University Of Kansas Releases Heavily Redacted Report On Why Delta Tau Delta Was Put On Probation

Harrison Lee9 years ago

Delta Tau Delta at the University of Kansas has been placed on probation for the spring semester due to hazing violations. A letter from KU to the fraternity confirmed that there were multiple incidents of hazing after investigating the Delts. The fraternity currently has 75 men on their active roster, some of them have been disciplined separately by nationals, according to KMBC.

The list of terms on its probation include that all members must be sent to educational programs, revise their new member program, cannot participate in RockChalk Revue (which is a Kansas tradition that is one of the largest student-run philanthropies in the United States), and will need to forfeit participation in intramurals and homecoming.

But what exactly were the hazing events that led to the probation? Well, the Lawrence Journal received the letter sent to the fraternity from the university. In the letter, KU states that there were 10 points as to why they are on probation. However, KU redacted all of those 10 points. The documents received did not include names, and also redacted huge chunks of texts.

I get the names, but the rest? Seems fishy to me. First off, we must be dealing with some pretty soft hazing violations if they are only on a one-semester probationary period where they need to go to a program and can’t participate in homecoming. So, why the need to redact the reasons?

KU responded as to why they did.

The records were redacted “to account for the privacy interests of the individual students who are members of these organizations,” KU said in its written response. The university cited the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which applies to student education records, and a Kansas statute allowing public agencies to withhold documents that if shared publicly would constitute “a clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy.”

That’s exactly what someone who is covering something up would say. Even executive director of the Student Press Law Center, Frank LoMonte, said they didn’t need to do that because of FERPA.

“FERPA is a very narrow statute, it governs only individually identifiable student education records,” he said. “A penalty that’s imposed on a club or an organization will almost never qualify as a FERPA record, just by definition. If the penalty is imposed on an organization and not an individual, it is not any particular student’s education record.”

What are you up to, Kansas? And why won’t you let the public know? We’ll keep you updated as more information unfolds..

[via the Lawrence Journal]

Image via Twitter/ @KansasDelts