Former frat members react to allegations

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln suspended Sigma Chi fraternity last week after court documents detailed a series of alleged hazing incidents, including one in which a stripper sodomized a fraternity pledge.

Based on a search of the fraternity’s Web site database, no Columbus residents are current members, but several alumni are listed.

Telegram reporters asked some of them what they thought of the allegations.

Columbus businessman Mike Rambour said he was saddened by the media accounts of hazing accusations against his old fraternity house.

“It’s a travesty ... a sad day that has tainted all the good things the fraternity has done over the years,’’ said Rambour, an active member of the frat house from 1980-84 and now vice president of a Columbus realty and property management firm.

Rambour said nothing anywhere near approaching the current hazing accusations went on during his years at the fraternity. Hazing in the 1980s was confined to having pledges get up early on Saturday mornings and clean the fraternity house, he said.

“I’ve been shocked by the newspaper accounts,’’ said Rambour, who has not been an active alumni member of the house. “Incidents like that shouldn’t go on anywhere.”

Rambour said the hazing allegations come at a particularly bad time with the chapter launching a $2 million fundraising campaign to modernize the fraternity house.

“What a horrible time for something like this to come up,’’ he said.

Sigma Chi alumni Denny Bargen pledged with the fraternity in 1961. He graduated in 1965 and has remained an active alumni ever since. Bargen’s three sons each pledged with Sigma Chi.

“My experience with Sigma Chi and living in the house is that I formed many everlasting relationships with people that I’ve been in contact with ever since,” the elder Bargen said. “We certainly had initiations when I pledged, but they amounted to shining shoes, doing forced push ups, being yelled at or occasionally being rolled out of bed late at night to run around the campus.

“This case and other cases like it in the past serve to ruin things for many people, and if these allegations prove to be true �” all I can say is I’m disgusted and will be very disappointed if these allegations are proven.”

Bargen said his oldest son, Jeff, who died as a result of cystic fibrosis in 2002 pledged to Sigma Chi in 1990.

“The fraternity made great accommodations for Jeff when he pledged,” Bargen said. “Jeff’s pledge father made sure he had the study materials he needed for the academic part of the initiation.

“I picked him up from the medical center and took him to Lincoln where he stayed in the student health center so he was able to go through the initiation with his 24 pledge brothers. They really pushed for him to be there. That was all about unity, and it’s those kinds of things that make me proud to be a Sigma Chi.”

Bargen’s other sons, Ryan and Dirk, also pledged with the fraternity. Dirk chose not to continue with the organization but Ryan is still an active alumni.

Ryan Bargen pledged with Sigma Chi in 1993 and was active in the fraternity until 1995.

“I read the story and I don’t know what they were doing there. It seems pretty lame to me,” Ryan Bargen said. “I think hazing is always going to be a part of joining any fraternity but I don’t think what they did was right. I’m not sure what they did there.”

Bargen said when he pledged with the fraternity he considered the hazing activity as ritual done for the purpose of character building.

“It’s like in the military. First, they break you down, and then they build you up,” Bargen. “I can’t talk about the things I had to do. They were hard, but there was nothing degrading.

“I can’t defend what the newspaper story says happened, if it did happen.”

Fraternity members cited for both hazing and procuring alcohol for a minor were: Michael Classen, 22; James Glover, 19; and Kyle Humphrey, 22. Cited for hazing only: Jonathan Knudsen, 21; and Keegan Anderson, 20. Cited for procuring alcohol only: Samuel Bates, 19; Ian Dimka, 21; and Chris Wozniak, 22.

Hazing is punishable by a maximum six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. All eight fraternity members are due in court May 15.

Court documents show former pledges reported paying $200 each for a “social fund” that was used to buy alcohol, including for underage fraternity members. Police found evidence of the fund in the house, including a bank statement addressed to the Sigma Chi Social Fund.

Police also found large quantities of alcohol in the house. Alcohol is forbidden on the UNL campus.