Chapter Closings/Hazing and Alcohol

[James]

You have to respect them for having the courage of their convictions. There are a lot of decisions made by National Organizations that are done without undergrad input. I know that some chapters sent back their charters when dry 2000 came out. If more undergrads were willing to stand up to their nationals over issues they don't agree with, they would have more say in their organizations.

[DeltAlum]

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. As I've said before, I always cringe a little when I read Fraternal News, expecting sooner or later to see a Delt Chapter involved. Well, here it is.

The second article is really worrisome.

From: Fraternity/Sorority Newsclips <doug.case@sdsu.edu>
Subject: U. Alabama's Delta Tau Delta suspended for alcohol violations

The Crimson White
University of Alabama
February 7, 2002

U. Alabama's Delta Tau Delta suspended for alcohol violations

By Michael Green, The Crimson White

University of Alabama's Delta Tau Delta fraternity has been removed
from its house and suspended until further notice by the University.
Cathy Andreen, director of University media relations, said the
fraternity was suspended because of alcohol violations.

Elaine Globetti, director of student judicial affairs, gave a similar
response for the suspension. "There was a number of alcohol
violations that were flagrant and serious," Globetti said.

According to University officials, the fraternity violated Article 3,
section d, area 2 in the Code of Student Conduct, which lists
"Offenses Disrupting Order or Disregarding Health and Safety." The
code outlaws the "use, possession or distribution of alcoholic
beverages except as expressly permitted by the law and University
regulations, or public intoxication."

This is not the first time fraternities have been in front of the
judicial affairs board. Sigma Nu and Alpha Tau Omega were suspended
in 1996 for hazing. Alpha Tau Omega's suspension lasted for two
years, and Sigma Nu was suspended for three years.

John R. Yacup, public relations director for the local Delta Tau
Delta chapter, said the fraternity was removed from its house last
semester.

"The fraternity was forced to move out of the house by Jan. 1, 2002,"
Yacup said.

Globetti said the length of Delta Tau Delta's suspension was still to
be determined, since the appeals process is currently underway. She
added a fraternity could be reinstated on campus at any time after
its suspension.

Yacup said nothing is final from the appeals process.

Jon Macklem, Student Government Association president and Delta Tau
Delta member, was hopeful about the appeal proceedings.

"I hope house leadership can work with the University to resolve this
matter," he said. "University policies are set in stone, and we fully
respect their judgments."

Delta Tau Delta's central office could not be reached to comment on
the situation.


(C) 2002 The Crimson White


__________________________________________________ ______________________
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Message: 6
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 14:21:14 -0800
From: Fraternity/Sorority Newsclips <doug.case@sdsu.edu>
Subject: Univ. of Delaware suspends five fraternities

The Review
University of Delaware
February 8, 2002

UD suspends five fraternities
BY STEVE RUBENSTEIN

Editor in Chief

Judicial action taken against university fraternities between the end
of Fall Semester and beginning of Spring Semester left five chapters
suspended, administrators and student leaders said.

Justin Brenner, Interfraternity Council president, said Kappa Alpha,
Phi Kappa Tau, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Sigma Nu and Tau Kappa Epsilon have
been suspended for term lengths ranging from three to seven semesters.

"I have no pity for those chapters who were suspended, " Brenner
said. "They violated the rules and now that the rules are being
enforced you just can't complain about it."

Scott Mason, assistant director of the Student Centers, said the
university would no longer tolerate violations of the policies
established to regulate fraternity and sorority life.

"Things that fell through the cracks won't be left unchecked
anymore," he said. "The university has stuck by that promise."

