San Diego State University has placed seven fraternities on provisional suspension while he investigates alleged code of conduct violations in a Greek system with a history of behavioral problems, including hazing and underage drinking.
The university did not specify the nature of the alleged violations or who reported them. But he confirmed that any concerns have surfaced since the start of the fall semester on Aug. 17, when SDSU opened its doors with a record 37,087 students.
Fraternities under investigation include Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Alpha Order, Pi Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Phi, SDSU said. Sanctions against organizations, if warranted, could range from safety training to probation to expulsion.
“Interim suspensions are being implemented in an effort to address behavioral issues within a recognized student organization while these issues are under investigation,” SDSU said in a statement. communicated.
“(The school) prioritizes the health and safety of our campus community and takes reports of alleged misconduct seriously.”
A view of the fraternity at San Diego State University on Wednesday, November 11, 2020 in San Diego, California.
(Sam Hodgson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Like most universities, SDSU code of Conduct prohibits a wide range of behaviors, including hazing, underage drinking, physical violence, and sexual misconduct.
The new disciplinary action comes about six months after a former SDSU student filed a complaint in San Diego Superior Court, claiming he nearly died during an alcohol-fueled hazing incident in 2021 while pledging the Kappa Sigma fraternity.
A year earlier, a investigation by the San Diego Union-Tribune revealed that 19 of SDSU’s fraternities and sororities found themselves in official trouble with the university from 2014 to 2019. That figure represented nearly 40 percent of at least 49 Greek chapters active at the time. .
Some issues were minor. Some were serious. Most involved complaints of drinking, hazing, sexual harassment and underage assault and noise, according to confidential university documents the Union-Tribune obtained through the California Public Records Act.
The newspaper’s investigation was published a year after Dylan Hernandez, a freshman who got drunk at an off-campus fraternity party, fell from a bunk bed in a campus dormitory and fell to his death. is hit on the head, sustaining a fatal injury.
In San Diego’s College Area neighborhood, where SDSU is located, residents have complained for years about the intense parties that fraternities and sororities throw off campus. There has also been frustration that the university has very little authority to control student behavior in private homes used for parties.
Some parties attracted huge crowds that spilled into the streets.
From fall 2015 to fall 2019, at least 365 students were taken to the hospital for alcohol and drug-related issues, according to SDSU. It’s unclear how many of these incidents directly involved fraternities and sororities. But the Greek system dominates social activities in the university area.
The Del Cerro neighborhood is visible across the San Diego State University campus.
(Sam Hodgson / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
University records from this period indicate that a fraternity member who was supposed to minimize risks poured hard liquor into an ice sled for partygoers to consume. Another fraternity “forced drinking … and group violence,” records show. A third fraternity claimed “lewd and lewd” behavior was directed at SDSU’s Pride Center, which serves the school’s LBGTQ+ communities.
A fourth fraternity was reprimanded for forcing its members to live in a single room with a live chicken.
The problems did not dissipate as the fall 2020 semester began, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly.
At the time, SDSU’s school of public health was receiving praise for helping fight the virus regionally. But the flow of students coming and going between campus and nearby private parties contributed to a COVID outbreak. In September, about 2,600 students were confined to on-campus housing to help regain control.
SDSU President Adela de la Torre publicly acknowledged the situation, saying the virus was spreading, in part, because of a “scourge of the holidays.”
Tensions escalated in late October of that year when county health officials sent cease and desist orders to eight homes in the university area where Halloween parties were to take place. The county said six of the houses were SDSU fraternity and sorority houses.
As the Thanksgiving holiday began, more than 1,400 SDSU students had tested positive for COVID – the highest number of any college or university in California.
Staff Reporter Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this story.
