Fraternity Beta Theta Pi’s removal from the university in July could be the first casualty in a heightened attempt to penalize misbehaving Greek organizations, officials said.
Although incidents contributing to the revocation of the chapter’s charter include a fight with a neighboring house in December and the disclosure of a hazing event last year, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life Director Mike Hayes said the ban came after a few years of unheeded warnings about the fraternity’s values, not based on specific incidents.
“Panoramically, there was a slow deterioration,” Hayes said. “We said, ‘We need to fix this now, and the only way to have a successful and viable group is to not have one.'”
University officials announced this week that a fraternity has been approved to take up residence there as early as the spring, but declined to name it because its members’ current living situations could be jeopardized.
OFSL officials expressed frustration with Beta’s perceived failure to embrace the university’s effort to transform Greek life and act beyond the minimum requirements. Officials in recent years have increasingly pushed fraternities and sororities to take on a “values-based” focus, rather than a social one, and now appear poised to remove the chapters that do not comply.
The house at 6 Fraternity Row now stands empty, the Beta Theta Pi name stripped from the house’s facade – a stark reminder that as far as the university is concerned, the fraternity no longer exists. Members have vowed to continue to meet and pay dues and have angrily decried OFSL officials for unfairly targeting their organization.
Details about incidents leading up to the dismissal were unclear until Beta president Jonathan Shriner agreed to speak to the press last week.
“We are airing out all our dirty laundry, and we aren’t holding back any secrets,” Shriner said. “We were baffled by the decision, especially knowing what other frats were kicked off for. Comparing that to our situation, we didn’t think we’d be kicked off.”
Shriner believes a fight that broke out as Beta members returned from downtown bars contributed heavily to the chapter’s dismissal. The fracas sent a member of neighboring fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, to the hospital, each fraternity confirmed, but further details were conflicting.
University Police responded to the incident, but University Police spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Atwell was unable to produce a record of the incident from police files. Reporters were also unable to locate the incident on the publicly available police ledger.
A DUI arrest involving a pledge leaving a Beta hazing event was also held against the fraternity, Hayes confirmed. Fraternities are strictly monitored for hazing, which is banned in the Student Code of Conduct and is a crime in the state of Maryland.
The fraternity’s removal has sounded the alarm for many Greek organizations across the campus who may fall short of OFSL standards, and Hayes warned other organizations would be more heavily scrutinized in coming years.
“More fraternities will be held accountable,” Hayes said, although he insisted that his office keeps no “magic list” of fraternities that could be kicked off next. “The notion of fraternity is changing. … the whole experience needs to be more comprehensive.”
After Hayes was hired as director in 2004, OFSL staff was expanded significantly with the intention of using the increased manpower to enforce the university-held vision that fraternities and sororities must exist to serve “noble purposes,” which includes requirements that Greek organizations have plans to achieve high levels of academic performance and personal development, among others.
In a vision statement revised the year Hayes became director, OFSL warns that if the “Greek experience consistently falls short” of achieving those goals, “the university must consider vacating its commitment to these organizations.”
Other fraternity presidents reacted to Beta’s dismissal with concern and acknowledged the higher standards are forcing fraternities to refocus their values.
“My biggest fear is that another chapter will be left out in the dark,” said Lambda Chi Alpha President Nick Verderame. “I don’t want to see some chapter make the same mistake that past chapters made because they were misinformed about what the boundaries are.”
Phi Kappa Tau house director David Foster said: “It’s a good wake-up call. A lot of fraternities and sororities are going to take a look at Beta and clean up their acts.”
The last fraternity banned from the campus was Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which had its charter revoked in 2004 after a deluge of charges of hazing and rape, and after a student died on its house’s front steps.
After Beta was given notice of its eviction from the house, university officials provided a listing of off-campus housing and arranged for first-year residents to return to on-campus housing. Brothers made room in their off-campus houses to accommodate all but one of the members, sophomore business major John Bonacci, who was on the housing waitlist until less than a week before classes began.
“I got s— on,” said Bonacci before he received housing in Leonardtown on Thursday.
Despite Bonacci’s and other members’ frustration with their dismissal, Interfraternity Council Vice President Matt Sincaglia viewed Beta’s dismissal as a necessary step toward changing the face of Greek life.
“We’re trying to change the community, transform the culture into more value-based. That’s why these men joined the fraternities,” Sincaglia said. “I hope the removal of the chapter inspires some chapters that might not be achieving successfully or living up to their standards and become a better chapter because of it.”
Contact reporter Ben Block at blockdbk@umd.edu.
