Miami frat suspended over hazing
A Miami University fraternity has been “summarily suspended” amid a “brutal and deplorable” report of hazing, the school’s president said Friday in an email to the university community.
In the strongly worded statement, President Gregory Crawford said the allegations against Delta Tau Delta, the fraternity in question, “have brought us to a tipping point on this campus.”
All sophomores living in the fraternity are being placed in residence halls on the school’s Oxford campus as a result of the allegations, Crawford wrote.
“The administration will take swift, stern and appropriate action in handling any and all cases of hazing,” he wrote, adding that he is “disheartened and outraged by the behavior outlined in the complaint.”
He called the report serious and credible, but he did not detail the nature of the hazing incident or incidents.”a decision about the long-term future of Delta Tau Delta will be made once the investigation is finalized and a formal hearing is completed,” he wrote.
Officials with the fraternity based in Fishers, Indiana, did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. In a statement forwarded to The Enquirer by Michele Gaither Sparks, a Miami spokeswoman, the CEO of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, Jack Kreman, said Miami chapter members “chose to treat the new members inappropriately.”the misconduct came despite guidance provided by the national organization, Kreman added.”the fraternity has no tolerance for such behavior,” he said.
Crawford has asked university officials to review the allegations and make recommendations to be implemented across all fraternities and sororities on campus, and he vowed that “nothing is off limits in this evaluation.”this issue isn’t new for Miami, which had three fraternities suspended for hazing in 2016 and multiple others placed on probation after nearly two dozen investigations into hazing, alcohol and drug violations that year.
And last year, the university suspended fraternity activity after multiple hazing allegations surfaced.theta Chi remains suspended until the conclusion of the disciplinary process, Sparks told The Enquirer.