For up to five hours on Oct. 10, 2024, Squadron 17’s freshman cadets sat waiting in the Student Services Building. They were silent, a mandate imposed by Texas A&M officials, as investigators pulled them in one after another for interviews lasting up to 40 minutes in response to new hazing allegations.

Just that morning, the students were set to begin their regular routine when staff at the Office of Student Conduct stopped and marched them to the center of campus, a shock to the dozens of cadets expecting a normal day. It marked the controversial next step of a hazing investigation into Squadron 17, an all-male U.S. Air Force ROTC outfit in the Corps of Cadets that was facing reports of “alleged misconduct by upperclassmen,” according to a letter from the interim commandant obtained by The Battalion through open records requests. 

The case doesn’t stand alone. According to a Corps spokesperson, a rise in rule violations cases has prompted the Corps to commit to an ongoing self-assessment across all levels of its structure, an effort led by the student leadership that oversees the more than 2,400 cadets in the organization. 

‘I am concerned’

Outrage from Squadron 17 cadets’ parents eventually led university officials to discard the testimonies obtained from the October interviews. At least three parents filed civil rights violation reports, all of which were dismissed after an internal review.

In one November 2024 email obtained by The Battalion, Lisa Akin, chief compliance officer in the Division of Risk, Ethics, and Compliance, told a parent that while “the interview process caught the cadets by surprise, it was reasonable given the specific facts and circumstances of the incident” and that the format was chosen to ensure the cadets would provide “accurate” and “unscripted” information.

“Cadets were provided breakfast that morning and many commented they appreciated the opportunity to sleep while waiting for their interview,” Akin wrote. “Attempts were made to minimize the adverse impact on class schedules. All cadets were provided an excused absence for missed Texas A&M classes.” 

Less than two weeks after the surprise interviews, Interim Commandant Loyd S. “Chip” Utterback ‘75 discussed the circumstances with parents over a Zoom call, where he shared for the first time that the interviews wouldn’t be used. But he reaffirmed his intent to finish the investigation without the testimonies in a follow-up letter to parents sent on Nov. 1, 2024.

“There is no question in my mind there exists in Sq 17 [Squadron 17] a culture that accepts occasionally abandoning our university core values and disregarding regulations and Corps leadership guidance,” Utterback wrote.

The letter was verified by Amy Thompson, the Corps’ marketing & communications director, who added that while the investigation has since concluded, the student privacy law FERPA prevented her from commenting on its outcome. The director of the Department of Student Community Standards, which oversees the Student Conduct Office and its investigators, wrote in an email that they don’t address media inquiries about specific cases. The Corps has not disclosed the investigation’s outcome elsewhere. 

But the circumstances prompted a wider self-assessment, with an increased number of “violations of Corps Standards and Student Rule 24,” the Student Conduct Code, spurring the organization to “take an internal look at our values,” Thompson said in a statement.

In Utterback’s letter, the interim commandant said he met with members of his staff and other leaders a few weeks after the interviews to “begin mapping out a strategy to look inward — from the outfit level up.” Then just two days later, he noted, the Corps received another two reports of misconduct in Squadron 17, adding that the outfit’s commanding officer had prohibited upperclassmen from interacting with the freshman cadets until a solution was found. 

Currently, Utterback and his staff are working with Squadron 17’s leadership on “coaching, teaching and correcting behaviors, if necessary,” Thompson said. She added that due to the student-led self-assessment, “communication throughout the cadet leadership chain has already improved, and we anticipate additional themes to emerge.”

Reports of violations in the Corps of Cadets aren’t new. In October 2023, a student filed a $1 million lawsuit against cadets he alleges hazed him with “humiliating and degrading” acts. According to court records, the case is ongoing and had a hearing on April 28. 

The Fall 2024 incident also comes after a separate hazing investigation into Squadron 17 in Spring 2024, under the tenure of former commandant Patrick Michaelis. That pursuit saw similar outrage from parents and former students, enough that Michaelis alluded to it in his letter to staff when President Mark A. Welsh III directed him to step down in August 2024. There, he cited “the reaction to a recent hazing investigation” as a reason he had been “working on borrowed time.” 

The outcome of that investigation remains unclear. However, the outfit was not listed on the university’s list of organizations found responsible for hazing in Spring 2024. 

Editor’s note: The terms “internal investigation” and “internal review” were changed to better reflect the nature of the initiative, which is an ongoing, student-led self-assessment of the Corps.