SDSU Upholds Penalty : Pi Kappa Alpha Loses Appeal of Expulsion

San Diego State University on Wednesday denied Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity’s appeal of its five-year expulsion from campus for sex and alcohol violations.

The violations occurred during a Nov. 14 party at which an 18-year-old sorority pledge claimed she was raped.

“After carefully studying your appeal, I can find no grounds upon which to overturn either the findings or sanction,” Daniel Nowak, vice president for student affairs, told the fraternity in a hand-delivered letter.

The five-page, single-spaced letter was reviewed and approved by SDSU President Thomas Day, university spokeswoman Sue Raney said. Day had said Tuesday that the appeal would be rejected.

The decision ends the fraternity’s slim hopes of overturning the penalty without filing a lawsuit. Ken Smerz, director of chapter affairs for the fraternity, said Wednesday that no decision has been made about further action.

“Right now, we’re just going to work on it,” Smerz said. “I don’t know what avenues we’ll take. We’ll just have to see.”

The case began more than three months ago when campus police said an 18-year-old member of the Delta Gamma sorority was sexually assaulted by three men in a private bedroom at the fraternity house after a party between the two organizations. The fraternity denied the allegations.

San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller later declined to file criminal charges, saying that prosecutors could not prove that a rape had occurred.

But after a three-day closed hearing in January, a university panel concluded that the woman “became intoxicated and was thereafter physically abused and taken advantage of sexually by members of the fraternity.”

Pi Kappa Alpha was expelled from campus for at least five years, and 30 of its members were charged with various offenses under school rules. The charges are pending.

The university also asked the national Pi Kappa Alpha organization to withdraw the local chapter’s charter, which would effectively shut it down. The fraternity has continued to operate without affiliation to the university.

Ray Orians, Pi Kappa Alpha’s national executive vice president, said Tuesday that he will probably convene a telephone meeting of the organization’s seven-member governing board after he is notified of a decision on the appeal.

A decision to revoke the charter would have to be approved by Pi Kappa Alpha delegates from around the country at the fraternity’s annual meeting in August, Orians said.

Patrick Tobin, general partner for a group of Pi Kappa Alpha alumni who own the fraternity house at 5071 College Ave., said a decision will be made within the next few weeks about whether to close it down.