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Following a one-month long suspension of all the university’s fraternities and sororities, Florida International University has announced changes to campus Greek life.
On Monday, February 5, FIU announced that the campus chapters of 16 Greek organizations have been reinstated. However, going forward, alcohol would be banned from all fraternity and sorority events for the rest of the semester.
FIU also gave two fraternities, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Phi Gamma Delta, with two-year suspensions. A third fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, was suspended for an as-yet-undetermined amount of time. The length of the suspension will be decided after a campus hearing.
In a statement, FIU President Mark Rosenberg said “zero tolerance is our new normal at FIU.”
via Miami Herald:
“The fate of Greek life has been hanging by a thread and this pause gave us the opportunity to recommit to our values and end the age of permissiveness and ambiguity that has hung over our Greek organizations for far too long,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg announced the one-month suspension on Dec. 15, citing “growing concerns” about Greek life at FIU and around the country. During the pause, university administrators and Greek organizations “reviewed and strengthened” campus policies and held meetings and workshops with chapter advisers and alumni, Rosenberg said in a statement.
The suspension came after a string of deaths at fraternity parties and initiation events around the country, including the death of a 20-year-old pledge to the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter at Florida State University. Andrew Coffey, a graduate of Pompano Beach High School, was found dead on Nov. 3, 2017.
This is the latest fraternity suspension in the last year, as schools such as Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Texas State, Florida State, Ball State, Louisiana State and Penn State have all suspended fraternities.
