More than 20 years ago, the hazing death of University of Colorado Boulder freshman Gordie Bailey rocked the Boulder campus and fractured its fraternity system.

Today, many fraternity members still know Bailey’s name.

“A large majority of our brothers are from Colorado and have had older siblings go through Greek Life and have heard his name before,” said Adrien Burley, a CU Boulder student and president of the Theta Xi fraternity. “We have anti-hazing conventions every year here and he’s always brought up.”

Theta Xi is one of 21 fraternities comprising the Interfraternity Council on the Hill. After Bailey’s hazing death in 2004, CU Boulder imposed new rules that the fraternities rejected, including delaying rush until the spring and having live-in house directors. In 2005, all the fraternities disaffiliated from CU Boulder and formed the student-run IFC on the Hill.

“The concept of self-determination by the undergraduates is something they value very highly,” IFC on the Hill Greek advocate Michael Smith said. “They have built an extraordinarily successful organization that produces great results and we’ve not had a death, injury or insurance claim in the 20 years we’ve been in operation. So that’s pretty significant.”

IFC on the Hill started in 2005 with 14 chapters and 700 students. Now, it has 21 chapters and more than 2,500 members. Most CU Boulder students who join a fraternity are involved in a chapter under the IFC on the Hill, which has no affiliation with CU Boulder.

“I have not gotten a significant hazing allegation in a number of years,” Smith said, adding, “The leadership really has a commitment against it and we’ve been working hard to make sure we don’t have it for a long time.”Zero fraternities were affiliated with the university until chapters began to return to campus and the CU Interfraternity Council was re-established in 2018. Now, there are 10 CU Boulder fraternities with about 500 members.

Burley said there’s absolutely zero tolerance for hazing within his fraternity and IFC on the Hill.

“Whether it’s making someone wear something, or worse, making someone consume something — there’s a moral code broken as humans, and that’s the most dangerous part about hazing,” he said.

Hazing is a type of behavior expected when joining a group that is humiliating, degrading, abusive or somehow physically or psychologically dangerous or damaging. It could range from forcing someone to wear the same shoes every day and name-calling to forced alcohol consumption, beating and kidnapping.

On the morning of Sept. 17, 2004, 18-year-old Gordie Bailey was found dead on the floor of the Chi Psi fraternity house due to alcohol poisoning and had slurs written on his body.

The night before, Bailey and 26 other pledges were blindfolded and taken to Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest where they were told to drink four handles of whiskey and six bottles of wine in half an hour. He returned to the fraternity house and was unconscious. No one called 911, and Bailey was found dead the next morning with a blood-alcohol content of 0.328%.

Hazing cases

In his experience, Burley said, hazing pretty much never happens. About once a year he’ll hear a rumor about hazing or a hazing investigation in a chapter and it’ll turn out to be nothing, he said, and most of the time the rumors come from independent chapters.

There are three independent fraternity chapters in Boulder that are not affiliated with the CU IFC or the IFC on the Hill: Kappa Sigma, Sigma Pi and Phi Kappa Tau.

“They left the IFC on the Hill because each of them had been summoned to an IFC on the Hill judicial hearing for very significant violations,” Smith said. “Rather than be held accountable for their actions, these groups decided to proceed on their own.”

The violations in each case, he said, were a package of violations of the social event rules which are contained in IFC on the Hill’s Constitution and Bylaws. Those social event guidelines, according to the constitution and bylaws, include rules on events, rush, alcohol, hazing, racism, sexual abuse and harassment.

In December, Boulder police responded to multiple calls at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house about six men who were sick and overdosing. Police believe excessive drinking and some drug use led to the sickness and later hospitalizations. Detectives seized cocaine at the scene. All the students involved are expected to survive, and police are investigating whether the incident was related to pledging at the fraternity.

Since 2018, CU Boulder has conducted a handful of hazing investigations that found hazing had occurred.

“Hazing is not unique to the Greek community and can happen within many large organizations, both on and off college campuses,” CU Boulder spokesperson Stacy Wagner wrote in an email. “CU Boulder does not tolerate hazing, and student safety is our top priority.”

CU Boulder had one investigation that led to a finding of hazing in 2018, 2021, 2023 and 2024, according to information acquired in a public records request. CU Boulder received three reports of hazing last year and one resulted in a finding of hazing. The fraternities Sigma Tau Gamma and Sigma Phi Epsilon are currently suspended from campus due to hazing.

Sigma Tau Gamma’s suspension began in January of 2024, and the earliest the group can return is in the 2025 fall semester.

“To do so they would first need to complete a membership review, a review of and training on their new member education process, and significant educational training on alcohol and substance abuse and hazing prevention,” Wagner wrote. “Upon return, they would be on social probation for three semesters, and may have other requirements from their headquarters.”

Sigma Phi Epsilon was suspended in 2021. In this case, Wagner said, the national organization suspended the fraternity and the university supported that decision. The group is not affiliated with the campus but is exploring the option to return in the fall of 2025.

When a CU-affiliated fraternity is suspended, they are no longer able to recruit new members, use university spaces, host events, or operate as a fraternity, except when completing sanctions.