According to Brenner, a member of Kappa Delta Rho, the suspended
fraternities were found guilty in connection with the following
violations:

Kappa Alpha held a party during the university's dry period during
the first two weeks of the Fall Semester (suspended through Spring
2003);

Phi Kappa Tau held a party on the same night as Kappa Alpha and was
placed on deferred suspension. Later, members of the group committed
additional acts and were found guilty of two other violations
(suspended through Spring 2004);

Sigma Phi Epsilon held a party without social status (suspended
through Spring 2003);

Sigma Nu held a party without social status (suspended through Spring 2003);

Tau Kappa Epsilon pledged a first semester freshman and was found
guilty of another violation (suspended through Spring 2005.

More aggravating than losing five fraternities, Brenner said, is the
perception this creates for remaining fraternity chapters on campus.

"It frustrates me that this gives the other 13 fraternities on campus
a bad name," he said. "These were the fraternities that have been
breaking the rules for years and it finally caught up with them.

"Now we can move forward.'

Mason similarly said he felt that a few chapters on campus only
projected the bad images often associated with fraternities.

"A few bad apples ruin the bunch - that's the phrase that really fits
here," he said.

Brenner said he adamantly believes the university is "not out to get
the fraternities, " but only trying to enforce rules that were stated
multiple times.

"The university wasn't looking to do this," he said. "All chapters
came in front of a judicial board because of a police report that
came across Mason's desk.

"That's impossible to ignore."

Brenner confirmed that members of Kappa Alpha and Sigma Nu no longer
occupy their former houses. They were forced to find alternative
living space.

Michael Gabhart, director of chapter services for Phi Kappa Tau
National, said members of the university's chapter of his
organization still remained in their house. If a board of inquiry
currently investigating the chapter moves to suspend its charter, he
said, members would no longer be permitted to live in the house.

"It is our intention to retain ownership of the property in either
case," he said.

Ashley Worboys, assistant executive director for Kappa Alpha
National, said the chapter's house on Amstel Avenue would be
renovated over the next 12-24 months.

"We have also suspended the charter until the end of spring 2003 and
hope to reoccupy the house after that point," he said.

In the best interest of Kappa Alpha, Worboys said, the national
organization is working with the university to suspend the chapter.

"We always try to maintain a positive long-term relationship with the
host university, " he said. "We intend to return to the University of
Delaware with a dynamic opportunity to help prove the Greek system."

Gabhart said his national organization "supports and acknowledges"
the university's investigations into Phi Kappa Tau.

Brenner looks forward to leading the 13 remaining fraternities on
campus. While he hopes the suspended chapters will be able to repair
there relationships with the university, he stressed that these
groups should not be viewed as legitimate.

"Don't rush these chapters, "he said. "They have no accountability to
anyone except their own whims."

[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."

[chscrew144]

The only hazing I have encountered (the guys in my old rez dont haze.. I prefer to call it monumentally idiotic behaviour) was during hs. Some hazing rituals involved w/my hs crew were the dash for cash and full contact sprints.

The dash for cash involved making an underclassman run half the length of the bus to grab money out of a vent or touch te bathroom door as he was beaten, kicked, stripped, wedgied, elbowed, head butted.. anything to stop him from getting the money and then we'd pick tem up and throw them up tp the front of the bus and get someone else.. we told them to take glasses off, take anything valuable out of their pockets and tuck their shirts in.

It was done to show balls and to have fun. We let off tons of steam doing that and i was a part many times on both ends.. we had a big team comprising roughly 40-50 guys on varsity.. it kept growing and growing and stayed steady last year due to injuries and kids quitting, some in response to what we did amongst ourselves. i was wondering if anyone knew of stuff like this happening in fraternities.

Full contact sprints were just that.. you ran from point a to point b and could do anything to your opponent.

Fortunately there were no hazing rituals on the university wrestling team.

[DeltAlum]

This chapter lucked out, I think.

The Associated Press
May 31, 2002

Supreme Court refuses to reinstate lawsuit over hazing incident

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The state Supreme Court refused Friday to reinstate
a lawsuit against a University of Kansas fraternity over a 1997
incident that left a student in an alcohol-induced coma.

