Reporter
The fraternity Pi Kappa Phi has been suspended from campus activities and is under investigation by the chapter’s national office because of activities concerning new members, or pledges.
“The national headquarters received a report of alleged inappropriate new member activities involving the chapter at Baylor,” said Justin Angotti, the assistant executive director of education and accountability, from the national office of Pi Kappa Phi.
“We went ahead and interimly suspended chapter activities and began our investigation,” Angotti said.
Pi Kapp has been under investigation since Oct. 2 and will not be able to participate in activities as a chapter until the investigation concludes, Angotti said.
“Baylor is not doing an investigation,” said Dr. Elizabeth Palacios, the dean for student development. “We allow the headquarters to do the investigation. This is a partnership that we wish to sustain. They can look into this situation and see if there are any violations and possible sanctions.”
Representatives from the Office of Student Activities would not comment on the subject.
While the entire chapter is not allowed to participate in university activities, some individuals of Pi Kapp have been allowed to be involved in activities like homecoming, Angotti said.
“The truth is that there is an investigation of the state of the chapter, and we’ll have to wait and see what the results are of that investigation,” said Dr. David Henry, the faculty adviser to Pi Kapp. “No one has been de-chartered, no one has been kicked off campus and no one has been reprimanded by Student Activities.”
The national office hopes to finish the investigation within the week and will decide what, if any, sanctions will be necessary, Angotti said.
“The fraternity’s sanctions can be anywhere from educational programming, to loss of privileges, to suspension or closure of the chapter,” he said. “Any of those range of options are available to us depending on what we find in the investigation and the nature of the violation.”
A representative of the national office will arrive in Waco by the end of the week to finish up the investigation.
“If we have information that the chapter has violated our code of conduct or the university’s, then they would remain suspended until we determine what that final sanction would look like for them,” he said.
The conclusions of the investigation will decide what the future holds for Baylor’s chapter of Pi Kappa Phi.
“We appreciate the opportunity to partner with the Department of Student Activities and the dean of student development to ensure our chapter continues to advance the mission of the Baylor University fraternity and sorority community by providing members with opportunities for growth and development in the areas of service, leadership, campus involvement, academic excellence and brotherhood,” said Chief Executive Officer Mark E. Timmes of the national office in a press release.
