Oct. 26, 2006

Delta Upsilon’s charter suspended

MC’s oldest fraternity disbanded due to rush-related incident

BY JON MOFFETT
jrm001@marietta.edu

For people who aren’t in Greek life, the entire idea of it is clouded. But for those members of fraternities and sororities on campuses across the United States, their way of life is sacred.

It’s no secret that the entire Greek way of life has been clouded by stereotypes given by movies, horror stories from other campuses, or other types of outside sources. However, to the actual members of the Greek system, this sort of lifestyle means so much more to them. It gives them a chance to learn about loyalty, unity, brotherhood (or sisterhood), and teamwork.

Only those people who are actually in the Greek system know of the goings-on that take place behind closed doors, but when an incident occurs outside of that realm, that’s when things get difficult.

Delta Upsilon, the oldest fraternity on campus, has had its charter officially suspended by Marietta College.

• The Inciden t •

According to reports in the October 20 edition of The Marietta Times, during a party in Harmar this past September, members of the Delta Upsilon fraternity, along with some alumni, began hazing one of the fraternity’s pledges. The hazing, which was intended to be playful and a joke, quickly got out of hand.

A few members of the fraternity began slapping the pledge, and then a few of the fraternity’s alumni began to do so as well.

“From my understanding a few active members started playing some kind of joke and then the person involved stopped seeing it as a joke,” stated Zach Hart, junior at Marietta College and president of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. “Then a few alumni continued it. From what I know it was slapping and most certainly not punching or kicking or anything else.”

The incident forced the college into a position that left them no choice but to suspend the fraternity’s charter indefinitely. This decision was made because of this incident and what Tom Perry, Marietta’s Director of College Relations, called, “repeated violations of the College Creed.”

“It was not a decision taken lightly, because we do realize the fraternity has been on campus longer than any other [since 1870] and has a great history here. But we had to take some kind of action.”

These violations, some of which go back to before any of the current members even applied to Marietta, violate the College’s Creed on the grounds of both alcohol and hazing and date back for the past several years. The fraternity was put on probation for the 2004-2005 year because of an alcohol related violation. After the compounding violations, topped with the incident involving the pledge, the college took action.

“I’m very upset about it,” said Hart. “I know the administration had to look at the fraternity as a whole but I feel there are a lot of guys left that had nothing to do with this type of incident and were willing to work hard to turn things around. There are a lot more of those than idiots slapping people.”

• The Repercussions •

As stated earlier, the fraternity’s charter has been suspended as of Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006.

The Student Conduct Board, which is in charge of hearing any and all cases that deal with violations of the College Creed, gave the fraternity the chance to file an appeal to the committee. The charter was set to be suspended on Thursday, Oct. 5. According to reports, however, no formal appeal report was ever submitted, so the committee went through with the suspension. The fraternity did, however, submit a formal letter to Dr. Lon Vickers, Vice President for Student Life, and Dean of Students at Marietta College, asking for another chance for the fraternity and its members.

Now what exactly does that mean? It means that Marietta College, from this point until the fraternity is reinstated on campus, will not recognize the fraternity as a campus organization. The group will not be able to participate in campus activities as an organization, and will not be able to either be part of or host any Greek-affiliated events on campus.

The suspension handed down by the Student Conduct Board was worded as ‘indefinite’ which essentially means that it is in effect until the school deems a return appropriate.

That date will not be for a number of years though, as every current member of the fraternity must graduate or leave the school before the fraternity will even be considered for reinstatement. The members are being considered alumni by the fraternity’s national board.

• The House •

One of the privileges to being an active member of Greek society is to live in the fraternity or sorority house. This gives the members a chance to socialize with each other in an environment suited specially for them.

However, for the brother of Delta Upsilon, that privilege has also been suspended indefinitely. The members are being required to move out of their fraternity house, which is located on Fourth Street with the rest of the Greek housing minus two sororities, and seek housing elsewhere. Since there is a housing situation on campus this semester, the college is working with the students so that they have adequate housing. Ideas of off-campus housing such as apartments have been tossed around by members of the fraternity, but nothing has been set in stone as of yet.

Since the school owns the house and the property that it sits on, it has jurisdiction on what to do with it. According to Tom Perry, the fraternity house will be able to be utilized by the school as student housing, but will not house any fraternity or sorority members. Since there is a crunch with housing, this could happen as early as next semester.

Many of the members feel that the punishment for the fraternity may be a bit too harsh, but can accept it due to the circumstances. However, they feel the removal of college housing is going much too far.

“With the housing crunch on campus, one of my biggest concerns is that we’re going to be scattered all over,” Hart said. “Most of the guys are ready to move on from this, but we’ll miss living in the house together. Even though we won’t have DU as an organization or have meetings I hope we’ll continue to be friends.”

• Reinstatement •

The college is hopeful that a return will come, and hopes that this serves as a positive message to both Greek and non-Greek affiliated students of what is and what is not acceptable behavior on campus.

“We’re hopeful,” said Perry. “When that will occur, we don’t know, but we hope it will.”