Campus Hazing and Greek Life

Flagstaff police say an 18-year-old Northern Arizona University student was found unresponsive around 8:45 a.m. Saturday at an off-campus residence and pronounced dead at the scene after attending a Delta Tau Delta fraternity rush event the night before where pledges drank alcohol. Detectives arrested three chapter executive-board members — new member educator Carter Eslick, vice president Ryan Creech and treasurer Riley Cass, all 20 — and booked them into the Coconino County Detention Facility on hazing charges, while the medical examiner works to determine the cause of death. NAU has suspended the fraternity pending its own investigation and issued a statement stressing that hazing 'has no place at NAU' and touting existing prevention training, amid a long national history of alcohol-fueled fraternity deaths. Delta Tau Delta’s national organization called hazing 'the antithesis of brotherhood' and said it supports anti-hazing legislation in Arizona and federally, but is now facing renewed scrutiny of how effectively such policies are enforced on the ground. The case will likely feed broader calls from lawmakers and parents for tougher criminal penalties and campus oversight as another freshman death is tied to Greek-life initiation rituals.