CENTRAL : ORANGE : Fraternity Granted Suspension Reprieve

Chapman College’s largest fraternity, suspended by the school earlier this month after two of its members threw a party with a topless stripper, has been granted a reprieve while a student panel reviews the incident.

The Sigma Phi Epsilon men held the party at their off-campus apartment Sept. 28, according to fraternity president Dean Cooper. About 50 students--many of them fraternity members--attended the party, prompting the school to slap the organization with a one-year suspension and a second year’s probation.

Administrators at the 1,100-student college in Orange reconsidered their ruling, however, and decided to let a student “Greek Judicial Board” review the incident and make recommendations, which the administration pledged to follow.

Susan Hunter Hancock, the school’s vice president for student life, said she and Jeff Quick, director of college activities, withdrew the yearlong suspension so students could weigh the matter.

“While we both believe that the original sanction is justified, we also believe that significant learning can take place in the resolution of this matter,” Hancock said in an Oct. 10 memo to the campus. “If the administration imposes a sanction, that learning process can be short-circuited.”

Although Hancock’s memo reaffirmed the administration’s belief that the incident was “offensive and demeaning,” fraternity officers welcomed at least the temporary withdrawal of their suspension.

“It shows that for some reason the school admitted they were wrong,” Cooper said. “Sigma Phi Epsilon does not feel that it is correct to portray a woman in that light, but the fraternity didn’t pay for this event. There weren’t (Greek) letters hanging up or anything. . . . This was a couple individuals, not the fraternity.”