USC Suspends 2 Fraternities After Student Is Beaten : Crime: Victim was attacked after rivals allegedly ordered him not to walk in front of their house, police say. A brawl between two social clubs ensues.

Two USC fraternities have been suspended while authorities investigate a brutal curbside attack on a student by members of Alpha Tau Omega, a fraternity that came under scrutiny last year for two other beatings that allegedly involved its members.

In the latest incident, which occurred after 1 a.m. Saturday, the member of a rival fraternity was knocked unconscious and then battered and kicked by several ATO members who allegedly had ordered the young man not to walk on the sidewalk in front of the fraternity house, according to police.

After the young man was dragged to safety, members of his fraternity--Sigma Alpha Epsilon--showed up, triggering a brawl among 20 to 30 members of the two social clubs, which ended when police in patrol cars and a helicopter arrived.

So far, no arrests have been made, but Los Angeles police detectives are attempting to identify the students involved in the initial assault in which the victim suffered a concussion.

On Monday, James Dennis, USC vice president for student affairs, notified the ATO and SAE houses that they were suspended from holding social events or participating in USC events until the completion of an investigation into the incident and a March 27 student conduct hearing.

The beating represents the first high-profile test of university President Steven B. Sample’s pledge to deal severely with acts of student violence and to change the party-animal image of USC’s fraternity row by holding members of fraternities and sororities to a higher standard of conduct than other students.

Last year, members of ATO--one of the most prestigious of USC’s 25 fraternities--were accused of beatings in which the victims almost lost their eyesight.

In one case, a jury acquitted the fraternity member of complicity in the attack. In the second, two members of the fraternity were arrested but the district attorney’s office declined to press charges, citing insufficient evidence.

The fraternity also became embroiled in controversy after a sorority member alleged in a civil suit that an ATO member raped her in his fraternity house. In the suit, she said other ATO members, wearing only golf hats and carrying golf clubs, made fun of her while she was sexually assaulted, and later harassed her on campus.

Top ranking Los Angeles police officials were criticized by subordinates and others for limiting the scope of the investigation into the alleged rape because of ties to the university and relationships with influential alumni. Police officials have denied any improper conduct.

The students named as defendants in the woman’s civil suit, which is pending, also have denied wrongdoing.

According to university and Los Angeles police reports, the latest incident began about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday when 21-year-old Michael Scott Crowell and Jennifer Higby, a USC sorority member, got into an argument near the ATO house.

When the couple started to walk past the ATO house on 28th Street, fraternity members reportedly warned Crowell not to use the sidewalk. Words were exchanged, followed by pushing and shoving between Crowell and two unidentified men.

In her police statement, Higby said that one of the men punched Crowell in the face, knocking him to the sidewalk where he struck his head on a brick. Crowell was then punched and kicked, Higby said, while she screamed for the attackers to stop. Ultimately, a friend who had happened on the scene pulled Crowell to safety, said Higby, whose father, Lawrence M. Higby, is The Times’ senior vice president for consumer marketing.

While Crowell lay on the ground in front of a nearby fraternity waiting for an ambulance to arrive, some of his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity brothers got into a fight with ATOs over the beating, according to a number of USC sources.

The melee broke up with the arrival of USC security forces and LAPD squad cars.

Jennifer Higby declined to comment, as did Crowell, who, according to police reports, suffered a concussion and was unable to remember what had happened to him.

LAPD Lt. Joe Germain said other witnesses have provided officers with the names of possible suspects. He declined to identify them, saying, “I don’t want to jeopardize the investigation.”

Spokesmen for the two fraternity houses declined comment. Michael Reinstein, president of the USC Interfraternity Council, said that both fraternities hoped the university would allow them to discipline their own members and that the fraternities would not be penalized for the actions of a few individuals.

But Dennis, who was an ATO member while a student at a different college about 30 years ago, said such self-discipline has not yet been tried at USC.

“Without a proven track record,” he said, “we will not have this be a first case. This will go through the normal student conduct process.”

Last spring, after the earlier publicized problems of ATO and other fraternities, university President Sample declared: “We cannot tolerate acts of violence, period. And folks who perpetrate acts of violence need to be removed from our academic environment rather quickly.”

At the beginning of the fall semester, USC imposed new standards of conduct designed to crack down on fraternity and sorority drunkenness and improve academic performance. The new rules have proven generally effective, said Dennis. One fraternity recently tried to test the rules by throwing an “open party,” the kind of mass drinking celebration which in past years would spill across fraternity front lawns.

That fraternity has been temporarily suspended, Dennis said, and faces further penalties. Since the new rules were implemented, Dennis said, grades at the 37 sororities and fraternities have improved.

“The standards and expectations have changed,” Dennis said. “The students are aware of that. We are going to be sure that they are fully aware of what the expectations are.”