IU Alpha Tau Omega suspended after hazing video surfaces
 

"Indiana University has suspended a fraternity for allegedly performing a hazing ceremony that involved “sexual misconduct,” the university said late Wednesday.

Alpha Tau Omega would be banned from hosting social events and sponsoring new members while the investigation was underway, according to IU spokesman Mark Land."

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/indiana-u...id=sm_fb_msnbc

Bad day for Greek life news.

Update: The national office has revoked the charter and closed the chapter, effective immediately.

This is at least the third time that the IU chapter has been closed down since 1992, my freshman year at IU.

If proven to be true, it's good riddance. They should have learned from the previous times they ran into trouble.

Maybe I'm wrong, but in this particular case it seems the national office is to blame for not effectively communicating to that chapter's executive council that such rituals or activities are not permitted.

Last time they were kicked off campus, some alumni and brothers got together and rented an entire block of apartments at an expensive apartment complex located on Kirkwood Ave. They had an underground chapter which still had pledges and paired parties. They came back to campus stronger than ever.

This is often a problem with established chapters. The alumni set so much of the tone that no matter what HQ does with visiting consultants, the chapter will do what it wants to do. That's why I'm more of a proponent of colonizations vs. recolonizations. Why go somewhere you've already failed at?

Just saw a few photos of said incident; ugh. It looks to be an Initiation ritual.

With a diversity of men - openly gay, minorities with religious affiliation - joining fraternities now, these types of rituals need to be abandoned. It's gross, first of all, but on top of that it's offensive to anyone joining a chapter and later finding out this is part of the formal process to becoming an active member.

Perhaps the national organization needs to do a better job of choosing men for the recolonization. If 1) men are pledging what they know is an underground chapter over the recognized ones 2) the other fraternities and sororities continue to associate with the underground chapter, then something is lacking.

I could speculate wildly here about what happened, but since I don't like it when others do that, I'll just leave it at this.

--what an amazing, totally unexpected coincidence that people would join an ATO colony while an underground chapter had been operating and then go on to have basically all of the same problems as the original group. Truly, truly shocking.

Yep. I think sometimes people have been in Indy so long they forget what college is really like.

The letters are already off the house and the sign in front has been removed. Not messing around.

I do feel bad for the cook and other full-time house employees.

Interestingly, this chapter is pretty dang close to Indy, and ATO is indeed headquartered there.

(curiosity got the best of me, so I looked it up...ATO has five chapters in Indiana. I think Depauw would be the closest by a hair, then Ball State, Purdue, IU, and Rose-Hullman.)

I read about this on cnn.com. Apparently the male in question was a 21-year-old fully initiated brother. There were two women in the house. They were exotic dancers, not students.

The national CEO is quoted as saying, "[N]o pledge was compelled to participate. Regardless, the actions are contrary to the ideals and principles of Alpha Tau Omega and are highly offensive."

When will people learn? *smh*

That's news to me too! And the plot thickens.

Upon review of the article, I see that it makes reference to "a sex act" and "a sexually explicit act". I don't actually see the word "rape" in the article. My apologies for jumping to that conclusion.

Still, disgusting and unacceptable.

I haven't watched the video but I believe the Washington Post article I read earlier said that the brother struggled a bit and the dancer restrained him with her legs.

The photos seem to suggest this as well.

I'm curious to know what role the chapter plays in getting the members re-settled. Are they responsible for finding them new apartments, do they put them in a hotel until housing is secured? This was an immediate closure, similar to SAE at Oklahoma, where they had to pack up very quickly and vacate the premises.

And, would the pledges be allowed to rush into another chapter? It appears very likely they hadn't completed Initiation yet, allowing them the freedom to do so.

Considering a pledge of an NPC sorority would be eligible to rush and sign a bid for another sorority pretty much the minute the chapter closed, I'm betting an NIC fraternity pledge in the same situation would be able to do so as well. Whether he would actually receive a bid is a whole other matter.

They would seem to me to be "damaged goods" from the video I saw on National TV just a few minutes ago. They all seemed to be having quite the time as observers.

I really don't want to see this video, but my mind is going, "ew."

You are advocating prison rape in the same sentence that you condemn a rapist.

Per the IDS: The University does not own the house that previously housed the chapter and therefore cannot make the decision on whether or not the ATO members will have to vacate the house on Third Street.

“We cannot force anybody out of that house,” Land said.

The ATO Alumni Housing Corporation is in the process of deciding whether the former fraternity brothers will be evicted from the house.

ETA: When the house is vacated (now or at the end of the semester/year), I wouldn't be surprised if the University does try to snap it up. I'm guessing either that's going to happen or one of the unhoused fraternities will move in.

I would expect that housing corp will want them out ASAP to minimize damages to the house. When the last IU fraternity was kicked out of their house a few years ago, they gave them one week to be out. Housing may be hard to find this time of the year, the housing corp would be generous if they let them stay until break. However, I don't know if I would be so generous in this situation.

I think about the freshmen. They aren't little boys, but they're at a pivotal stage in their lives where everything is new to them - new school, being away from home for the first time, having to make new friends, etc. It's almost like starting high school again where they're the new guys having to make a name for themselves.

Those big brothers and upperclassmen are supposed to take them under their wing, mentor them, and help them adjust to new surroundings. Not get them booted out of their house and then face possible humiliation or rejection.

Whoa, let's put the brakes on here.

I read the article on cnn.com and jumped to an erroneous conclusion about the "sex act" in question. I haven't watched the video. I don't even know how to access the video, and I don't particularly want to go looking for it. My post was based on what I saw in the article and in this thread. I jumped to conclusions, and I have already apologized for this.

Folks, if we can't stop throwing around the rape word when there's no evidence that any rape occurred, I'm going to have to lock the thread. In today's climate, that is no longer a word which can be casually thrown around when discussing fraternity misconduct. The word comes with huge consequences for the individuals involved.

ETA: If you have used that word or made such a reference, I request that you please edit your post to remove said reference. I respect all of you enough to let you handle that yourselves.

AMEN.

As far as getting kicked out of the house that the alumni own, isn't the alumni's outlook on things part of why the chapter keeps getting shut down and recolonized but things don't seem to change? That's my take anyway. So I don't think the alumni would kick them out.