[DeltAlum]

From Fraternal News Volume 180.

Question: With two suspensions in the past three years, four other GLO's kicked off local campuses and specific rules you've agreed to, how do you justify these actions?

Are the adminstrations "out to get" fraternities? Maybe/maybe not. Are the rules too strict? Could be. Are groups being targeted? Possible.

So, was it worth the alcohol violations, pledging the extra men without the minimum GPA?

Bottom line? It dosen't matter. The charters are gone.

Live with the rules or get them changed or be prepared to close the doors.


San Diego Union-Tribune
April 19, 2002

USD suspends fraternity over hazing, alcohol

By Samuel Autman
STAFF WRITER

The University of San Diego chapter of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity has
been suspended indefinitely for hazing and alcohol-related violations.

In the last three years, the university placed the fraternity on
probation twice. After repeat violations, the university and national
fraternity agreed last weekend that it was time to take action
against the group.

This is the fifth San Diego-area fraternity to be suspended or
expelled for hazing or alcohol violations in the last two years.

It also highlights how universities are responding with increased enforcement.

Thomas Cosgrove, USD's dean of students, said Phi Kappa Theta was
suspended because of an accumulation of violations over the years.
Some of the episodes involved hazing, which he did not elaborate on,
and providing alcohol to minors. Cosgrove said any hazing violates
campus and national fraternity guidelines and is illegal in
California.

He said the fraternity had agreed to clean up its act. The university
ordered the fraternity to limit the number of pledges to 15 this
year. And all new members needed at least a 3.0 grade point average.
But the fraternity broke the agreement by admitting 24 people,
Cosgrove said. Only six had a qualifying GPA.

"We describe ourselves as a value-based university," said Cosgrove.
"We are serious about standards and holding people to them. We gave
them the opportunity to make changes and they simply have not."

USD is a Catholic university with about 6,900 students enrolled in
some 50 graduate and undergraduate programs.

Efforts to reach fraternity members were unsuccessful.

The group had 45 members. It will now be barred from campus and
conducting any business in the name of the fraternity. It had no
house on campus, nor do the remaining four fraternities and five
sororities at USD.

Craig Melancon, executive director of Phi Kappa Theta's national
office in Indianapolis, said that because the fraternity had agreed
it would accept only 15 members with a certain GPA, the 18 pledges
who did not meet the criteria would not have been covered by the
fraternity's insurance.

"As 18-to 22-year-olds, you think you are bulletproof," Melancon
said. "You don't realize their parents' homeowners policies could
have been in jeopardy and that it could affect their parents' lives."

The fraternity had been on USD's campus for nearly 40 years. Melancon
said members were a vital part of student life at USD.

He said that while colleges and universities across the nation are
coming down hard on Greeks, as fraternity members are called, Greeks
are not the only ones who drink.

Citing statistics from the North American Interfraternity Conference,
Greeks have a higher graduation rate, contribute millions of dollars
to charities and give participants a healthy way to socialize while
on campus, he said.

In October, the San Diego State University chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
was placed on probation after Melancon's office expelled 16 members
for violating that school's alcohol and drug policy.

SDSU has expelled or suspended more fraternities than any other local
university in recent years. Last month, SDSU expelled Kappa Sigma
fraternity for providing alcohol to minors.

On the same day, SDSU announced that the national office of the Kappa
Delta sorority suspended the SDSU chapter after an adult adviser
found alcohol at a sorority-sponsored baseball game.

And in December 2000, SDSU expelled Beta Theta Pi and Tau Kappa
Epsilon fraternities after underage pledges were hospitalized for
alcohol poisoning.

Last April, Point Loma Nazarene University expelled Psi Omega Theta
fraternity for hazing that left pledges needing medical attention.

Marian Novak, coordinator of SDSU's Community Collegiate Alcohol
Prevention Partnership, which works with all local universities on
alcohol prevention, said campuses nationwide are responding in the
same way to drinking.

"Youth today are not drinking more," she said. "It's enforcement and
awareness that has changed. The college campuses are becoming
proactive and fighting against these issues."

(c) 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Company