Clemson students glad suits break secrecy (+ video)

At the bridge over the rock-filled lake where Clemson fraternity pledge Tucker Hipps died, his name is engraved in gold capital letters on a white cross topped by a flowered wreath.

A mile away Tuesday, on the broad green meadow below the landmark Tillman Hall, students stroll, toss frisbees and play volleyball.

Despite the idyllic scene, Hipps, who died last Sept. 22 at the age of 19 while on a controversial pre-dawn fraternity pledge run, is on the minds of many at Clemson these days.

“We’re all Tucker, we’re all 19 years old, going to class, going to football games,” said Kyra Palange, 19, a junior economics major from Connecticut who had attended a student vigil for Hipps after his death. “To see him in the faces of everybody on that field, that really hit home. It could have been any one of us.”

Palange also said students want more information.

“We need answers to what happened,” she said. “And there needs be more of a willingness to discuss issues like this among the campus community. We have conversations about race – we should have conversations about things like this just to make sure no one else dies.”

Official silence from both the university and law enforcement has surrounded Hipps’ death until earlier this week, when two civil lawsuits were filed by his family seeking $50 million plus punitive damages from Clemson, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and three “brothers” who conducted the run.

“People are saying they are they are glad his parents filed a lawsuit and they are surprised it took them so long,” said Samuel Salerno, 22, a junior business management major from Fort Mill.

Those lawsuits contained numerous assertions about Hipps’ death and, if true, reveal a subculture of bullying, extortion and verbal abuse in at least one Clemson fraternity, the now-suspended Sigma Phi Epsilon.

The suits allege that fraternity brothers routinely extorted money from pledges, harassed them and that Hipps died after being forced to go on a predawn run with 26 other pledges across the I-93 bridge that spans Lake Hartwell.

Hipps disappeared during the run, fraternity brothers said. His body was later recovered from the lake.

The suits say Hipps had been ordered to buy 30 McDonald’s breakfast biscuits, 30 hash browns and 2 gallons of chocolate milk to be eaten by fraternity brothers after the run. Because he failed to do that, one fraternity brother had a “confrontation” with Hipps at the bridge, the suits said. Following the encounter, Hipps went over the railing, they said.

An autopsy showed he had no drugs in his system and died of blunt force trauma as a result of hitting the rocks, his family said in quoting autopsy tests even though the coroner has not yet released the autopsy report.

If Hipps had in fact not taken any drugs or alcohol before his death, that makes the incident even more tragic, Salerno said.

“I’m glad to hear it, but at the same time, it makes his death even more embarrassing, more of a stain on the community because you can’t chalk it up to drugs or alcohol, you can’t say they weren’t in their right minds when this happened,” Salerno said.

“They were just being who they are.”

Another student, Kelsey Morgan, 20, the sophomore news editor of The Tiger, Clemson’s twice-weekly student newspaper, said the Hipps’ lawsuit provided a lot of new information about the pledge’s death.

“There’s still a lot of shock, a lot of questions,” Morgan said. “It’s a tragedy. People are confused. Some are angry.”

Fraternities are active in student life, Morgan said, but some of their activities, especially when it comes to pledges – “it’s top secret what goes on.”

Jennifer Burnett, an attorney for Hipps’ parents, declined Tuesday to reveal the source of information in the family’s two lawsuits. However, she characterized the information as “highly reliable” and said it would be disclosed at a later time, especially if there is a trial.

Brian Warren, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national chief executive officer, said in a statement Tuesday the fraternity has received a copy of the lawsuit and is reviewing its contents.

Further statements from the fraternity would be released at a later time, according to fraternity spokesman Rob Jepson.

A Clemson University spokesperson did not respond to a voice mail message left by The State newspaper on Tuesday requesting comment on the lawsuits’ assertions.

Jimmy Watt, a spokesman for the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office, which is conducting an investigation into Hipps’ death, said Tuesday his department had no comment and had no timetable on when any information would be released.

“Our investigation continues on,” Watt. He also declined to say whether the sheriff had provided the details in the Hipps’ lawsuits to the family.

“Our No. 1 goal has always been to find out what happened to Tucker so we can share that information with his family and friends,” Watt said.

Another student, P.J. Price, 19, from Columbia, said he was not surprised to hear about the allegations in the lawsuit of fraternity harassment and forced runs. In fraternities, pledges can’t question the authority of full-fledged brothers, he said.

“This is still high school – people want to fit in, and people tell you how to fit in, and that is why people get forced into doing things they don’t like.”

Morgan, who is from Conway, said interest in Hipps’ death is statewide.

“Whenever I go home, everyone knows I go to Clemson, and it’s like: ‘What’s going on with the Tucker Hipps thing? What do you know? What have you heard?’” Morgan said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 10:45 PM.