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Eight fraternities, one sorority and one military-oriented honor society in South Carolina were sanctioned for hazing during the 2025-26 school year, according to state-mandated reports posted online.
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The hazing incidents, which occurred at the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina University and Winthrop University, were among 21 total student organization misconduct cases reported by public universities last academic year.
Since 2016, all four-year public colleges in the state, except the Citadel and the Medical University of South Carolina, have been required to post on their websites reports of actual findings of misconduct by fraternity and sorority organizations.
The reports, which track conduct violations involving alcohol, drugs, sexual assault, physical assault and hazing, must be updated at least 45 days in advance of the fall and spring semesters.
In addition to the 10 hazing violations reported last year, South Carolina fraternities and sororities were dinged for alcohol-related misconduct, policy violations and destruction of property, among other offenses.
None of the violations adjudicated during the 2025-26 school year involved drugs, sexual assault or physical assault.
The institution-level findings, which are preliminary until reviewed by the Commission on Higher Education, appear to indicate a year-over-year decrease in fraternity and sorority misconduct.
Such a decrease would be welcome news, as violations by Greek organizations , according to a report presented at .
While alcohol-related offenses (60) slightly outnumbered hazing offenses (56) over the past half-dozen years, the report identified hazing — the most prevalent violation in each of the past three years – as a “growing and critical area of concern.”
Of the hazing offenses reported by institutions last academic year, Clemson led all schools with four; USC and College of Charleston reported two apiece; and Coastal Carolina and Winthrop each had one.
Nearly all the hazing incidents resulted in the offending organizations being placed on probations of varying lengths. The only sorority disciplined, Winthrop’s Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter, suffered the harshest penalty: a one-year suspension, effective during the spring 2026 and fall 2026 semesters.
Alpha Kappa Alpha’s offense, according to a report published on the university’s website, involved a Nov. 18, 2025, incident in which sorority members “engaged in unauthorized extra practices involving sleep deprivation, physical exertion, intimidation, verbal harassment and mandatory tracking.”
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During its suspension, the sorority is prohibited from engaging in any activities related to membership intake and barred from hosting, sponsoring or participating in any social or public-facing events. All active members are also required to complete risk management education and participate in a mental health workshop by the end of the fall semester.
A Winthrop fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, was the only other Greek organization in the state suspended for violations last academic year.
The fraternity was hit with a three-year suspension on Aug. 3 for organizing a social reveal for new members back in March while the organization was on social probation, reports show. In addition to losing all student organization privileges, Kappa Alpha Psi executive members are prohibited from holding office in the fraternity chapter again.
USC’s violations
Eleven of the 21 misconduct cases reported this past academic year occurred at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.
The groups sanctioned included seven fraternities — Phi Kappa Sigma, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Chi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Chi Psi and Beta Theta Pi — and two student organizations. Pi Kappa Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon were found responsible for two separate incidents of misconduct.
The lengthiest punishments were handed down to Phi Kappa Sigma (failure to comply; abuse of process — undue influence) and Delta Kappa Epsilon (hazing; failure to comply; abuse of process – misrepresenting the truth; abuse of process — undue influence), which both received conduct probation for a year.
Chi Psi, Sigma Chi, Tau Kappa Epsilon and the club baseball team received six-month conduct probations; Pi Kappa Phi got a two-month conduct probation; Beta Theta Pi suffered “educational outcomes”; and the mock trial team got off with a written warning, reports show.
Because the university does not post detailed incident narratives with its reports, the circumstances of each violation were not immediately clear.
When asked for additional details about the incidents, USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said only that none of them involved violence.
While no USC student organizations received suspensions during the 2025-26 school year, Theta Delta Chi and the Gamecock Pageant Club remained suspended for the entirety of the year due to past misconduct.
Theta Delta Chi, which was found responsible for a “violent” hazing incident in 2022, while already on probation for hazing, is suspended until Nov. 4, and the Gamecock Pageant Club, organizer of the annual Miss Gamecock Pageant, is barred from campus until March 2027 due to alleged theft and fraudulent behavior reported in early 2025.
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