Ohio State’s chapter of FarmHouse International Fraternity, Alpha Tau Zeta, is a fraternity committed to shaping men into intellectual, moral, spiritual and physical leaders.

A community of young individuals with philanthropic interests, FarmHouse actively supports organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, according to its website.

And just like 30 other Greek life organizations, it is also a fraternity that has faced hazing violations. 

In September 2022, the Student Conduct office within Ohio State’s Office of Student Life received an anonymous report alleging hazing — including activities such as a blood oath, verbal abuse, pornography and forced memorization of songs about rape — had taken place on ATZ’s property, specifically inside the fraternity’s house at 153 E. 14th Ave.

“How did you become aware of this violation?” the report language asks.

“It happened to me,” the anonymous reporter wrote.

Of the 31 Greek life organizations that have committed violations from 2017-24, roughly four in 10 have faced revocation — or long-term suspension — according to a Lantern data analysis of violations committed by Greek life organizations and the disciplinary sanctions Ohio State handed out. In other words, these organizations lost their statuses as registered student organizations due to violations of the Code of Student Conduct, according to Student Conduct’s website.

Not all Greek life organizations at the university fall under Sorority and Fraternity Life’s jurisdiction, but all student organizations are subject to the Code and Office of Student Conduct, said Hunter Hartwig, associate director of council leadership in Sorority and Fraternity Life, who also advises Ohio State’s Interfraternity Council.

The way the Office of Student Conduct presents sanctions — a form of penalty or reprimand — for conduct violations operates on a “case-by-case” basis, said Kelly Smith, director of Student Conduct.

“The facts are always unique, and the students are always unique, and we just have to make sure that we’re doing right on a holistic measure,” Smith said.

Hartwig said the office has established numerous educational initiatives to raise awareness among students about hazing. 

“We have implemented mandatory [anti-hazing] training for all students who are joining student organizations,” Hartwig said. “Then, of course, we talk about [anti-hazing] a lot in our social event management training that we do with our students, as well as our council officer retreats that we hold. We do additional anti-hazing education with all of our council officers.” 

Susan Lipkins, a psychologist who specializes in hazing and authored the 2006 book “Preventing Hazing: How Parents, Teachers and Coaches Can Stop the Violence, Harassment and Humiliation,” said educational programs that target students are not going to change a Greek life culture that may revolve around hazing. 

“There are many, many, many signs of hazing, but most of the universities have not educated all those people who are being paid to do that security to crack down on it in a meaningful way,” Lipkins said. “So, if you’re asking me where we should be educating or changing, it’s probably not the people doing it as much as the people who are being paid to prevent it.”

For members of FarmHouse in 2022, it seems as though Sorority and Fraternity Life’s educational hazing-prevention initiatives did not stick.

The September 2022 anonymous report outlined the events of initiation week — known as “Builder of Men” week — at FarmHouse, describing how “new members [were] put in situations where their morals [were] compromised, their individuality diminished, and their limits [were] pushed.”

“[Initiation week] starts with a well meaning volunteering opportunity and other more pleasant things,” the anonymous reporter wrote.

However, the following night, pledges were subjected to rigorous questioning on the history of FarmHouse, general knowledge of Greek life and the names of its active members. 

“During this [pledges] are berated and distracted with pornography, people yelling, loud music, etc. for often several hours,” the anonymous reporter wrote.

The next day of initiations involved vocal performances, with the expectation that new members memorize the tunes taught to them by existing members. 

“The new members [were] ‘taught’ new songs,” the anonymous reporter wrote. “All of these new songs [were] vile — either crass or downright promoting the raping of women (even to the extent of raping members of sororities right next to their location).”

According to the report, the initiation sequence’s final night involved an all-nighter, which new members began by deep-cleaning the fraternity house. They were subsequently introduced to “frat games” accompanied by non-alcoholic beverages.

Ohio State’s Student Conduct reports reveal a consistent trend among Greek life organizations: No group has been permanently banned from campus, though some have faced temporary suspensions. From 2017-24, approximately 44% of Greek life organizations have encountered revocation, yet many eventually restarted their operations, despite serious violations.  

On Sep. 6, 2022, FarmHouse was placed on interim suspension pending a full investigation, during which “all new membership activities must cease during the period of Interim Suspension,” according to a letter sent to members — which is included in the Student Conduct’s report of FarmHouse — by Danny Glassmann, associate vice president for Student Engagement and Support and dean of students.

After an Oct. 7, 2022 administrative decision, FarmHouse sanctions included disciplinary probation until May 7, 2023, marking “a heightened state of warning that does not otherwise control or direct [the] chapter’s functioning.”  

Alongside probation, FarmHouse was assigned BuckeyeLearn Anti-Hazing Training, educational presentations, new member education, Builder of Men Week review and training on how to conduct initiation week. Additionally, the fraternity was required to have the presence of a FarmHouse International staff member at the chapter facility to assess and implement the new member plan and follow-up communication with Student Conduct.

