Indiana University’s Interfraternity Council has announced that they are suspending fraternity social events and unsupervised new member activities until the spring semester.
The Indiana University-Bloomington’s IFC met with chapter presidents, releasing a statement saying that the vote to self-impose a three-month suspension was unanimous. While under suspension, Phi Delta Theta is not allowed to participate in any campus activities or have any social events.
According to the chapter’s profile on the university’s website, Phi Delta Theta fraternity has a “zero-tolerance hazing policy as well as alcohol-free housing.”
“We are suspending all social activities in which alcohol is present and unsupervised new member education programs effective immediately until February 28th, 2018. During this time, we will be having active conversations with the key stakeholders in our community to arrive at concrete solutions to enhance the health and safety of this community,” IFC president Andrew Cowie said in a statement.
The university-wide suspension comes after multiple IU fraternities have been suspended over the past few years.
While it wasn’t immediately cleared what precipitated the vote, the move comes following the suspension of several fraternities at IU over the past few years – most recently the Beta Eta chapter of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
In October, the Sigma Nu national organization said its IU chapter was expected to serve a three-year suspension over violations of the school’s alcohol and hazing policies.
“I think this is a great example of students having self-governance over their own communities. I applaud them for being proactive in addressing the issues that our greek community faces before we have an incident like Penn State or FSU,” said Dan Niersbach, IU’s student body president.
The suspension will last until February 28, 2018.
IU becomes the eighth university to suspend Greek Life this year, joining the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Texas State, Florida State, Ball State, Louisiana State and Penn State.
