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Broken Pledge

A podcast series about fraternity hazing and the life and death of Collin Wiant

Published Updated
Published Updated

This is Broken Pledge.

It is a story about fraternity hazing and the life and death of Collin Wiant, an 18-year-old student at Ohio University.

Collin, an honor-roll student with a flair for leadership, decided to join the Sigma Pi fraternity a month into his freshman year. But he never made it to the end of the pledging process.

In November 2018, Collin died after collapsing in the fraternity's off-campus house. And when it came time to stand up for their pledge, Collin's fraternity brothers instead chose a different path.

The case mirrors the dangers of hazing in Greek Life on college campuses across the nation. It's a problem that continues to claim lives, endanger students and challenge the universities that haven't been able to stop it.

About the issue: What is hazing and why does it exist on college campuses?

CHAPTER 1: BROTHERHOOD

Collin Wiant, like many college students, goes off to college looking for a place to belong on campus. But do they really know what they are getting into?

Listen to the full six chapter series:
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They beat him with belts.

They forced him to binge drink until he passed out, poured hot sauce on him and made him strip down to his underwear and play tackle football in a small room.

On the day Collin Wiant was buried, his parents didn’t know that their son had been a hazing victim for months.

They didn’t realize that the Sigma Pi pledge was lying down, gasping for air the night he died and that fraternity brothers waited to call for help. They didn’t understand how a high school honor student who wanted to change the world for the better was gone two months after enrolling at Ohio University.

Collin Wiant stands next to the family’s car in Dublin the morning of move-in day at Ohio University in August 2018.
Collin (right) and his roommate, Alex Porchinsky, pose together in their Ohio University dorm room on move-in day.
(top) Collin Wiant stands next to the family’s car in Dublin the morning of move-in day at Ohio University in August 2018. (bottom) Collin and his roommate, Alex Porchinsky, pose together in their Ohio University dorm room on move-in day. (top) Collin Wiant stands next to the family’s car in Dublin the morning of move-in day at Ohio University in August 2018. (bottom) Collin and his roommate, Alex Porchinsky, pose together in their Ohio University dorm room on move-in day. (left) Collin Wiant stands next to the family’s car in Dublin the morning of move-in day at Ohio University in August 2018. (right) Collin and his roommate, Alex Porchinsky, pose together in their Ohio University dorm room on move-in day. PHOTO COURTESY OF KATHLEEN WIANT

In the past 15 years, there have been at least 80 deaths of college students connected to Greek life. Uncounted others have suffered mental or emotional scars from hazing while those who abused them likely will never face siginficant consequences.

That day, Nov. 17, 2018, Kathleen and Wade Wiant simply knew that their son’s body lay in the hearse ahead of them.

As their SUV rounded the curve near St. Charles Preparatory School, the Wiants were in awe of the scene outside Collin’s old school.

Lining the route were hundreds of boys dressed in blue blazers, heads tucked down, some wiping tears. Some made the sign of the cross while they honored or said goodbye to their friend and classmate.

“Oh, my God,” said a sobbing Kathleen Wiant. “How beautiful.”

A few of Collin’s fraternity brothers from the university in southeastern Ohio also attended the service.

They barely knew Collin, but they had promised him the brotherhood he sought.

The kind of childhood bond he already shared with his brother Aidan and wanted at the school in Athens that his parents once attended and loved.

There were the fun parties, watching games together, good-natured trash talk and the promise to support him during his four years in Athens.

But then the pledging process turned dark.

And in the wake of Collin’s death, those who pledged to protect him were left to ask themselves whether they did or didn’t do something that contributed to him being in that hearse.

The parents of Collin Wiant, an Ohio University freshman who died last year, filed a wrongful death lawuit against the Epsilon chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity. The lawsuit claims that fraternity members hazed Wiant to death.
The parents of Collin Wiant, an Ohio University freshman who died last year, filed a wrongful death lawuit against the Epsilon chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity. The lawsuit claims that fraternity members hazed Wiant to death. Photo Courtesy Wiant Family
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