Matthew Prime filed the lawsuit against Pi Kappa Alpha in 1999 in
Douglas County District Court, seeking more than $375,000 in damages.
Also named as defendants were several leaders of the fraternity at
the time, the fraternity's national organization and the Mount Oread
House Corp., which holds title to the house.

In his lawsuit, Prime said he attended a February 1997 event at the
house that was a ritual in the fraternity's membership process. He
claimed pledges were encouraged or coerced into drinking large
quantities of beer and hard liquor.

Prime, then 19, eventually passed out, and fraternity members took
him to a hospital emergency room, where he was comatose from alcohol
poisoning for 12 hours, according to the lawsuit.

He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.294 percent, when the legal limit
was 0.08 percent. The university later suspended the fraternity.

But Douglas County District Judge Michael J. Malone dismissed Prime's
lawsuit before a trial, ruling that Kansas law and court rulings
don't recognize the right to sue over someone furnishing alcohol to
underage drinkers. He also said that Prime voluntarily consumed
alcohol.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision upheld Malone's ruling.

"Kansas does not impose liability on the supplier of alcoholic
beverages for harm suffered by a minor due to intoxication," Justice
Donald Allegrucci wrote in the court's opinion.

The case is Matthew J. Prime vs. Beta Gamma Chapter of Pi Kappa
Alpha, et al., No. 85,861.

(c0 2002 The Associated Press.

[DeltaSigStan]

Here's what I've gathered in the most recent years at San Diego State......

1986: Pikes were kicked out for an alleged rape at a party. They have since never returned

1991: SAE expelled. Recolonized in 1995, finally got recognition in 1999, and are 2nd largest fraternity on campus

1997: Sig Eps expelled in what one official said was "the worst hazing he's ever seen". Pledges were spat on. walked on, and were forced to eat dog food. Rechartered in 200, but instead of pledging, now have their "Balanced Man" insta-brother program. Fairly small chapter but still growing.

1998: Delta Sig expelled for hazing. Amazingly, due to a strong alumni, recharters a few monthes later. Built around the dry house policy and no hazing policy, is the laughing stock of the SDSU Greeks. Changes it's direction for recruitment in 2000 (though still holding the same strict alcohol/hazing policy) and gets fairly stronger. Still one of the smaller houses, will move into the new row in the fall and will only get stronger.

2000: Beta Theta Pi AND TKE both kicked out for hazing. Betas leave and haven't recolonized. TKE's nationals find that what happened with their new member was correct, so operate on campus though University still fails to recognize them.

2002: Kappa Sigma kicked out for hazing after officers and pledges are caught with alcohol.

[DeltAlum]

Associated Press
October 4, 20002

CU fraternity closed after accident involving alcohol

National officials of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity have closed
their University of Colorado chapter after it was found to have
violated rules barring underage drinking.

"That chapter is permanently suspended," said Howard Obenchain,
spokesman for the fraternity's national office. "They're gone."
Former members of the Boulder chapter couldn't be reached Thursday.
CU officials said some of the students remain living in the
fraternity's house. Rooms in the house, owned by a group of alumni,
will be leased out to students in the future.

Phi Delta Theta could attempt to reopen after three or four years,
once the current members finish school at CU, said Bob Maust,
coordinator of the university's alcohol education programs.
"I think this is an example of what strong fraternities can do,"
Maust said of the charter's revocation. "The national office was well
ahead of us on this one."

CU's Office of Judicial Affairs will consider student-conduct charges
against those involved in the keg party and an automobile accident
that followed.

"They're currently in the process of investigating the incident," CU
spokeswoman Pauline Hale said.
Six fraternity members and pledges were injured, one seriously, early
Sept. 19 when the SUV they were riding in rolled over on Colo. 119
near Boulder Falls.

The students were among 20 pledges who were dropped off in the
mountains with a keg of beer as part of a fraternity "icebreaker" for
potential inductees, according to police reports.

Officers cited nine fraternity members and pledges for underage drinking.

(c) 2002 The Associated Press.