TKE at Arizona State Official Statement
Indianapolis, IN – The leadership of Tau Kappa Epsilon International Fraternity publicly issues the following statement in regard to the alleged incident that occurred at Arizona State University on January 20th, 2014.

Tau Kappa Epsilon does not condone or support any actions by its members that would be defined as racist, discriminatory, and/or offensive. Social events with "party themes" that are defined as such have no place in our fraternity's mission or purpose. It is with embarrassment and regret when a few individuals within our organization make decisions that do not align with the values and principles of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

Since 1899, our fraternity has taken much pride in the diversity and uniqueness of our membership. Tau Kappa Epsilon has never had an exclusionary clause in our membership. Our founders believed, as we do today, in the personal worth and character of the individual, not his wealth, rank, or honor. We take great pride in having members who were and are still advocates of civil rights movements in the United States. We celebrate all men and women of all races, genders, creeds, orientations, and beliefs who strive each day to make the world a better place.

We apologize for any offensive actions that a few of our members might have participated in. We can assure all other parties that these actions do not represent Tau Kappa Epsilon and the beliefs of love, charity, and esteem that we have stood by for 115 years. We will respond to these individuals while holding the utmost respect for our principles of being Better Men for a Better World.

A member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity professional staff is currently on-site at Arizona State University to begin an investigation. We have been working with university officials since we became aware of the alleged incident.

For more information, please contact:

Alex Baker
Chief Information Officer
Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity
317-872-6533
tkeogc@tke.org

So it happens. So does hazing, every national organization forbids that. We also organizationally prohibit underage drinking. Obviously, the number of these parties occurring annually is zero. Obviously, we're going to fail every year as a society to get 100% of what we want. These things will happen and when members are caught, it's fair to judge the organizations by how they handle things.

Not at all and it's going to continue to happen because I don't care how many classes you have on racial sensitivity, you're dealing with an age group which does impulsive, stupid things--and that's just simple biology.

Congrats on solving the puzzle. What would the world do without you. You have won the White Privilege Award for the day.

No.

What is it with ASU and Greeks?

Something in the air or a bunch of lemmings who just follow along to jump over the cliff trying to out do each other in stupidity??

Good thing I keep a siggy ready for just this thing!

This isn't only about race. Not everything is only about race.

And here I was thinking this was an SPSS regression model in which all other variables are controlled and only the effect of race on the outcome variable is being measured. Thanks for bringing me back to the reality of the complex social world. Tons of social dynamics and 7 billion people--I need to remember to stop believing that everything is ONLY about race just because race is a central or overarching theme. Whew! Thanks for finding my brain for me. You rock, White Privilege Award winner.

(Earlier Kevin claimed to have been saying that racially themed parties are essentially about race. Therefore, saying "so it happens...life's not perfect" is white privileged. If he said that to a person who is LGBTQ in response to a homophobic themed party that would be hetero-privilege. If he said that to a woman in response to a sexist-misogynist party would be male privilege. It is the ability as a member of the majority to say "shit happens...can't stop it...we have bigger fish to fry.")

I'm not even talking about the party. It's the point that of the many things wrong at ASU, this is probably one of the more insignificant issues. No one is going to die because of a racially themed party. Someone might die form hazing or alcohol or drug abuse.

The most stunning thing here (and not really a surprise considering TKE is TKE) is that TKE didn't disband the chapter immediately upon the university withdrawing recognition.

As some have said here, ASU greek life has issues. The Sigma Nu chapter there was caught hazing and was shut down immediately by both the school and HQ.

Sure, racially themed parties are bad. TKE is now off campus. The pound have flesh has been taken. These calls to expel students are ridiculous.

Anyway, you all have fun talking about ASU Greek Life.

I graduated from Arizona State and I was not "privileged" as someone stated. If that were the case I wouldn't owe over 20K just for my undergraduate degree.

I also want to point out that when Crow took over as president in 2002, it became apparent then that Greek Life was going to be targeted. Crow is ANTI-GREEK, so therefore Greek Life was ALWAYS going to be on his radar.

As someone else pointed out, there are at least 10 other fraternities who aren't in trouble with ASU, so saying that because TKE has a bunch of dumbasses in it, that the remaining fraternities are full of dumbasses as well.

Yes, as a Greek, I am concerned, particularly how this will effect the sororities at ASU. I am also concerned, like AZtheta said, about how the ABOR will look at the Greek Life systems at UA and NAU. I, like AZtheta, would hate for something to happen at the other schools (as I was initiated at UA).

ASU has had the reputation of being a party school since before I was in college! One thing though is that, at least when I was there, enrollment was over 75,000 and that was just on main campus! I'm guessing that maybe only 5% of that population are Greek. All the stuff that happens on that campus aren't always from the Greeks.

One thing that really made me sad was to see people throw hateful statements about Greeks overall and even TKE nationally because a few undergrads made some really poor choices. I even saw other fraternity men (in other GLOs) go out of their way to put TKE down as a national organization because of this bad decision made by the ASU chapter.