The university has since suspended the sorority and issued a cease and desist order on all Kappa Kappa Gamma events and activities until further notice.
What We Know:
- Langdan Willoughby had intentions to pledge the sorority back in 2020 but claimed she was hazed in the initiation process. Other pledges to Kappa Kappa Gamma at the time back up Willoughby’s accusations. The accuser asserts that pledges in 2020 were forced to play a game called “blow or blow.” Senior members of the sorority allegedly verbally assaulted the pledges for 15 minutes and told them they either had to perform oral sex on a boy or do a line of cocaine.
- Senior members quickly discarded the incident as a simple prank, but it appears as if the joke left pledges scarred and uncomfortable. Willoughby spoke to the school newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, regarding the incident and stated that she was “fully physically, emotionally and spiritually disturbed by the entire thing.” Willoughby left the sorority last summer after she experienced issues of inclusion and racism as being the only Black woman in the sorority house.
- The statement made by Indiana University asserts that “the health and safety of our members are always our top priority.” Other pledges from past years at the University also report similar occurrences during their own initiations into the organization. A pledge from 2017 revealed that her class was told they had to strip naked and run through the woods. The demand was later revealed to be a joke when one of the pledges began to cry.
Indiana University defines hazing as, “Any conduct which subjects another person, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or psychologically to anything that may endanger, abuse, degrade, or intimidate the person as a condition of association with a group or organization, regardless of the person’s consent.”
- It is unclear how many members of the sorority are living at the Kappa Kappa Gamma, but they have been permitted to stay in their home despite the suspension. The Delta Chapter at Indiana University is the oldest continuously active Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter and was formed in 1872.
It appears that, although hazing at Indiana University has occurred multiple times in recent history, measures are finally being taken to rectify those issues.
