Hazing at AEPi-Muhlenberg??? Nope

[hoosier]

November 13, 2004

Muhlenberg fraternity off suspension
Investigators find no evidence Alpha Epsilon Pi was hazing.

By Christina Gostomski
Of The Morning Call

Three days after suspending a fraternity for reports of hazing, Muhlenberg College on Friday lifted the sanction after an investigation failed to substantiate the claims.

Officials at the Allentown college suspended Alpha Epsilon Pi on Tuesday, one day after the fraternity's national headquarters suspended the group for incidents that reportedly occurred during new-member initiations.

The suspensions — which prohibited the fraternity from conducting meetings, social events or community service — were lifted after an investigation by the national organization failed to prove hazing happened.

''They found there was no actual hazing,'' said Chris Jachimowicz, the college's director of student leadership development and Greek life.

Jachimowicz had received an anonymous call from someone claiming to be a parent of a student joining Alpha Epsilon Pi. The caller wanted to know how long the initiation for new members would last, Jachimowicz said.

During the conversation, the caller mentioned initiation events that Jachimowicz believed could be ''physical hazing.'' Physical hazing, which is prohibited on campus, could include incidents such as forced calisthenics, throwing objects at people or tying them up.

Jachimowicz would not say what incidents the caller mentioned and said it was unclear whether they actually occurred. The caller did not give any dates or times and did not identify any students as being involved, he said.

The lack of details and anonymity of the call made the reported hazing hard to investigate, Jachimowicz said.

On Friday, the national organization submitted a report to the college saying its investigation didn't find evidence of physical hazing.

Comments by fraternity members led some new members to believe physical hazing might happen and ''led to the report from the parent,'' Jachimowicz said. He said the college and national headquarters would work with the fraternity next year to improve its new-member initiation.

The Alpha Epsilon Pi complaint marks the seventh anonymous tip about a fraternity or sorority the college has received since the start of the academic year.

Alpha Epsilon Pi's suspensions came just weeks after Phi Kappa Tau completed its two-year probation. The fraternity had been placed on probation for vandalism, providing alcohol to minors, underage possession and consumption of alcohol and harassment of students.

None of Muhlenberg's four fraternities or four sororities is now on probation.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by hoosier
None of Muhlenberg's four fraternities or four sororities is now on probation.

It's a miracle!

But seriously, it's nice to have that be true somewhere. I wonder how many other schools have nobody on probation or suspension.

[pinkyphimu]

as an alum of muhlenberg....i am very surprised that they determined that there was no hazing. i really can't speak for aepi specifically, but hazing is alive and well at muhlenberg.

[Rudey]

I'm happy because our fraternity immediately did an investigation and didn't allow the risk to get out of control and I'm happier, that the charges were wrong and we will be working to provide members with a safe and great brotherhood in the future.

-Rudey

[DeltAlum]

Agree. Looks like this was handled pretty well by the Fraternity.

[madmax]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by hoosier
None of Muhlenberg's four fraternities or four sororities is now on probation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by DeltAlum
It's a miracle!

But seriously, it's nice to have that be true somewhere. I wonder how many other schools have nobody on probation or suspension.

Its no miracle. The stats don't count the organizations that were kicked out, shut down or went out of business.


History

CHARTERING TIMELINE – MEN’S FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS

1867 – 1904 Phi Gamma Delta
1868 – 1885 Chi Phi
1881 - 2000 Alpha Tau Omega, (Alpha Iota)
1918-1994/1998 - present Phi Kappa Tau, (Eta)
1923 - 1938 Theta Upsilon Omega
(merged w/Sig Ep in 1938)

1927 – 1963 Kappa Phi Kappa
1931 – 1978 Lambda Chi Alpha
1932 – 1970 Phi Epsilon Pi
(merged w/ZBT in 1970)

1970 – 1995 Zeta Beta Tau
1938 – present Sigma Phi Epsilon, (Penn Iota)
1949 – 1965 Phi Sigma Kappa
1958 – 2003 Tau Kappa Epsilon, (Zeta Eta)
1972 – 1979 Sigma Pi Sigma
1988 – present Alpha Epsilon Pi, (Alpha Beta)
1998 – 2002/2003 - present Delta Tau Delta, (Theta Chi)

[DeltAlum]

They're not my stats. The quote comes from the original post.

Don't you think the article is talking about presently chartered chapters?

If you look at a school's entire history, I doubt that there is a single one without a group having been dropped.

[pinkyphimu]

rudey, i agree. it was awesome that aepi hopped in so quickly. the other allegations that have come up this semester have not been acted upon so quickly. some groups have had more than one allegation and there has been no peep from hq.

since 1994, muhlenberg has lost 5 fraternities. two have since returned. of the five, two houses were closed due to hazing, three because of drugs/sexual assault/ other risk managment issues. none of the 4 sororities have been on any major probations (as far as i know) in their 20 year history on campus.


ps. i was lettered aepi when i was there and many of the people i still keep in contact with are brothers.