We Finally Know Exactly Why Indiana Phi Kappa Psi Was Suspended In December

Jared Borislow9 years ago

Back in December, Indiana University put the kibosh on their Phi Kappa Psi chapter. When it came to publicly explaining why, however, Phi Psi nationals, as well as the university, just spouted out the same classic, nondescript jargon that we always hear when a fraternity gets the boot.

From RTV6:

“This suspension is due to members taking part in conduct which violated the Fraternity’s standards and expectations with regard to risk management, and which contradict The Creed and values of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity,” fraternity officials said in the release at the time.

IU spokesman Mark Land said at the time that the chapter was “found responsible for violations of the student code of conduct related to hazing and drug use”

BOOOO-RIIINGGGG! Don’t they know that saying shit like that just makes everybody even more eager to know what really went down? When will they learn? Just give us the goods and send us on our way. Don’t dangle the string in front of us, because we’ll just end up swiping at it until we get that sweet, sweet gratification.

Luckily, you can now save your swiping for Tinder, because we finally have the laundry list of violations that led to the chapter’s suspension.

While they’d been in trouble in the past, their road to suspension began last May, when they were put on probation by Phi Psi nationals after reports of hazing.

According to documents, the chapter had a current and past hazing practice that included: sleep deprivation, servitude, interrogation/line ups, and participating in “capping,” a physical form of hazing in which members balance on their knees and elbows on top of bottle caps and would stay on them as long as they could or until the caps filled with blood.

So pretty standard stuff. Nothing crazy here. Because of these allegations, though, the university handed down sanctions to the fraternity that had to be met.

IU sanctions for the violations included: membership review to be done by an outside consultant firm, a mandated live-in advisor, a new member education curriculum and syllabus, mandated student life learning support meetings, health and risk education programs, Step Up Bystander Intervention Presentation, a chapter fine, social probation through the end of 2015 and deferred suspension through the end of 2015.

Jesus. That is a shit load of sanctions for a petty little hazing allegation. That’s probably why the fraternity tried to cut corners by having their “outside consultant firm” consist exclusively of fraternity alumni. I really hope the alumni went through the trouble to actually create a firm with a generic name to disguise themselves, like “Vandelay Industries” or “Pinnacle Ventures.” Either way, it didn’t help, because the university found out.

They also found out in November that Phi Psi was doing a shit job of abiding by most of the other sanctions, even after they were warned that they were sucking in July. At this point, Phi Psi was on thin ice, but they were still alive.

The second-to-last straw for Phi Psi is my favorite straw. It’s like a crazy straw amongst normal, run-of-the-mill bendy straws.

Also in November 2015, Student Life and Learning received a police report of “overwhelming” amount of marijuana and paraphernalia as a result of a fire alarm being set off by the amount of marijuana smoke. At least five bags of marijuana were found in plain sight and multiple pieces of paraphernalia in plain sight were destroyed and confiscated.

Smoking so much marijuana that your fraternity house’s fire alarm goes off while you’re on probation may be one of the biggest fraternal power moves of all-time.

The next month, everything ended up coming full circle when the university found out from anonymous tipsters that the Phi Psis were still hazing their pledges. The chapter lost its charter later that month.

Well, there you have it. The mystery has been solved. With any luck, Indiana Phi Psi will be able to straighten up and get back on track after a hopefully short-lived suspension..

[via RTV6]

Image via Twitter/ @IndianaPhiPsi