When asked about the September 2022 hazing report, Brady Jacobs Bell — FarmHouse president at the time he was contacted in November 2024 and also a fourth-year in agribusiness — said in an email he was “not an active member” at the time.

Former president of FarmHouse at the time of the report, Austin Borchers, said he was led to believe the anonymous report came from “a disgruntled ex-member who left the chapter on rough terms in the spring semester following recurring violations of [the] chapter’s conduct that he committed,” per prior Lantern reporting.

“We do not stand for the actions that were reported, and that does not represent the chapter and its members as a whole,” Borchers said.

The fraternity was not subject to revocation, and it was not the only Greek life organization to face this exact outcome over the years.

Delta Tau Delta was not subject to revocation following a Sept. 26, 2020, report and subsequent disciplinary documents that detailed a party hosted by the organization. The event, which involved alcohol, was found to have violated social-distancing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Jack Pott, president of Delta Tau Delta and a third-year in information systems, said in an email he was not aware of the specifics of the 2021 disciplinary probation that followed the 2020 hazing report, as it occurred before he joined the fraternity.

“As the current president, I can assure you we are working closely with the university and our national organization to foster a positive and respectful culture,” Pott said.

Omega Gamma was not subject to revocation after a Sept. 9, 2022 report and related disciplinary documents revealed an initiation event where pledges were required to surrender their phones and consume “a tower of provided alcohol” before participating in a subsequent game. 

Kappa Delta Rho was not subject to revocation after a May 5, 2023 report — supported by both disciplinary and police documents — described several serious incidents. These included members throwing “bottles and cans” from a balcony onto a public street, injuring an individual; providing alcohol to new, underage members; and directing members to participate in “embarrassing activities,” including a new member talent show, calisthenics and the consumption of unusual food combinations that could lead to “ill health outcomes.”

Omega Gamma and Kappa Delta Rho did not respond to The Lantern’s requests for comment by the time of publication.

Smith said giving sanctions to student groups rather than individual students is a difficult process. 

She referred to the Greek “Ship of Theseus” paradox, a philosophical thought experiment that debates whether a ship remains the same object even if its components are replaced one by one. If a fraternity gets new members and a new executive board every few years, Smith said its past violations cannot be viewed at face value.

The reasoning behind the university’s relatively low revocation rate may be due to the constant reconstruction of these “ships,” or fraternities, Smith said.

In contrast to the university’s revocation rates, “additional sanctions” are a frequent response to Greek life violations. These sanctions can encompass responses like repeating Collin’s Law training — an anti-hazing training under a recently established state law — group presentations and work with Student Legal Services.

“You’ll see some of the same things we use over and over again, but we could develop something new that’s very specifically a recipe that we cook up just for that group based on their particular needs and circumstances, and it just gets all put under additional sanctions,” Smith said.

Effective Oct. 7, 2021, Collin’s Law — also known as the Ohio Anti-Hazing Act — “makes acts of hazing a second-degree misdemeanor and acts of hazing that include coerced consumption of alcohol or drugs or abuse that result in serious physical harm a felony of the third degree,” according to the Hazing Prevention webpage of Ohio State’s website. 

Collin’s Law also expanded the list of officials who are required to report hazing and requires universities to offer prevention education to students, employees and advisors, according to the webpage.

Unlike disciplinary probation, revocation and additional sanctions, no fraternities have received an all-encompassing ban instructing them to never return to campus — at least, not during Smith’s time at the university, she said. 

Even after revocation, all Greek life organizations receive an opportunity to return to campus after a set time period if they follow certain conditions, said Dave Isaacs, communications and media relations manager for the Office of Student Life.

“There are conditions that they meet, especially from [Sorority and Fraternity Life] and the Governing Council in order to come back,” Isaacs said. “It’s not an automatic; ‘Oh, this day we’re back.’”

Kim Monteaux De Freitas, director of Sorority and Fraternity Life at Ohio State, said the reason Greek life organizations committed the majority of student conduct violations at the university from 2017-24 might be a result of the office’s encouragement to student organizations to report any potential instance of hazing. 

“We spend a lot of time with our sorority and fraternity students talking about how to report,” Monteaux De Freitas said. “There may be more reports in a male-identified community, but I also want to acknowledge we are a state with the newer anti-hazing law, and we have spent a lot of time trying to help our students know how to get help, how to ask for help, how to report.”

Smith said she has noticed a similar phenomenon within the Office of Student Conduct.

“That’s been the case in a lot of things, where you put an emphasis on it to make reporting easier,” Smith said. “The initial response is an uptick in the number of cases, and it doesn’t mean that things are getting worse. It means that we are now getting reports on those at a higher rate than we might have been before.”

Lipkins, however, said observational learning —  a social process during which people learn and imitate new behaviors after watching others perform the same behavior — by new members who were hazed creates a “blueprint of hazing.”

