PKT closes CU frat house after drinking investigation
 

National fraternity closes CU frat house after drinking investigation

By By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
October 10, 2005

BOULDER — Phi Kappa Tau National Fraternity has suspended its University of Colorado chapter following the hospitalization of several female students who attended drinking parties last month.

All operations and activities of the CU chapter, 1150 College Ave., will be suspended for an indefinite period, but at least through this academic year, the national body announced.

None of the fraternity’s members currently face individual sanctions from the national organization. The 35 fraternity members living in the house have until Friday to find alternative housing, members said.

CU officials said they applaud the move by the national organization and will work with it to try to keep the members in school and progressing toward their degrees.

"Our investigation indicated a culture within our chapter that is not representative of the values and principles of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity nor those of the Greek community in Boulder," Chief Executive Officer Steve Hartman said in a statement.

Nine women, ages 18 and 19, needed medical attention after attending drinking parties Sept. 24. Seven said they'd been drinking alcohol at Sigma Pi and/or Phi Kappa Tau fraternities, which are across College Avenue from one another.

Boulder police said that toxicology reports revealed at least two of the women tested positive for the "date rape" drug GHB, a powerful depressant that is undetectable when added to a drink. One of the women had enough of it to be fatal, considering how much she’d also been drinking, according to toxicologists. The results on the other women were not known.

Following the death last year of CU freshman Gordy Bailey from alcohol poisoining, the CU administration tried to get fraternities and sororities to delay recruitment of freshmen until the spring. Sororities agreed, but fraternities did not.

The fraternities lost access to the CU database that helps them recruit new members, but CU still plays a limited role in overseeing fraternity behavior.

FYI.

There are also several posts about this on the "9 Women Hospitalized" thread.

The story from the Colorado Daily:

Colorado Daily
October 12, 2005

Homeless and unhappy

By STEPHANIE OLSEN Colorado Daily Staff Writer

It's been a tumultuous few weeks for
approximately 72 Phi Kappa Tau members and 24 Phi
Kappa Tau pledges at CU-Boulder since a party at
the house held on Sept. 23.

The cherry on top came Sunday, when the
fraternity members were informed the Boulder
chapter of Phi Kappa Tau was being suspended at
least until the end of the academic year.

Now, about 32 residents of the Phi Kappa Tau
house are finding themselves between a rock and a
hard place - finding a place to live for the rest
of the year while juggling schoolwork.

"Pretty much I feel helpless," said Brendan Egan,
a CU junior and member of the fraternity. "I feel
like they just totally put everything on us · I
had a test on Monday and I couldn't even think
about it because I'm just trying to find a place
to live right now and it's not easy."

The Boulder Police Department began
investigations into the fraternities of Sigma Pi
and Phi Kappa Tau after nine women were sent to
the hospital for suspicion of alcohol poisoning
during the morning hours of Sept. 24. Some of the
women had attended parties at one or both of the
fraternities the night before.

Recently, Boulder police reported two of the
women tested positive for traces of gamma
hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a common "date-rape" drug,
but it is still unknown where the women ingested
the drugs. The women have not yet been
identified, nor have they contacted the media in
regard to the events of that evening.

Monday, the national offices of the Phi Kappa Tau
fraternity announced it had decided to close its
Boulder chapter, but said the decision had been
made before police announcements that GHB was
found in the women's blood.

Egan said as of right now, only about half of the men have a place to live.

"There's still a lot of us that don't have a
place," he said. "Some of us are leaving for fall
break, so we're going to come back and literally
be homeless."

John Henderson, director of Greek Affairs, said
CU is trying to help the men as much as possible
with finding a new place to live.

He said a packet of information containing the
contact information of Off-Campus Student
Services at CU, information about the Bear Creek
Apartments, the latest listings in the Boulder
area of all houses, apartments and condominiums
and listings of people looking for roommates, was
provided to the men on Sunday.

"I know it's not the same as living in a chapter
house that's one or two blocks up above the Hill
business area, but there were a number of options
and because it is still a renter's market, the
possibilities are, I think, pretty extensive,"
said Henderson.

