Donovan Golich — former associate director of accountability in the Policy, Accountability and Critical Events unit of Student Affairs — arrived at the University November of last year with the responsibility of handling hazing investigations, as well as other cases pertaining to student safety. After less than a year at the University, Golich has left his position amidst criticism over his handling of misconduct cases reported to PACE.
As a division of Student Affairs, PACE coordinates and supports “student accountability processes, policy and compliance and critical incident/event response,” according to its website. PACE reviews reports of student violations of University Standards of Conduct or University policies after Student Affairs receives them.
PACE then either issues an informal agreement with students, where students accept responsibility for the act and agree to participate in an educational intervention, or a formal resolution, where they refer students to either the Honor Committee or University Judiciary Committee, depending on the nature of the infraction.
Due to his position at PACE, Golich directly received reports filed through the University’s incident reporting systems. Members of the University community can file reports of hazing, sexual harassment or violence and more through these systems. Golich said upon his arrival to PACE, then called Judicial Affairs, he sought to formalize the process for investigating these reports by immediately contacting the person who filed the report and promptly interviewing all witnesses and relevant parties before making a judgment on whether the case should move forward.
Golich’s time at the University, however, was rife with controversy and disagreement. Despite serving less than one year, he drew criticism from students for his actions and policies — a leaked recording showed him threatening a student using language he himself admitted to be harsh. And while some students say that his policies made them less safe, Golich maintains that he acted in the interest of student safety. Using each component of the PACE acronym, here is a review of Golich’s tenure at the University.
POLICY
Conducting hazing investigations was only one part of Golich’s job. Working in the PACE office, which has a stated goal of maintaining student safety, he also followed up with students who were hospitalized for alcohol-related reasons. According to Golich, after a high volume of hospitalizations in the first week of the semester — 16 reports in just the weekend before the first day of classes this semester — he said he pursued new policy options in an effort to address what he saw as a major health and safety risk.
One new policy Golich worked to implement during his time at PACE was to contact the national organizations of fraternities and sororities if one of their members or an attendee at one of their events received medical attention for a drug- or alcohol- related reason. This specific policy received criticism from many in the Greek community who said that even if it was well-intentioned, threatening ramifications for calling medical help disincentivizes students from doing so in the case of an emergency — as the national organization can implement sanctions against the entire chapter.
Virginia has Good Samaritan laws, which state that an individual cannot be criminally charged for their own drug or alcohol use if they call emergency medical services for someone who needs attention. However, that law does not mention protections for groups, and does not prevent national organizations from sanctioning chapters who require medical attention.
One fraternity president who dealt with Golich directly when his organization was being investigated said Golich has mostly had a negative impact on the University because of this policy.
“Greek organizations are afraid to call the ambulance now,” the student said. “Which is the worst thing that could ever happen [to] an organization.”
Golich and PACE also directly contacted chapters. At a social event earlier this semester with multiple Greek organizations present, an attendee received medical attention for alcohol-related reasons. A representative from one of the chapters present at this event provided a statement to The Cavalier Daily, in which they explain that their organization received a letter from Golich’s office following the aforementioned event, accusing their organization’s members of contributing to an unsafe environment and threatening to refer the students to the UJC. The individual who received medical attention was not a member of the organization that received the letter, according to the statement.
“The top priority of the school should be ensuring that students are safe,” the student said. “When you have members of a division of Student Affairs sending a letter as accusatory and misguided as the one we received, it makes students think they can not call 911 out of fear of being in trouble.”
And when that student followed up with the PACE office about the letter, they said the response contradicted the initial remarks, adding that PACE has been “very unclear” to Inter-Fraternity Council and Inter-Sorority Council leaders.
“It was also full of threats that were never previously explained and when people followed up with PACE, they essentially completely changed their narrative on their course of action,” the student said.
Golich said the concern that chapters would be hesitant to call an ambulance was never brought to him, but that as someone who previously worked for a fraternity’s national organization, he does not see the organization’s aim as wanting to punish chapters for alcohol-related violations.
“It's common practice and it's not to seek getting them in trouble. It's actually to help them stay out of trouble,” Golich said. “The national headquarters tends to be … more understanding.”
But some fraternities and sororities are dry or substance-free, meaning that if members in the chapter are caught drinking, the chapter could be disbanded altogether. Golich said students who choose to join those organizations do so voluntarily and thus assume the risk of repercussions from their national organization.
One member of an alcohol-free fraternity, who also works as an emergency medical technician, articulated their concern with the policy enforced by Golich and PACE, stating that it could have life-threatening consequences if members of a chapter are afraid to call medical services.
“As a member of a nationally dry fraternity, I also fear the potential retribution by PACE to my national organization if I decide to involve EMS during an overdose,” the student said.
Ben Ueltschey, IFC president and fourth-year College student, said he was opposed to the changes. Ueltschey did not feel that they were properly communicated to IFC leadership, which meant he was unable to address the concerns of fraternity leaders who reached out.
“Instead of primarily focusing on students’ well-being, students were put in a position to fear getting their chapters in trouble for behavior that was not necessarily related to their organization,” Ueltschey said.
And while Golich said this policy is likely to continue because his former colleagues in the PACE office were supportive of it, Ueltschey said that his ongoing conversations with administrators has helped to “undo the damage” that occurred as a result of this policy.
Deputy University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover did not address whether the policy of contacting national organizations for fraternities and sororities that seek medical attention for a drug or alcohol related reason would continue when directly asked.
ACCOUNTABILITY
A primary focus of Golich’s job was to hold students accountable — especially when they commit hazing violations.
