Kicked Out of My Fraternity. Did They do Something Wrong?

[PsychTau]

I'm going to address a few things based on my past and current experience. Basically, the question you have posed to us is unanswerable by us. We do not have enough information.

After that semester I was academically dismissed from the college. It had nothing to do with academics. It was because of drama that I wasn't involved in but I was named as the source of it. However, giving me an academic dismissal allowed me to return to the college after being absent for one semester. Regular dismissal I would have had to wait 5 years.

No matter the dismissal (with the exception of "flunking out", which is proceeded by at least a semester of probation first), you would have had an investigation and disciplinary hearing before being suspended. Apparently they found you responsible for being somehow involved in something. In any case, judicial sanctions most likely resulted in you being considered in "poor standing" (or equivalent term) by the University.

Most (if not all) organizations, as well as Universities themselves, have a policy that states who is eligible to be a member. In the Inter/National organizations, this policy usually includes the phrase "fully matriculated student in good standing at the institution where XYZ is chartered." During the semester in question, you were not fully matriculated nor in good standing at said University (based on the information you have provided).

The fraternity president met with the Assistant Director of Greek Life weekly during the semester. She was aware of and approved of my participation in greek life while I was not a student. She said that the only restriction was that I could not appear on official rosters. However, I was still bound by the college rules. I had to go to required greek functions, do study tables, etc.

I find this exceptionally hard to believe. Most Universities require that every member (or new member) of an organization must be listed on the university roster. There are a few NIC/IFC fraternities that allow students from a nearby college/university join a chapter at a neighboring institution if there is not a chapter chartered at their institution (in this case, your community college). However, Universities tend to not recognize them as members (there may be exceptions...NPHC City Wide/Core Chapters are one such exception, but it doesn't sound like this is an NPHC Chapter) because of liability and access issues due to their non student status. In other words, it sounds very strange to me that the FSL professional could require you to attend events required by the University, but state that you cannot be listed on the rosters because of your disciplinary/non student status. It's possible this institution has different policies (once again, we don't have enough information), or he/she could have made a mistake. It's highly probable that the Chapter President totally misinterpreted what the FSL professional said...or reported it to you incorrectly.

I participated in our annual events, food drive, formal, Relay for Life, Make a Difference Day, and put in countless hours of community service. My car was even our homecoming float. I was nominated for Greek Council and IFC. I was elected to the third highest position in the fraternity and appointed to another position.

Once again, if you were not a fully matriculated student in good standing with the University, you could not have served as an officer on Greek Council or IFC. The chapter may have told you that they nominated you (if you only went to one meeting, how would you know they actually nominated you if you didn't witness it?) but that nomination would have been immediately void.

Overall, it sounds like your membership status was problematic from the start. It's quite possible that for whatever reason you were never "official" with the organization's HQ (if this organization has a HQ...I'm still not 100% clear on that). If this is true, once the HQ figured that out you could be instantly dropped without due process because you were never officially associated with the organization. Judicial/Standards Board hearings can also be conducted without the accused party present (depends on the policies) if the accused party was given proper notice and opportunity to appear.

If you really want to know if they did anything wrong, read the Constitution, Bylaws, and Procedures of the organization, as well as the Greek Life Policies of the institution where this occurred. The answers you seek are in those documents.

PsychTau