Tufts Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) members tested the limits of university-imposed restrictions last semester. Now they are paying the price.
The Judiciary of the Committee on Fraternities and Sororities (CFS) suspended AEPi's Tufts chapter this May for hosting a formal last April. According to a letter from the Chair of the Judiciary of the CFS, Barbara Rubel, to the chapter, the terms of AEPi's 2005 social probation did not allow for the spring formal.
"They were not permitted to have that get-together and they chose to go ahead with it," Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said. "They were held responsible for violating the ban on social activities."
Commonly known as the Jewish fraternity, AEPi has left its former house for this academic year, and potential members will not be able to pledge until next fall. Under the conditions of their appeal, the fraternity will be allowed to hold meetings during the spring semester but will still remain on probation.
Members opposed the decision. "We believe that the severity of our punishment is much too harsh," said current master of the Tufts chapter of AEPi Ari Allen.
AEPi filed an appeal to Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser soon after the May decision, but was denied a lesser punishment.
Allen said that in a similar case during the 2004-2005 academic year, the Tufts chapter of Zeta Psi was not punished after a keg was allegedly found in the fraternity's house on Professor's Row while on a two-year probation.
In a letter to Allen, Glaser said that a problem with the evidence prevented the judiciary from punishing Zeta Psi.
Instead, Glaser is allowing AEPi to hold three organizational meetings this fall, the first of which is planned for today, to take care of general fraternity business and to put in motion a plan for reform.
Allen said that his fraternity wants to work with the university and alumni to build on past community service efforts, such as "Bowel Bash," a philanthropic event that raises money for Crohn's Disease and colitis.
"We hope the university will work with us toward this goal by placing our sanctions up for review at the end of a positive upcoming semester," said Allen. "We've already formed a couple of alumni contacts."
The chapter had been placed on social probation in November 2005 because of two incidents, one involving two women who appeared to be drunk at AEPi's 45 Sawyer Ave. house, and the other involving an ice luge that police found at the house.
"Given that an ice luge is a device to facilitate dangerous consumption of alcohol, this was a substantial infraction, not a minor affair," wrote Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser in a letter to AEPi leadership.
Greek leadership also worries that this incident will draw more fire from critics. "Because Greeks do not make up a large percentage of the Tufts campus, the loss of another fraternity will result in more scrutiny and responsibilities being placed on the other fraternities and sororities," Inter-Greek Council (IGC) President Ray Radovich said.
While Dean Reitman acknowledges there were institutional problems with the previous structure of AEPi, as Thomas Jelke pointed out in his report on the campus Greek system distributed in March, he doesn't think that this incident reflects such a problem.
No Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs was available for comment after Todd Sullivan left the position in June. He has not yet been replaced.
Glaser does not think that AEPi's problems will necessarily continue. "Other fraternities and sororities facing similar sanctions have come back stronger than ever," wrote Glaser. "I think that it is possible, indeed probable, for AEPi as well."
Radovich agrees. "IGC would love to see AEPi return to campus as soon as possible. We will be supportive in any way we can of the fraternity."
