BATON ROUGE, La. – A Louisiana State University fraternity has been suspended amid hazing and misconduct allegations.
The Advocate reports university officials confirmed that LSU's Pi Kappa Phi chapter will be closed until May 2023 after university police issued misdemeanor charges last month against three members. The fraternity's national organization also suspended the chapter's charter for the same period.
"Student members are expected to uphold the codes of conduct of both the university and Pi Kappa Phi," the fraternity's CEO Mark Timmes said in a statement Monday. "Their behavior was unacceptable and does not represent the values of Pi Kappa Phi. We hold chapters and individual members accountable for the choices they make through our conduct process."
Pi Kappa Phi has been on an interim suspension since last fall, though the chapter was previously disciplined in fall 2017. That was just a month after the hazing death of a pledge at another fraternity at the university, Phi Delta Theta.
University officials have provided few specifics about the actions at Pi Kappa Phi that led to the latest suspension. LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard said only that it involves "hazing and other misconduct."
LSU's latest investigation into Pi Kappa Phi started in October 2018, when the chapter was placed on interim suspension amid claims that Ballard called "very serious." That was almost exactly one year after another interim suspension in October 2017 for a social event that violated new restrictions on Greek activities.
If Pi Kappa Phi wants to return to LSU in 2023, members will have to follow a series of requirements, according to the May 17 letter from LSU administrators to chapter members. Those include meeting with administrators to develop a plan for "successful reinstatement as a registered student organization" and the selection of an alumni chapter advisory team to help oversee the process.
If Pi Kappa Phi were to try to restore its LSU presence, the four year ban means that most, if not all, current members would have graduated or moved on by then. Until then, the fraternity is not allowed to sponsor any activities or solicit or initiate new members
The letter also states that the national organization would have to provide a staff member, age 25 or older, who will live in the chapter house and "work with the fraternity on a full-time basis for not less than one academic year."
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
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