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Memorial Held For WVU Student Who Died Following Frat Incident

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (KDKA) – Another fraternity at West Virginia University has lost its charter.

Beta Theta Pi has had all of its rights and privileges revoked, and is now no longer recognized by the university.

The charter was lost because of past behavior issues by fraternity members.

Meanwhile, a memorial was held Thursday in Morgantown for Nolan Burch, who died last week after he was found unconscious at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house.

WVU also no longer recognizes that fraternity.

A bus load of students and faculty had planned to attend Burch's funeral in Buffalo, but when bad weather rolled through that area, plans were changed. Nolan's parents were behind the memorial.

At 10 a.m., the exact time funeral services were taking place for the 18-year-old at Calvary Episcopal Church in Williamsville, near Buffalo, New York, a memorial service at Trinity Episcopal Church in Morgantown, West Virginia, was also underway.

Nolan's parents made the suggestion because they were concerned that people could not make it to Buffalo because of the heavy snow there. They wanted everyone to feel included.

A little more than 20 students and faculty attended.

Burch was found unconscious last Wednesday inside Kappa Sigma, an off-campus frat house. He died Friday in the hospital.

Fr. Mike Hadaway performed last rights and led the memorial service. He hopes Nolan's death will be a wakeup call.

"I am very concerned about the drinking issue here at WVU. I think this is obviously something that was 100 percent avoidable, and it was tragic," he said.

Since Nolan's death, the university has put a moratorium in place for all fraternities and sororities, meaning the groups can only engage in charitable events and chapter meetings.

According to Dean of Students Corey Farris, WVU hopes to meet with all Greek leaders after Thanksgiving to talk about how they want to change their behavior in the future.

"Certainly, if there is any criminal element to this, certainly the Morgantown Police Department will file appropriate charges and we will take appropriate action," he said. "If that means expelling students or separating them from us in some way, shape or form we will certainly do that."

The Morgantown Police Department says it has no updates on their investigation at this time.

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