Penn State announced yesterday that the university has withdrawn recognition of its chapter of Kappa Delta Rho, the fraternity whose members posted naked photos of unconscious women in a secret Facebook group.
The fraternity was suspended in March after police were tipped off to the Facebook pages, where brothers were allegedly posting photos of hazing and drug sales, as well as naked women who appeared to be either sleeping or passed out. Penn State’s Interfraternity Council, which governs the school’s Greek life, initially recommended that Kappa Delta Rho be allowed to keep its designation as a campus organization if it agreed to measures to “change the culture” of the frat, including sensitivity training for sexual assault and bystander-intervention training.
However, after an investigation by the university found “a persistent series of deeply troubling activities within the fraternity” — including sexual harassment of several female students, violent hazing rituals, and the sale and use of drugs — school officials have decided to shut the frat down until May 2018. “The investigative report makes clear that some members of the K.D.R. chapter promoted a culture of harassing behavior and degradation of women,” said Damon Sims, the vice president for student affairs at Penn State. “The sum of organizational misbehaviors is far more than the university can tolerate from a student organization that seeks its imprimatur,” he concluded.
According to the Associated Press, the frat can ask Penn State to recolonize the chapter after three years, at which point the university can set conditions on restarting it.
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