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Emory IFC: "Goodbye Pikes"
Frat presidents decide to pull Pike from IFC
By Meris M. Lutz
Staff Writer
November 05, 2004
The Interfraternity Council voted late Tuesday night to stop recognizing Pi Kappa Alpha as an official campus fraternity after concerns were raised about its history of offenses involving fighting and underage drinking.
The president of each official fraternity voted secretly, creating a new precedent of student involvement in the decision of a fraternity’s status.
No official vote total was announced, and no presidents would say how they voted.
After the meeting, IFC allowed Pike 48 hours to submit an appeal to the Conduct Council’s judicial appeals board. It was unknown as of press time Wednesday whether Pike had appealed.
“We are taking it one step at a time,” Pike President Lee Brodsky said. “We are going to go through with our plan of action as if we were successful during the hearing.”
Brodsky said the plan includes “fostering better interfraternal relations” and “addressing campuswide issues” such as underage drinking and fighting.
Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Lauren Kent-Delany predicted Pike would appeal and said that a hearing would probably occur next week.
She said the administration is anxious to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
IFC President Jon Rio said IFC could not determine whether Pike should keep its fraternity house, a decision left to Executive Vice President and Dean of Student Life John Ford.
Ford could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Kent-Delany said administrators for the first time allowed the IFC to vote on whether to revoke a fraternity’s charter.
“It’s always more powerful to have students monitoring students,” she said.
Rio said IFC has long had the authority to expel a fraternity but has never had to chance to use it before.
“This is the first-time the IFC has voted to revoke its recognition of a chapter, although it’s had the power to do so for quite some time,” Rio said.
He said Pike has been on behavioral probation since October and has had several “incidents” during that time period.
Rio said the IFC executive board decided to have the presidents of the fraternities vote instead of the regular IFC delegates because they are the “most engaged and best informed” members of the Greek community.
“I made it very clear that they were not representatives of their chapters. They are delegates of the Greek community,” Rio said. “They’re not there to vote how their chapter wanted them to vote.”
A fraternity president who asked to remain anonymous said the meeting was well-run and very organized.
He also said that Pike’s misconduct had been allowed to persist for too long.
“Obviously it went too far,” he said. “It should never come to this. I don’t know if it’s the school, Pi Kappa Alpha, the national chapter, but as a fraternity president, it’s personally distressing.”
If Pike successfully appeals, Rio said, the IFC “will work with Pike to figure something out.”
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