizations are under suspension.
Pruitt said a Greek organization
can get suspended over a bad act by an individual, or over a series or pattern
of bad acts. Basically, he said,
the organizations are expected to observe the law, the policies of the university,
and their own charters.
Tony Grant, a Columbia financier and Omega alumnus who arranged financing for the Omega house, said he expects construction on the new house in Greek Village to proceed.
“We do not condone this sort of actions,” he said. “Our national president ordered the chapter’s suspension.”
McKinney said the Oct. 22 incident followed an off-campus altercation the previous night between members of the two fraternities.
Dustin T. Thomas, 25, a graduate
of USC and former Omega member, is charged with malicious injury to personal
property, first-degree burglary and
second-degree lynching. Warrants identified him as the organizer.
The legal definition of lynching under South Carolina law is the act of two or more persons attacking another person, causing death or injury.
Also charged were:
• Jason Anderson, 25, first-degree burglary and malicious injury to personal property
• Shanndon Bolden, 20, first-degree burglary and second-degree lynching
• Michael Ryan Duncan, 20, first-degree burglary and second degree burglary
• Charles Gibson, 20, malicious injury to personal property, second-degree lynching and first-degree burglary
• James Mack, 20, second-degree burglary
• Darien Porter, 21, second-degree burglary
• Jarrell Williams, 20, first-degree burglary and second-degree lynching
• Cedric Wood, 20, second-degree lynching, first-degree burglary, and malicious injury to property
The police incident report listed
the damageat about $1,000 to the building and $1,300 to a flat-screen television.