The university cannot suspend or take action against the three independent fraternities or any of the 21 chapters that are part of IFC on the Hill. It can, however, investigate individual students for violating the CU Boulder student code of conduct on hazing.

Nationwide hazing trends

Elizabeth Allan is a hazing expert and professor at the University of Maine. She conducted a comprehensive national hazing study in 2008 with more than 11,000 students at 50 colleges and universities. She found that nine out of 10 students who are hazed don’t know it, and of the ones that do, 95% don’t report it. At the time, she found that more than half of college students are involved in some form of campus hazing.

Hazing continues to go largely unreported today, Allan said, which makes it much harder to understand the extent of the issue. And, it’s difficult to determine whether hazing happens more or less often today than it did in the early 2000s during the time Bailey died.

“It’s really hard to tell,” Allan said. “Another thing is the more people learn about (hazing) and hopefully the more they learn about the harm that can happen, the more likely they will be to report it. We might see an increase in reporting. But, you can’t assume the increase in reporting means it’s happening more than it was.”

Allan didn’t say whether CU Boulder was one of the 50 institutions that participated in the 2008 study because the names of the universities and colleges that were involved are confidential. She’s launching a second national hazing study in 2025 to compare the findings.

One reason why so many students don’t know they’re being hazed is they don’t recognize the behavior as hazing, she said.

“One of the key factors is that individuals tend to identify hazing only in its most extreme forms,” Allan said, like physical violence. “Part of prevention is trying to expand the images people have in their heads of what constitutes hazing and that way we can have people increase the likelihood they will intervene as bystanders or for themselves if they’re in the position of being hazed.”

There’s an inverse relationship between the level of recognition and type of hazing, she said. For example, behaviors like deception, name calling and social isolation happen more often, but there’s a lower chance of it being recognized as hazing. Physical violence is highly recognized as hazing but happens less frequently.

Allan said there are a few reasons why 95% of students who were aware they were hazed didn’t report it. The student might not think the behavior was problematic and might minimize it as a prank or tradition. Others might see the hazing as a problem but are afraid to speak up.

“They don’t want to get their peers in trouble,” Allan said. “Second is, they don’t want to be labeled as cast out of the group. They don’t want to risk losing this peer group.”

Even if students aren’t reporting it formally, the study showed they are talking about it often to friends, significant others and family members. Allan said certain red flag behaviors can indicate a student is being hazed. Parents might notice their child isn’t calling home like normal or a faculty member might notice a student’s performance suffering or that the student is falling asleep in class.

Even if it’s not hazing, asking questions and offering the student support can help. Allan is the leader of the organization StopHazing, which promotes safety on campuses through research, resource sharing and hazing prevention strategies. For more information, visit stophazing.org.

The website HazingInfo.org, developed in partnership with Allan’s Stop Hazing, is a campus lookup database for hazing incidents. There are nine states available on the database because those states require universities to report hazing incidents on their websites. Colorado is not included.

Remembering Gordie Bailey

At IFC on the Hill, every new member goes through training called Greek 101 which includes anti-hazing rules and shares Bailey’s story. It also covers sexual assault, mental health and suicide. All students are introduced to Bailey and his story before they join a fraternity.

“His death is part of Greek 101 and we discuss his death and why we have the Call 911 and Good Samaritan program,” Smith said, adding, “His unfortunate death is still something we use to stimulate the discussion and the responsibilities.”

Bailey’s family created the Gordie Center after his death, which aims to end hazing and substance abuse among high school and college students. CU Boulder uses resources from the Gordie Center for its hazing training.

“We also acknowledge his death during new member education and orientation as a significant event in our efforts to create an anti-hazing culture,” Wagner wrote. “We believe the way to honor his tragedy is to ensure the safety of current and future students.”

A new federal law was enacted on Dec. 23 called the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which will require colleges and universities to implement anti-hazing programs and report incidents of hazing to campus security or local police. It will go into effect in June.

“CU Boulder does not tolerate hazing and this federal legislation aimed at transparency and education around hazing is a necessary step for all of higher education,” Wagner wrote.

Before it became law, the Stop Campus Hazing Act passed through the U.S. House of Representatives the day before National Gordie Day, according to reporting from Denver7. National Gordie Day is held annually on the Thursday of National Hazing Prevention Week, which is the last week in September.

“Joining one of our chapters, you’re coming under a very strong commitment to no hazing,” Smith said. “You’re coming under a strong commitment to a relationship with the police and fire departments to respect the community.”

Allan said it’s important to remember Bailey because there are cases of hazing deaths nationwide in the last few years that have a lot of similarities to what happened to him. She pointed to the Hank Nuwer Unofficial Hazing Deaths Database and Clearinghouse, a website that tracks hazing deaths going back to 1838 through the present day.

“We’re still seeing similar scenarios happening and we can learn from history and learn from the past and change it for the future,” Allan said. “I think sharing the stories is very powerful and a really potentially impactful way of helping people to understand the potential harm from hazing and feel that.”