The decision of the University of Texas to suspend the Texas Cowboys spirit group for six years because of hazing is disappointing and might prevent the group from continuing its community service and charitable donations, the group’s alumni association said Thursday.
I’m sure Nicholas Cumberland’s family is disappointed, too. Disappointed that they won’t see him again in this life.
The Cowboys are best known for firing Smokey the Cannon when UT scores at home football games. In addition, “our members have volunteered tens of thousands of community service hours, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity and contributed to campus learning through activities such as hosting a lectureship series featuring world leaders on campus,” the alumni association said.
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Nicholas Cumberland, who was majoring in business, finance and radio-television-film, was traveling in a pickup with other members of the Cowboys when it rolled over in Lampasas County after the September retreat, which occurred at a private ranch in Brown County. He was ejected from the vehicle and died four weeks later.
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UT’s dean of students office on Wednesday told the Cowboys that it was suspending the group after its investigation found that a host of violations took place at a retreat in September, including coerced consumption of alcohol, cat food, Spam, milk and Tabasco sauce, as well as so-called Oklahoma drills, in which two people run directly at each other in a confined space. A UT Police Department spokeswoman said Thursday that its criminal investigation, separate from the student conduct investigation, is ongoing.
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“As an organization, we are disappointed by the misconduct of certain student members,” the alumni association said in a statement provided to the American-Statesman by Eddie Lopez, the association’s president. “In fact, we have expelled and suspended from our organization the students who were connected to the hazing. Their actions violated University regulations and did not align with our organization’s standards — and they do not represent the heart and soul of our organization.
“However, hazing did not cause the car accident that took Nicky Cumberland’s life,” the statement added, noting that the university’s report determined that sleep deprivation did not occur at the retreat.
Oh, what a relief. The hazing didn’t kill him, and they dumped all the hazers anyway.
Formed in 1922, the Cowboys have been subjected to harsh penalties previously as a result of hazing. In 1995, [Gabe] Higgins, 19, drowned in the Colorado River after what school officials said were hours of alcohol-fueled hazing. In response, UT disbanded the Cowboys for five years.
Enough said.
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