SDSU to Reject Banned Fraternity’s Plea

San Diego State University will reject Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity’s appeal of its five-year expulsion from campus for sex and alcohol violations in connection with a November party at which an 18-year-old sorority pledge claimed she was raped, university President Thomas Day said Tuesday.

Day, questioned after he spoke to a group of public school teachers in the university’s Aztec Center, said he did not know the details of the decision to reject the fraternity’s appeal that is being drafted by Daniel Nowak, SDSU vice president for student affairs.

After saying that the appeal “will not be accepted,” Day declined to answer further questions.

Nowak could not be reached for comment Tuesday. SDSU spokeswoman Sue Raney said Monday that Nowak’s decision could be released as early as today.

The controversy stems from a Nov. 14 “exchange party” between Pi Kappa Alpha and Delta Gamma sorority at which a freshman claimed she was raped. Campus police have said that the woman, who has since withdrawn from SDSU, was sexually assaulted in a bedroom at the house early on the morning of Nov. 15 by three men while others watched. Police said she had become woozy after drinking punch that she believed did not contain alcohol.

But San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller declined in December to file criminal charges in the case, saying that prosecutors could not prove that a rape had occurred. Fraternity leaders have claimed that the woman voluntarily agreed to have sex after drinking beer and smoking marijuana at the party. The unidentified woman’s family has asked the county grand jury to investigate.