Members of Pi Kappa Alpha can no longer live on Fraternity Row.

After Pi Kappa Alpha and Zeta Phi Beta had their charters revoked earlier this month, some members of the Greek system have questioned whether DFSL has become too strict.

Pi Kappa Alpha was placed on probation last January after staff members from the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life recommended the department revoke its charter. But the university granted the chapter a one-night exemption from their social moratorium last semester, which DFSL Assistant Director of Programming and Advising Corin Gioia said the fraternity abused by holding a weekend-long trip, leading the department to ultimately decide the group could no longer operate on the campus. Now, the group has had its name stripped from its house on Fraternity Row, and Phi Sigma Kappa will likely move into the house, according to an email from the department.

“We’re committed to a values-based fraternity and sorority system, so we’ll continue to take whatever strides to continue leading us in that direction, so that may mean removing organizations from time to time,” Gioia said.

After fraternity members stayed at a resort for one weekend, the resort contacted the university to report $6,000 to $7,000 in damages to the hotel rooms and underage drinking, said DFSL Director Matt Supple. Gioia said a student was also transported to the hospital after drinking.

Because the chapter had already been on “the worst probationary status,” Supple said, the university and national Pi Kappa Alpha organization decided in conjunction to revoke the group’s charter until at least 2016.

“It definitely was the icing on the cake. They’ve had issues over the past three years, so I wouldn’t say that’s the sole reason, but it’s certainly something that gave us an additional reason for concern,” Gioia said.

This university currently has six chapters on probation for an indefinite period of time — Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Chi, Delta Sigma Phi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu and Tau Kappa Epsilon — meaning any violation of university policies or expectations could put them at risk of losing their charters.

Zeta Phi Beta’s charter has also been revoked until at least 2017, after being suspended by the department in November 2010. The decision became finalized once the Office of Student Conduct completed its investigation into hazing allegations a 22-year-old female student made against seven sorority members.

Five members, including three university students, faced charges of second-degree assault and hazing, but state prosecutors dropped the charges in June due to a lack of evidence.

While different schools’ Greek departments have their own systems for handling student group status recognition, many have handed down far fewer sanctions than this university, according to various university Greek system websites.

The University of Connecticut, for example, has placed two chapters on probation and revoked recognition of a chapter twice since 2010. The University of California, Irvine has placed only two groups on probation and revoked the charter for only one chapter since 2006.

Some chapter presidents, including Kappa Sigma’s Zach Feuer, said they had concerns about the way DFSL enforced university policies. He said Kappa Sigma was placed on social moratorium after members told pledges to wear matching bow ties to an event.

“Even though it was out of choice, they characterized it as a uniform, which is a form of hazing,” said Feuer, a neurobiology and physiology and operations management major. “A couple of the areas we’ve come face-to-face with DFSL over, I definitely kind of can’t say they were handled the absolutely right way.”

But Supple said the department has been fair and consistent since the university updated its list of minimum chapter expectations nine years ago.

“What you will find is some chapters aren’t convinced that we’ll enforce them, and despite repeated intervention efforts from us and their local alumni advising boards, they just keep making poor decisions that will ultimately result in loss of recognition,” he said.

Beta Thi Pi President Alex Bleiweis said his fraternity already holds members to high standards and said other chapters should abide by DFSL’s policies.

“I think they are strict, but the thing that people don’t get about them is they don’t tell us what to do,” he said. “They just want us to follow our values, which we already set ourselves.”

But former Pi Kappa Alpha member Sergio Torres said his fraternity seemed to be improving its standards in recruitment and academics over the last several months to meet those of the department.

“When I was rushing, it was very emphasized the groups they were looking for from then on were really high-quality groups of members that would be beneficial to the fraternity overall,” said the sophomore environmental science and technology major. “All of a sudden we were kind of kicking ass in the area of rebuilding and improving and [DFSL] didn’t see that.”

Gioia said she noticed the group made strides to improve, but when a fraternity has already developed a reputation from the department and its national organization, it cannot afford to have any missteps, she said.

“Safety is definitely important, but also they’re fulfilling the expectations of their national organizations, and sometimes those are lofty goals,” Gioia said.

Although the chapter was participating in community service and philanthropy events, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs John Zacker said fraternity members are aware that one bad incident can “erase” any positive work.

“It doesn’t make up for the situation they find themselves in when they engage in behavior that warrants removal,” he said.

lurye@umdbk.com