Freshman Pledge Found Dead After Fraternity Party

By Sydney Gordon & Matt Mazzamaro

Contributing Writer & Assistant Editor

Recently, the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter at Florida State University saw a tragic death of one of its pledges. On Nov. 3, Andrew Coffey, a 20-year-old pledge at Pi Kappa Phi, was found unresponsive after attending a party the night before.

The shocking news made national headlines and as a result, the school has removed the chapter from campus completely and suspended all Greek Life indefinitely.

According to an anonymous source, anyone who is a member of a fraternity or sorority was instructed not to say anything to the media by the school about the incident.

“Death should not be taken lightly,” they said when asked if the punishment is fair to all Greek Life on campus. “In order to get a point across, this needed to happen. But I know many people think it wasn’t fair to all Greek Life. Campus hasn’t been the same since it happened [either]. There’s been a dark cloud over us since.”

The death of Coffey has come in the wake of a different fraternity death that happened at Penn State in February, and cannot help but raise the question and concern of whether or not there are enough rules and regulations surrounding the involvement of fraternities.

Zoe Walker is an alumni of Florida State, and a former member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. According to her, alcohol consumption can be intense at FSU but it is nothing uncommon among many large schools with large amounts of Greek Life present.

“FSU is definitely a party school,” said Walker. “But I’ve never encountered someone who was forced to drink beyond their limits. This could have happened to anyone at any school, regardless of Greek affiliation or not.”

That being said, one cannot help but wonder if there need to be stricter rules for fraternities across the country. With two deaths related to fraternities this year on two different campuses, a solution needs to be created to prevent there from ever being a third.

Although Coffey’s death is tragic, it should be a wake-up call and a lesson for both schools to take more responsibilities in the activities within Greek Life, as well as for the students in the fraternities and sororities to be more responsible and make wiser decisions.