Henderson said originally the deadline for the
students to move out of the fraternity house was
Friday, but has been extended to Sunday.

"I think ideally the students would like more
time obviously," he said. "I think that the other
side of it is though, the longer you allow it to
continue, then it's going to be harder for people
to move, so it just depends on which perspective
you take."

Marc D. Stine, Greek advocate at CU, said Phi
Kappa Tau advisors gathered information about
property that is owned by alumni of the
fraternity or property managers Phi Tau alumni
are associated with, for the men.

He said information about landlords who are
willing to pro-rate rent and take deposits over
time was also provided to them.

"The decision · that they had to leave the house
quickly was made by the national fraternity and
that's based on · 100 years of experience of
closing houses and what is the most effective way
to get that done," said Stine.

He also said there is the possibility of angry
members damaging the house if permitted to stay a
longer period of time.

"Without naming names, there are chapters that
have closed without incident and there are
chapters that have closed where the men in the
house have done upwards of $100,000 worth of
damage to the physical structure," said Stine.

Egan said he understands the worry exists that
the men will damage the house, but said it is an
"irrational" decision to kick its 32 inhabitants
out so quickly.

"They didn't even get all the facts straight," he
said about the Sept. 23 party. "They didn't even
get to hear everything before they kicked us out."

Officials from the national office said Monday a
series of events over the past 18 to 24 months
contributed to the decision to close the chapter
and move the members out of the fraternity house,
not only the party a couple of weeks ago.

Still, Egan said the national office was quick to make judgments.

"I think the main reason is media attention," he
said. "We got negative media attention again and
they don't want that. That was the final strand."

Phi Kappa Tau officials said the fraternity is
being shut down because the Boulder chapter was
not following the fraternity's mission or
representing its values and principles.

Egan said the fraternity did everything they were
supposed to before holding the recent party.

"We went through all of the necessary steps to
get off social probation in order to throw that
party," he said.

Egan said the fraternity had been on social
probation previously for holding the same party
the year before, which involved underage drinking.

To end the probation, he said fraternity members
performed community service, attended a "Building
Men of Character" retreat weekend, a program
through Phi Kappa Tau's national fraternity to
teach member's the fraternity's values, and
several meetings.

"It was a pain," said Egan. "Half the guys that
lived out of the house wouldn't come up, so it
kind of turned into the guys that cared were
still here and those are most of the guys that
are affected by this."

He said the fraternity went to great measures to
try to make the party on Sept. 23 a successful
party.

"We sat down weeks before this party," said Egan.
"We sat down and discussed risk management, what
we could do for this party that would make it a
safe place to be, a safe environment."

As a result of the discussions, there were 10
sober fraternity members patrolling the party,
security at the door and ID checks at the bar.

Egan said at no time did he see anyone who
appeared to be overly intoxicated and the party
was even broken up early, at around 12:30 a.m.

"All those people that left could have definitely
gone 10 other places before they went home or
went to the hospital," he said.

Egan said mostly people in the house are in
disbelief right now and do not feel like they
have gotten a lot of support.

"The support of the people that actually kicked
us out of the house is very minimal," he said,
"and I want to stress that."

Egan said he feels like a "bad guy," even though
the guys in the house are "good" and
"respectable" people.

"Sometimes I walk around and I'm like, all right,
that person might think of me differently just
because I'm in this fraternity, they might think
I'm a party animal or something," he said, "but
really, there's just a bunch of good guys in this
house and we actually have to go find a new place
(to live). That's not a joke."

Stine said he is waiting for the men in the
fraternity to accept what has happened and
realize it is a done deal.

"I have not adequately heard those young men, in
my opinion, accept the responsibility for what's
happened," he said.

Egan said the solution to the problem of drinking
is not to shut down Phi Kappa Tau and close the
house.

"This is not the solution to the problem and that
is what they don't understand," he said. "The
whole freshman and sophomore class is underage.
Why don't you focus on them and their drinking
problem before you focus on us?"

I heard about it on the news. very sad.