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Kappa Alpha fraternity ousted from UF for hazing activities
By JANINE YOUNG SIKES
Sun staff writer
August 02. 2005 6:01AM
The Kappa Alpha fraternity national office ousted the University of Florida's chapter off campus for two years as the penalty for sending pledges on a sign-stealing spree, forcing them to rigorously exercise without water and demanding that they drive other members from bar to bar on various days of the week. All activities are considered hazing.
"Given today's climate and our own fraternity's stance against hazing, we can't tolerate that type of behavior in our chapter," said Larry Wiese, executive director of the Lexington, Va.-based organization.
The group's house on fraternity row is being closed down and Kappa Alpha will not be allowed to have a presence on campus for two years. Thirty or so members are being forced to find new housing immediately.
And in a letter sent to Christopher Bullins, UF's director of sorority and fraternity affairs, Wiese said that one of Kappa Alpha's officers was removed as of Thursday.
The suspension comes in the wake of a UF-commissioned study released last month that says the Greek system is "clearly not meeting its potential."
UF has not yet completed its judicial review of the fraternity and the events of March 18.
Pledges were instructed by fraternity members to "keep with Kappa Alpha tradition" and to steal signs from businesses and apartment complexes to decorate the fraternity house for an upcoming party, University Police reports show.
Three pledges, caught by police with the goods in the bed of a truck, were arrested for stealing signs from Brookside Apartments and several other places in west Gainesville, as well as a life-size horse replica from Mel's Tack Room.
A patrol officer noticed the signs and several 4-by-4 posts with the concrete and dirt still attached sticking out of the back of a truck parked in the service drive of the fraternity house at 4 a.m. on March 18, police records show. The pledges - William Travis Page, 22, Michael McFadden, 19, and Kirby Ingram, 19 - told investigators that they and the rest of the pledge class had been told to take the signs as part of their membership.
But further interviews with the pledges also revealed they had been subjected to a series of hazing activities.
Page told police that the pledges would be punished if they did not complete a task, such as cleaning a fellow member's house or memorizing all the names of the members, with physical training on Flavet Field. For 1 hours, the pledges were told to run, do sit-ups and push-ups without being given any water, reports show.
Page also told police that some pledges vomited, including himself.
During the week, Page said he had been assigned to be the designated driver of members of the fraternity for three nights a week. He said he would drive the men, who had been drinking, wherever they wanted to go.
Page told officers he complied because "he did not want to face the consequences."
Calls to Kappa Alpha were referred to the national office.
The university's Greek judicial board plans to make its own recommendation for Kappa Alpha in coming weeks. The board could accept the sanctions of the national headquarters or make some changes, Bullins said. Suspensions from the national headquarters are typical, he said. "They try to take a time-out and allow the students involved in the situation to graduate to build a fresh perspective and culture there," Bullins said.
Fraternities Delta Chi and Chi Phi are scheduled to return to campus this fall after lengthy suspensions from campus.
Phi Gamma Delta, which was accused of breaking into and vandalizing the fraternity house next door last summer, is also eligible to return to campus, but the terms of reinstatement have yet to have been negotiated, Bullins said.
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