2 Fraternities Expelled for Drinking Incidents

In a strong statement against drinking and hazing, San Diego State University on Monday expelled two fraternities for recent incidents in which underage pledges were forced to drink to excess and became sick.

Two pledges were taken to a hospital for alcohol poisoning.

“This behavior will not be tolerated,” said Jim Kitchen, San Diego State vice president for student affairs, in announcing the expulsion of Beta Theta Pi and Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternities. The case was turned over to the city attorney for possible prosecution of fraternity members.

The action comes amid national concern about excessive drinking among students, particularly at fraternities.

By some studies, more than 50 college students a year are killed by alcohol poisoning. Earlier this year a student at Cal State Chico and another at UC Davis died after sessions of binge drinking.

A task force appointed by Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the California State University system, to address the problem of alcohol abuse among students holds its first meeting this week.

“We cannot look at alcohol abuse as just a way of college life,” Reed said Nov. 1 in announcing the task force. “Our children’s lives are at stake.”

The San Diego State incidents involved pledges who were coerced into excessive drinking as a condition of winning acceptance into the fraternity.

At Beta Theta Pi, four 18-year-olds on Sept. 30 were coerced into drinking and one later had to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning and a gash on his chin he suffered when he passed out.

The Tau Kappa Epsilon incident, which occurred at the apartment of a fraternity member Oct. 17, involved three 18-year-olds, one of whom suffered a near-fatal case of alcohol poisoning.

The fraternities will not be allowed to sponsor events and social functions, use university facilities or vote on the inter-fraternity council.

The university does not have authority to close the fraternity houses, which are off campus and privately owned. But a national official with Beta Theta Pi said that San Diego State members will have to find another place to live because the organization’s rules prohibit recognition of a chapter that has been expelled.

“We value the collegial relationship with our universities and respect their positions,” said Tom Olver, director of risk management for Beta Theta Pi.

The national organization of Tau Kappa Epsilon has taken a different stance, calling the expulsion unfair and announcing that there are no plans to force members out of their fraternity house.

Kevin Mayheux, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Tau Kappa Epsilon, said the incident occurred at an unauthorized gathering at a member’s apartment and that the fraternity leadership immediately booted the member from the group.

Mayheux said he was shocked at the expulsion, given the long history of fraternities at San Diego State. The 33,000-student campus, the most populous in the California state university system, has 45 Greek organizations, with more than 1,800 members.

“Maybe it’s a case of a new sheriff in town and he’s got new rules,” Mayheux said.

William Dejong, director of the Massachusetts-based Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, said campuses have begun to realize that student drinking is a threat to both student health and a university’s reputation.

“San Diego State has been, for many years, trying to enhance its reputation as one of the best publicly supported universities in the country,” Dejong said. “It wants to correct the widespread perception that it’s just a party school.”

Under the expulsion, Tau Kappa Epsilon can apply for reinstatement in 2003, Beta Theta Pi in 2005.