Texas A&M University has suspended one of its fraternities for violating rules involving hazing, alcohol and drugs. 

Phi Gamma Delta, better known as “Fiji”, is no longer being recognized as a student organization on campus. The suspension comes after an investigation into the death of one of the fraternity’s freshman recruits. 

It was about to be the start of a new chapter at Texas A&M for Houston freshman Joseph William Little, but authorities said the 18-year-old unexpectedly died from a seizure in his off-campus dorm at the Callaway house in late August.

The unexpected and possibly unnatural way Joseph died prompted Brazos County Justice of the Peace Judge Rick Hill to call for an investigation and autopsy to determine if alcohol or drugs may have played a factor.

“He was a young man. Freshman at A&M. No medical history to speak of, no history of seizures. And so for me, we needed to know the manner of death, the cause of death,” Hill says.

The Aggie Accountability Board for Student Organizations suspended the fraternity. Fiji filed an appeal, but will not be allowed to participate in any university events or use any facilities on campus in the meantime.

For now, the fate of what happens next lays in the hands of the results from the Medical Examiner’s Office. 

“When you hear of these things, you automatically think alcohol or drugs, things like that. And in the Sigma Nu case, that’s what that was, that was alcohol and drugs. The thing that’s been weird about this one is that his initial toxicology came back as negative,” Hill says.