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The Greek Judicial Board suspended University of Wisconsin fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi Monday for an indefinite period of time, revoking the chapter’s membership privileges in the Greek community.
The board placed AEPi on indefinite suspension until October, at which time another hearing will be held to review the sanction, according to Chief Justice Ashkon Kiarashi.
The fraternity went before the Greek Judicial Board Feb. 3 after a letter (pdf) submitted to Dean of Students Lori Berquam, Coordinator of Greek Life and Involvement Barb Kautz and an AEPi representative by the Overture Center for the Arts alleged there were a number of serious problems with a party held there Dec. 4, 2009.
The letter said AEPi did not have sober monitors or comply with crowd control efforts, engaged in lewd behavior and allegedly stole or carried in a bottle of wine. The letter also included quotes from reports filed by event and security staff members.
The fraternity was on social probation at the time of the party, which prohibited the fraternity from holding social events. However, AEPi said the night was a philanthropy event that raised $2,010 for Jewish charity organization B’nai B’rith, which later put the money toward aiding Haiti.
According to Judicial Board bylaws, the October hearing will be used to review the fraternity’s efforts to fulfill the terms of the suspension. If they have been met, the board can reinstate AEPi’s Interfraternity Council membership.
If terms have not been met, the Judicial Board can choose to extend the suspension, impose additional conditions or terms or begin expulsion proceedings.
In the meantime, the fraternity can also choose to appeal the decision to IFC, according to Kautz. IFC can then overturn, uphold or extend the sanctions.
AEPi President Jeff Herscott confirmed he had read the decision, but declined to comment further.
Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp said the same complaint is working its way through the Committee on Student Organizations.
“The CSO process is in the works, and I believe they are looking to schedule a meeting with AEPi within the next few weeks,” Helmkamp said. “It has not been finalized yet, and CSO has not yet acted.”
AEPi’s national headquarters did not return calls as of press time.
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The word privileges is spelled wrong in this headline :)
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“indefinite suspension until October”
Nice.
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Why is this the lead story? This affects about 100 students. Let’s move on.
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Badger Herald is a joke- absolutely no reason for this to be the top story.
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I totally agree with the 10:51 comment. The Greek Community on this campus is tiny. If this were Indiana University or the University of Illinois then it would be a different story. It baffles me why the Badger Herald not only thinks this is newsworthy, but front page newsworthy with an enormous picture of the AEPi house. By the way, the picture actually makes the house look pretty nice, which I can safely say it is not. Headline the story about stem cells or even the story of Jon Leuer coming back this week. Obviously I know that the Badger Herald does not put sports stories on the front page, but you get the idea. These stories affect SO many more students on campus than this one.
Long live the Daily Cardinal! They have a better understanding of what news is, not to mention their comic strips and sudoku puzzles are by far superior.
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It should clearly be the top story, as the comments on the articles for the last week, have been more than probably all other articles combined for the last month. The student body is clearly interested.
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It good to see that Signe Brewster is proud enough of his journalism skills to post his email like every other writer.
How is a fraternity front page news? and which fraternity didn’t give a bid to this kid?
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Signe is a girl…consider your compliant null and void.
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zing!
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That sucks for AEPi, but it’s their own fault. And it affects more than 100 students — it affects the whole greek community. Sure, the greek community is a minority here on campus and I agree that this probably shouldn’t be headline news, but it’s still important.
I can’t wait to see all the greek community flaming that’s going to occur here. Really, its going to show how immature and close minded people are regardless that their post is “anonymous”. People should support the greek system even if they aren’t a part of it or if a couple of them slip up and make mistakes.
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It’s AEPi’s fault this is front page. They arrogantly claimed they represent 6000 jewish students at UW.
They fucked themselves.
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Agreed, this is big news not because of the suspension in and of itself, but because of AEPi’s idiotic response last week that they represent the entire campus Jewish community.
Plus, as much as we hate to admit it, deep down, everyone craves a little drama like this. Enjoy the fracas!
Finally, we’re on a website. It really doesn’t matter which story is at the top of the page. Just scroll down if you don’t like it.
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how does them claiming that they represent 6000 jews rationalize the publicity of these articles? had the B. Herald posted these articles on page 4 of their ‘newspaper’ no one ever would have a) known or b) cared about these occurences. Badger Herald=Gotcha Media. At the end of the day, the only people this publicity has hurt are the feelings of the girls parents who got stuffed at Overture…
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The only reason this is an issue is because people not in Greek houses do not have a set of rules to fellow and would never be on “probation” in the first place. Everyone who throws a party is probably breaking a rule in one way or another. I blame the IFC, the Greek whatever Org., and any other limiting organization on the Greek system. They already pay absurd amounts of money, why limit them more?
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This girl cannot spell and blatantly misrepresents the facts. AEPI was not suspended because of the events at the party! They were suspended for having booze at a philanthropy! This girl needs to go back to j-201 and learn about journalism. She makes Sarah Palin look like a smart well reasoned author. I have never been to a frat party but I am now eager to sneak into one
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You make no sense. Love, logic.
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3:42, it was a formal. Not a philanthropy. She was correct. Don’t kid yourselves. They f’ed themselves big time.
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The problem would be that it wasn’t a philanthropy and they were on social probation in the first place. Which means that allegedly so-smart AEPi was really, really stupid from the first instance. The animal house behavior just ensured that everyone noticed.
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Wow, a college fraternity threw a party and the world freaks out. Like this has NEVER happened before… Live your college years up