[DeltAlum]

Hazing earns Chi Phi suspension


By Tony Kluemper
Assistant News Editor - Technique
ATLANTA
April 19, 2002


For the second time in three years, the Dean of Students' office has
ordered the suspension of one of Tech's Greek organizations. The
brothers of Chi Phi fraternity have been suspended for at least two
years effective immediately, according to Vice President of Student
Services Lee Wilcox.

The investigation of Chi Phi began last month after the Dean's office
received reports of alleged violations of hazing and alcohol policies
by the brothers. Once the office received the reports they proceeded
to conduct an investigation into the truth behind the matter.

The allegations investigated were in a wide range of categories. "The
allegations were in several categories," said Wilcox. "Probably the
two biggest categories were hazing, and there were multiple examples
of hazing, and then alcohol violations and there were multiple
violations there are well."

According to Wilcox, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) then became
involved because of the seriousness of the alleged issues. "Because
of the seriousness of these charges and the potential that a chapter
could be suspended, it went to IFC Judicial Board, which is a board
totally composed of students," said Wilcox. "Altogether the IFC J-
Board found numerous violations of various Institute, IFC and Student
Code of Conduct policies."

Sam Riesenberg, chairman of the J-Board, said that the allegations
resulted from events that took place within the past six
months. "There were approximately 43 charges involving hazing or
alcohol over the last four months, starting around November or
December from the point of the judicial hearing," said Riesenberg.

The J-Board then held a hearing in the matter during which
representatives from Chi Phi were able to present their side of the
case. "They could either admit responsibility or deny it," said
Wilcox. "For most of the charges against them, the fraternity
acknowledged responsibility."

At the completion of the hearing, the J-Board makes a finding of the
facts and also develops a recommendation for sanctions against the
organization. According to Wilcox, the recommendations made by the J-
Board in this case were far reaching. "They [the J-board] recommended
to the Dean of Students' office that the fraternity be suspended
immediately through the spring of 2004," said Wilcox. "They also
listed a number of other recommendations for sanctioning."

These other recommendations dealt with the stipulations for the
process Chi Phi must go through when they attempt to come back on
campus. "The recommendation of the Judicial Board at the time was
suspension for no less than two years with several stipulations for
coming back including re-colonization," said Riesenberg.

Once the J-Board made their final recommendations, the Dean of
Students' office then decided whether these recommendations were
acceptable sanctions for the alleged violations. "The Dean of
Students' office can then choose to accept or not accept
recommendations and in this case chose to accept the
recommendations," said Wilcox.

After the recommendations of the J-Board were approved, the Dean's
office officially sent notification of the sanctions to the brothers
of Chi Phi. As is the case in most suspensions, Chi Phi then chose to
appeal to the Office of Student Affairs and Wilcox.

Wilcox's final decision, which was released to the fraternity on
Wednesday, rejected the appeal and sided with the sanctions developed
by the J-Board. "After reviewing the entire case and looking at the
severity, the frequency and the range of violations, I decided that
the two year sanction was an appropriate sanction and so denied their
appeal," said Wilcox.

Since Wilcox rejected their appeal, Chi Phi now has no choice but to
face the suspension punishment. According to the official
recommendation from the IFC J-Board, Chi Phi must "remove any letters
or marks identifying the house as Chi Phi immediately." In addition,
the brothers of Chi Phi must move out of the house by May 30 in order
to comply with the sanctions.

Although Wilcox is saddened by the fact that a chapter had to be
suspended, he feels that Chi Phi was aware of the problems and did
not do much to fix them.

"As I said in my letter to the fraternity, I am very, very sad when a
chapter needs to be suspended," said Wilcox. "Chi Phi has had a long,
proud history at Georgia Tech, and I'm really sad to see this
happen."

"I do believe that they deserved it because some of these issues were
brought up a couple of years ago, and they told us they were going to
fix them and their alumni and national office were aware of some of
these problems and they didn't get the job done."

The fact that the violations created a dangerous situation for many
of the pledges was justification for the suspension according to
Wilcox. "There were some situations where their pledge class was at
serious risk of harm," said Wilcox.

Wilcox also feels that this suspension could have an effect on the
perception of the Greek system as a whole. "Georgia Tech cannot
tolerate that and so they must be suspended for two years. But it
just hurts when a chapter of what I think is an outstanding system
does this sort of thing," said Wilcox. "It reflects on the whole
system unfortunately and adds to the perception that the Greeks
aren't responsible, when for the most part they are."

Chi Phi is not the first fraternity to be suspended off campus in
recent years. Delta Sigma Phi, Zeta Beta Tau and Sigma Alpha Epsilon
have all been suspended within the past five years and many view
these suspensions as greatly affecting the Greek image on campus.

However, Riesenberg feels that the way the Greek system is handling
these cases is showing the campus that these acts are not
acceptable. "I think it's really in-line with what we are already
doing," said Riesenberg.

"They were doing a lot of things that they knew were wrong and they
went ahead and did them anyway. This decision is basically the Greek
system saying we don't really approve of that."

Wilcox is hopeful that Chi Phi will have a successful return in two
years. "Hopefully when Chi Phi returns it will be a very positive
member of our Greek community."