Zeta Psi shutdown follows summer of miscommunication

The closure of the Zeta Psi house at 80 Professors Row for the remainder of the school year was a result of a series of incidents and mixed signals sent between the administration and the fraternity throughout the summer and previous semester.

The first in a long string of incidents, on May 5, the Committee on Fraternities and Sororities (CFS) decided to issue a two-year social probation punishment to Zeta Psi. The decision followed an April hearing regarding a Feb. 20 party that left two students were injured.

The proposed punishment included maintaining a dry house -- with no alcohol in any rooms of the house or on its grounds -- through Aug. 31, 2005. The two-year punishment would close the house for two summers of the fraternity's choosing and it also required a Greek alcohol awareness program to be led by the fraternity -- an aspect initially proposed by Zeta Psi.

Immediately after the punishment was announced, the Zeta Psi elders, who own the house and handle the legal matters for the chapter, informed the University that they would appeal the CFS decision.

While Zeta Psi underwent the appeals process, on July 25Tufts police (TUPD) officers caught several students on the rooftop deck with a keg of beer. Because of the appeals process, they were not yet serving their punishment from the hearing.

According to TUPD Captain Mark Keith, "an officer who was in the area heard what sounded like a large gathering." The officer entered the house and proceeded to the rooftop deck, where the officer found 25-30 students, the police report reads.

There was also a refrigerator with a spout coming out of it connected to a keg, a bar with several bottles of liquor, and a pool filled with water. The officer was concerned that some of the participants were under age and combined weight of the people and the pool would cause the roof to collapse, Keith said.

In addition, kegs are forbidden by both Zeta Psi and University policy.

When the officer asked party attendees for IDs, several left and never returned, Keith said. The officer also initially took the gathering to be a full-scale sanctioned Zeta Psi party, which would have required a guest list and someone at the door checking IDs.

However, according to Grant Held, the president and chairman of the board of the Zeta Psi Kappa Elder Association, none of the students on the deck were Zeta Psi members. It was only when the responding officer asked to speak with a fraternity member was one located, studying in his room in the house. The only other brother present in the house at the time, Held said, was asleep in his room.

The student responsible for bringing the keg into the house and hosting the gathering was not a Zeta Psi member, though he was a summer resident of the house. At the beginning of the summer, all of the residents were warned that their behavior would likely be under supervision by the University. Held warned the students that if something happened "Tufts is not going to look at it like an isolated incident."

Three days after the keg incident, on July 28, Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Todd Sullivan notified then Zeta Psi president Peter Schaefer that the appeal of the initial punishment had been rejected, and that if the fraternity wished to count this past summer as one of the two probation summers, the house residents would have to evacuate the house by Aug. 1.

The Dean of Students office considered the proposal an "offer in good faith," Sullivan said. "It was a way to have three weeks count as three months."

The University, however, did not notify Damien Puller (A '89), an attorney with the Boston firm Nixon Peabody who represents the fraternity, and a former Zeta Psi brother himself until Jul. 31 -- just one day before the house would need to be vacated. A phone call from Held to Diane Rosse, outside council for the University on most judicial matters, eventually extended the deadline to Aug. 2.

Still, with only a few days to find alternate housing and vacate the house, the residents were unable to comply with the deadline.

After the Aug. 2 deadline passed without the residents leaving, the TUPD misinterpreted Sullivan's offer to Zeta Psi as a requirement, and officers attempted to evict the house's residents.

Within one hour, Keith informed the officers at the house of the miscommunication, and the residents were allowed back in.

Before any University action could be taken on the keg incident, the fraternity elders association waived their right to a hearing and proposed a negotiated settlement. No specific facts about the keg incident could be ascertained, Reitman said, because "the fact-finding was shortcut when they made the proposal for a negotiated settlement."

The Zeta Psi elders association agreed to close the house for the school year and next summer, which will be the first of the two probation summers. The house will reopen next year, though the fraternity will still be under social probation. "They'll be back a year from now, assuming there are no other difficulties," Reitman said.

The new settlement classifies Zeta Psi as a suspended organization for the academic year of 2003-2004, the fraternity being barred from participating in rush, extending bids, or initiating members, and preventing Zeta Psi members from voting or holding office on the Inter-Greek Council or Interfraternity Council. Zeta Psi is also not allowed to use University facilities or services. House residents had to vacate the house by midnight on Sept. 1.

Finally, no groups of members or former members of Zeta Psi are allowed to gather and act as a fraternity without jeopardizing Zeta Psi's reinstatement next year. Some Zeta Psi alumni protested that the wording of this aspect is vague and could limit Zeta Psi's alumni's legal rights to gather. Reitman insisted the settlement "does not affect alumni."

Since the negotiated settlement was proposed by the fraternity, the punishment is not subject to appeal.

Zeta Psi International, rather than the active chapter or the elders association, is handling negotiations concerning the medical expense reimbursement for one of the injured students from the Feb. 20 party. "Zeta Psi is working directly with [the student's] father to obtain the necessary information to meet that aspect," Held said.

Negotiations between the University and Zeta Psi regarding the sale of the property and the fraternity house for a new music building have not been affected by the judicial events.