Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) has been suspended and Phi Sigma Pi has been sanctioned by the Office of Student Conduct (OSC), according to the OSC website. 

“It is unfortunate any time a fraternity or sorority is suspended or is closed,” said Billy Boulden, director of Greek Affairs. “Our staff will work closely with Pi Kappa Alpha headquarters and the members of the chapter to facilitate success for the organization when the suspension ends.” 

PIKE was sanctioned, or penalized, on Wednesday for misuse of alcoholic beverages and controlled substances, contempt and violation of conditions of recognition. It is the second greek organization that is currently suspended. Sigma Alpha Epsilon was suspended on June 16, 2015 until Jan. 31, 2019. 

Phi Sigma Pi, National Honor Fraternity, was sanctioned on Wednesday for misuse of alcoholic beverages and controlled substances and violation of conditions of recognition. 

Skyler Brazel, senior in horticulture and president of Phi Sigma Pi, explained that the sanction came from events at an unofficial party in the spring after the induction celebration. A member who was underage was intoxicated and assaulted a police officer. A student reported the fraternity to OSC later in the summer which caused the violations to be filed. 

The former president of Phi Sigma Pi that was in charge when the incident took place is no longer a part of leadership. 

PIKE and Phi Sigma Pi are the first two sanctions since the beginning of the fall semester. 

Violations

Violations of Conditions of recognitions are all the guidelines that qualifies the group as an organization at Iowa State. 

According to the OSC website, “Contempt is defined as the following: failure to appear before any university adjudicatory or regular body as summoned, failure to comply with any disciplinary sanctions or interim measures, failure to comply with the directive of authorized university officials or police officers, failure to identify oneself or to show any identification card when requested to do so by authorized university officials or police officers or providing, procuring, or seeking to procure, false testimony in any university or administrative process.”

Sanctions

In result, PIKE has been sanctioned for “term suspension until Jan. 1.” The fraternity deferred suspension beginning Jan. 1 through Aug. 20, 2018.

Conduct probation will be Aug. 20, 2018 to Aug. 26, 2019. Social host probation, which doesn’t allow PIKE to host social functions, will be from Jan. 1 to Aug. 20.

PIKE has to “complete all sanctions imposted by and in the timeline agreed to with your National Headquarters.” PIKE then must provide OSC with these updates.

PIKE must be alcohol free until Aug. 20. 

PIKE will have to “define how your ritual is used weekly to ensure the values and traditions of your organization in conjunction with your Alumni/House Corporation Board by Jan. 1.” A ritual is a private traditional ceremony for the members to celebrate what they stand for.

Alongside the sanction, they must “clearly define the line of communication” between the chapter leadership and the Alumni/House Corporation Board by Jan. 1. 

PIKE then has to create an “alumni testimonial program” and show it to OSC by Jan. 1. 

Phi Sigma Pi has conduct probation through Dec. 16.

“We came up with a bunch of sanctions we felt or our national organization felt would be good for us to learn from this situation and improve upon us to prevent this from ever happening again,” Brazel said. “We proposed those to the OSC, which is the investigating party. So they gave feedback on what they thought would be good.”

The sanctions were due by Dec. 16 and include “improvements to requirements and expectations of new members, improvements to requirements and expectations of current members, create rules outlining the use of chapter communication channels and what should and should not be communicated, create an appeal process for internal conduct process and create a risk management and operations policy.”  

History

Before the suspension, PIKE had been sanctioned five times in four years. The most recent being on Sept. 27, 2016, when there was a double violation. The fraternity was sanctioned for two different events. Both included sanctions of misuse of alcoholic beverages and controlled substances and violations of conditions of recognition. One of the two events included a violation of a local, state or federal law. 

According to the OSC, PIKE has had six misuses of alcoholic beverages and controlled substances, six violations of conditions of recognitions and one contempt sanction since 2013. 

This is the only offense for Phi Sigma Pi in four years according to the OSC website.

“Even though this is kind of a blow to our organization, I definitely feel like we will be able to come back from this and be a better organization than were we were last year,” Brazel said.  

Greek organizations have made up 37 out of the 41 sanctions by OSC in the past four years.

PIKE’s president, vice president and national office has been contacted by the Iowa State Daily. OSC has been contacted. 

Check back later for more details. 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include interviews with the Phi Sigma Pi president.