By Denise-Marie Ordway
Orlando Sentinel
Originally published December 28, 2012
FAMU lacked the internal controls needed to identify and fight hazing before the beating death of drum major Robert Champion in Orlando a year ago, according to a long-awaited investigative report released Friday afternoon.
The sharply critical report lays out a host of problems that the State University System found during its year-long investigation focusing on the university's failure to deter hazing in the years before Champion's death.
It comes just weeks after Florida A&M University's accrediting agency placed the school on probation for a year because of problems in areas such as student safety and school finances.
Derry Harper, the Inspector General for the university system's Board of Governors, reviewed hazing reports and FAMU's regulations between 2007 and 2011 to reach his conclusions. He discovered numerous failings, including poor communication between two key university departments and a lack of clear rules on how to handle hazing complaints.
Many of the hazing allegations investigated by campus police were never shared with the office that handles student discipline, even though some complaints might have prompted student disciplinary action. And nobody was tracking hazing on a campus that had been wrestling with the violent practice for decades.
The entire story is here.