“You come into an organization, so you’re hazed,” Lipkins said. “Then, once you’ve been hazed, you become a bystander, and you watch other people get hazed, and eventually, you have seen your status and now it’s your turn to do unto others what was done to you, and you feel like you have the right and duty to pass on the tradition. And I believe that each time that tradition is passed on, the individuals usually want to leave their own mark, so they increase the tradition.” 

Smith said the Office of Student Conduct often looks at a given organization’s national chapter — the overarching governing body that represents all local chapters across universities — when determining sanctions.

“Things we consider are, for example, what sort of support and partnership are we seeing with that headquarters?” Smith said. “Is this a group that is being well-supported and has a structure that we know can step in and provide the education and the support the group needs to be successful?”

Lipkins said, if anything, these national chapters preserve the hazing culture.

As a culture of hazing persists within Greek life, Lipkins said it can’t be changed by focusing only on the individual students involved.

“In other words, if the colleges were doing their job in courts, then maybe the older systems, their systems for reporting, their security systems, their sanction systems, all of that really has to be the point of focus, rather than the students,” Lipkins said.

Another way to potentially reduce hazing is to implement harsher sanctions, Lipkins said.

“Society at large, the legal system at large and the various colleges at large have not really done anything that would increase the anxiety [and] fear on the part of the perpetrators or potential perpetrators, and they have, from a psychological point of view, actually conditioned them to expect minor response to whatever they do,” Lipkins said. 

Notably, Lipkins said she feels universities’ hiring of former — or current — Greek life members as employees creates a staff makeup that favors these organizations. 

“When you look at who the colleges are employing, and what they’re doing to stay in tune with the Greek organizations, one might question whether those kinds of people are the ones who should be policing the organization or connecting to them,” Lipkins said.

Additionally, Lipkins said a symbiotic relationship exists between universities and Greek life organizations because they provide the school with a social milieu, alumni retention, donations and additional off-campus housing. 

“They like that symbiotic relationship,” Lipkins said. “Some might say they need the symbiotic relationships, but they haven’t created an appropriate method of making sure that the behaviors that are engaged in are not risky and protect the lives of the students.” 

Smith disagreed. Though several workers within Sorority and Fraternity Life are affiliated with a chapter, Smith said investigations are left to the Office of Student Conduct, in which only one current staff member was formerly in a fraternity. 

“They would never be permitted to actually investigate a group that they ever had any affiliation with,” Smith said. “I think having that affiliation — I’ve seen that as a bonus in the professional staff that I’ve worked for — and I’ll say in Student Conduct, generally across the field, that affiliation has been looked at as positive, as long as you take care to manage any potential conflicts, so I can get where maybe they’re coming from.” 

AEPi’s registration was revoked in 2018 — a year when 19.6% of all student conduct violations since 2017 occurred, according to The Lantern’s analysis — for hazing, endangering behavior and alcohol, according to Collin’s Law Reports published by Ohio State. Per prior Lantern reporting, AEPi was allowed to petition for reinstatement in 2023. 

Both of these fraternities have decided to continue to operate as “City of Columbus” organizations rather than Ohio State student organizations, according to DKE and AEPi’s respective Instagram pages.

DKE and AEPi were recruiting new members as of January of this year, according to their Instagram pages.

The Lantern reached out to DKE and AEPi via Instagram, but neither organization responded by the time of publication.

“​​It’s in the national or international organization’s best interests to dissuade students from using their marks, intellectual property, their name, for activities that are not supported by the university,” Isaacs said.

Doug Fierberg, an attorney with 30 years of experience litigating catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases in schools, universities and fraternities, said due to Ohio’s robust anti-hazing law, individuals involved in underground fraternities that engage in hazing practices could still face significant legal consequences.

“What changes a little bit is that the university may have less control over forcing its policies to in effect ban the group or in effect punish the group, though it may still have the power under its own rules in the jurisdiction to impose sanctions under the Student Code of Conduct against individual members,” Fierberg said.

Still, Fierberg said underground fraternities pose particular dangers due to the absence of university oversight, likening them to the chaotic and unregulated society depicted in William Golding’s famous 1954 novel, “Lord of the Flies.”

While a Greek life organization has its status temporarily revoked — regardless of whether it operates underground or not — Fierberg said the group knows it will eventually regain recognition anyway.

Over time, Fierberg said the university’s “institutional memory” often fades, and past wrongdoings are largely forgotten. 

“If a freshman died in 2020, nobody on campus in 2025 is going to know that a freshman died at ‘Delta Chi’ or some other fraternity unless they go on the internet and they search, ‘Who’s died at Ohio State in a fraternity?’” Fierberg said. “So, with the passage of time, the organizations essentially know that they’ll eventually be allowed back on campus, and they’ll be allowed back on campus having made no structural changes in their dangerous organizations.”

The sanctions currently available to curb bad behavior are not enough, Fierberg said.

“They’re temporary band-aids because unless and until there’s fundamental change in the organizational structures of fraternities, and unless and until more responsibilities are placed on them to change their management structures, they’re going to continue to be dangerous,” Fierberg said.