That accountability process was on display in an audio recording of Golich leaked last week by alumni group The Jefferson Council — an organization with the stated mission of preserving the legacy of Thomas Jefferson at the University. In the audio, Golich is heard accusing a member of Theta Chi fraternity of lying and evading his questions during a hazing investigation. Further, Golich threatens to contact the member’s commanding officer at the Naval ROTC, who would presumably discipline that student.
Theta Chi’s Fraternal Organization Agreement was terminated by the University in July after the investigation revealed active members coerced or forced new members to consume “heinous foods,” from which some contracted illness or lost feeling in their limbs. The investigation also revealed that new members were asked to perform other “pointless tasks and embarrassing activities” for active members.
Glover said in a statement to The Cavalier Daily that the University does not condone the behavior Golich exhibited in the recording.
“The University expects employees involved in disciplinary processes to treat all students and community members with dignity and respect,” Glover said.
In the recording, he said he did not care what disciplinary action the students faced and that he would “sleep at night just fine” knowing he held them accountable. He also used expletives toward the students.
Golich admits his words were harsh but maintains that his conduct was justified by the actions of the accused students. He also said the video was heavily edited to paint him in a negative light.
“I am not going to apologize for holding students accountable when they make grave errors that threaten the health and safety of other students on grounds,” Golich said.
James A. Bacon, contributing editor for the Jefferson Council, said that while the video had been edited before the Council acquired it, the way in which Golich interacted with the student was still “shocking” and “aggressive.”
After working on these investigations for nearly a year, Golich said there is a clear problem at the University. In a span of six months, the University has sanctioned five fraternities for hazing violations. Three fraternities — Theta Chi, Pi Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma — have had their FOAs terminated. Two other fraternities — Sigma Alpha Mu and Pi Lambda Phi — were investigated and sanctioned for hazing behavior.
Golich said that the reporting and response systems the University has in place work effectively to counter hazing. He said the problem is not with the police, with the IFC, the ISC nor the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life — but with a culture of hazing upheld by students that he said is among the worst he has ever seen.
“I have never seen a campus culture that has hazing so rampant on- and off-Grounds,” Golich said. “The level of the allegations, as well as the volume of reports I received, was alarming, to say the least.”
However, the high volume of reports does not necessarily mean more instances of hazing, according to Ueltschey. Instead, he said that more reports could be connected to increased awareness as to what constitutes hazing.
“I think it is important to not conflate more reports [with] more hazing,” Ueltschey said in a statement to The Cavalier Daily. “People have become more aware of the signs of hazing…[which] indicates movement in the right direction.”
While Ueltschey sees more reports as a potentially positive sign, Bacon believes the University has an overly broad definition of hazing, saying that expanding definitions of harm to include embarrassing or difficult acts that do not cause injury prevents students from building camaraderie or learning valuable lessons.
“My concern is that the University has really broadened the scope of what it's regulating,” Bacon said. “So it's not just the physical safety of students. Now it's their emotional safety too.”
Still, hazing behavior at the University continues to threaten the physical safety of students. Golich was alarmed that the incident at Kappa Sigma in February — which left one student hospitalized and in a coma — did not stop other fraternities from engaging in hazing behavior.
“If a student ending up in a coma wasn't enough to stop certain groups … I'm really alarmed to know what will,” Golich said.
CRITICAL EVENTS
As part of his job, Golich intervened when critical events came to his attention.
“I uncovered some horrid behaviors, such that many on Grounds were lauding … my ability to seek out the truth,” Golich said.
He described one instance where he received a report from “Just Report It” — one of the University’s online incident reporting systems — about an upcoming hazing event at Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Golich said he got in contact with the person who made the report within 30 minutes and was able to dispatch police to the house that evening to prevent the hazing incident from occurring.
The University terminated Pi Kappa Alpha’s FOA in April after the police responded to the hazing allegations at the chapter house. The national organization for Pi Kappa Alpha — which was founded at the University — denounced the chapter and said it would pursue civil litigation against individual students after “abhorrent and detestable” hazing behaviors took place.
Golich agrees that the individual students should be held accountable for hazing, even through criminal charges.
In addition to civil litigation, hazing is a Class 1 Misdemeanor in Virginia, meaning a student can be tried criminally for hazing behavior. In the leaked audio of Golich interrogating a member of Theta Chi, Golich said he contacted the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office about the fraternity, saying that there would likely be a criminal investigation into the students’ behavior.
But Golich said the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in Charlottesville and Albemarle County never pressed charges against the students.
“What is also alarming is the Commonwealth's Attorney for both Albemarle County and for Charlottesville don't seem to have an appetite to charge any students for violating the hazing law,” Golich said. “That's incredibly alarming because students need to be held accountable.”
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joseph Platania said that he could not comment directly on Golich’s remarks because they did not include specific cases, but that if sufficient evidence for criminal charges is brought to his office, the charges would be filed.
“While it is difficult to respond to a vague and non-specific allegation, as a general rule this office takes all complaints of criminal conduct extremely seriously,” Platania said.
Though he respected the efforts of administrators and even students in combating hazing, Golich said that the issue with hazing at the University is that there is a culture that consistently fails to hold perpetrators accountable. To him, this culture is upheld by students, alumni and a broader fear of social repercussions. Ultimately, though, Golich said that effectively combatting hazing will be an initiative that will have to be led by students.
“It's time to stop the behavior,” Golich said. “And a lot of that has to come from you all, because administrators can be on our soapbox all day long, telling people to stop hazing, giving people the resources and telling people to use Just Report It. But it really needs to be a culture that comes and starts from the students.”
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