Fraternity Banned From Virginia Tech for 10 Years
The ban stems from an alleged hazing incident which turned violent.
ABC News reports.
Virginia Tech Fraternity Banned From Campus for 10 Years
Virginia Tech’s first black Greek organization has been banned from campus for 10 years after a pledge says he was blindfolded and beaten over several days earlier this year.
The Roanoke Times ( http://bit.ly/22XKHqS ) reports that the school’s Theta Iota chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was barred for abusive conduct and hazing.
In an executive order from the fraternity recommending that the chapter disband, national fraternity investigators say that pledges were blindfolded and attacked for several nights in January while being quizzed about fraternity history.
One pledge told the national fraternity he was hospitalized and withdrew from school. Five other pledges backed his statement.
Blacksburg Police Lt. Mike Albert says an investigation was conducted, but no criminal charges were filed. He didn’t immediately reply to email and voicemail messages asking why.
Comments
When I was in college – at Slippery Rock University – in the 1990’s we had a Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and one of their brothers was my first roommate.
Great guys, liked most of them (some were seriously racist), and enjoyed their parties.
Things is – while the other fraternities hazed, they did it quietly and behind closed doors, and with discretion. You knew what you were getting into when you joined.
The A-Phi-A’s OPENLY hazed their pledges. Everyone in the administration was afraid of being called racist (this was 25 years ago) so they got away with it.
Their pledges would have to walk around in a minimum group of 2’s, wore the same clothing, wore it for a week at a time, could not talk to anyone outside the fraternity, except to answer questions in class, and I SAW them get hit.
The other fraternities hazed too, don’t get me wrong. However it was done with discretion – whereas the A-Phi’s were blatant and practically daring the administration to do anything about it.
Any time we were hazed it was in the back of the mind of the brothers – “don’t take this too far or we could lose our charter” – but the A-Phi’s did not worry about it.
If the rules and laws don’t apply to you, there will be excesses – and I’m betting this is what we’re seeing here.