TKE gets year-long suspension

Dawn Wilson was not happy when her son, Pitt freshman Brett Wilson, was building a beer… Dawn Wilson was not happy when her son, Pitt freshman Brett Wilson, was building a beer pong table in her basement. She was also not pleased when she learned her son set Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity’s “power hour” record by drinking 13 beers in 43 minutes.

Brett Wilson pledged TKE this fall, and when his mother discovered that he drank so much in less than an hour, she contacted former Sorority and Fraternity Life Coordinator Anita Triggs.

“He drank until he threw up,” Dawn Wilson said. “I was angry because my son was put in a dangerous situation.

Commenting on his mother’s actions and explaining that everything he did in the pledging process was voluntary, Brett Wilson said, “I think what she wanted to do was make sure it didn’t happen again.”

Dawn sent a formal letter to Triggs, saying, “All the focus of this group seems to be is partying and drinking.” She wrote that she estimated her son’s blood alcohol level to be .29 the night he set his record.

“Any young man put in a position like that is going to feel the need to prove himself, to impress the others,” she continued in the letter. “Whether he did the deed agreeably or by force is not the issue. He should never have been put in that position.”

After receiving the complaint, Triggs contacted the fraternity to see if the accusations were true.

Barron Sample, now the president of TKE, met with Triggs.

“We admitted to the charges,” Sample said. “There was no sense in us lying.”

He also recognized the importance of ensuring the new members of the fraternity have a positive pledging experience.

“If they don’t enjoy their pledge period, they don’t have fun at college,” Sample said.

When deciding what kind of pledging activities the fraternity should have, Sample stressed the importance of new member safety

“You don’t want to harm a brother,” Sample said.

But Interfraternity Council President Steve Mihlfried explained that his governance group has had no say in the sanctions imposed on TKE.

According to Mihlfried, IFC’s judicial board can only deal with rush violations. Any violations regarding hazing must be taken directly to Pitt’s judicial board. The judicial board then makes a recommendation for punishment to Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jack Daniel, who makes the final decision on an appropriate punishment for the fraternity.

Daniel said that he does not discuss judicial matters with the media, both for confidentiality and for legal reasons. He added that he could neither confirm nor deny that TKE’s recognition had been suspended. Although he could not say whether he usually comments upon or changes the judicial board’s recommendations, he did say that all of the recommendations eventually come before him.

According to a letter from Daniel to Sample, dated Feb. 5, 2004, Sample met with Judicial Advocate Robert Hellner on Jan. 16, 2004, and accepted responsibility for six violations of the “University of Pittsburgh Student Code of Conduct and Judicial Procedures.” The items Sample acknowledged, according to the letter, included some part of each of the following violations: furnishing or providing alcohol to anyone under 21 or anyone visibly intoxicated; having anyone under 21 in possession of alcohol; and purchasing or using bulk quantity alcohol — including kegs, more than six cans of beer per person of legal drinking age, or hard alcohol and liquor.

After citing the violations acknowledged by Sample, Daniel addressed in the letter the sanctions recommended for the fraternity.

“I do not accept the Hearing Officer’s recommendation from the Friday, Jan. 30, 2004, hearing that your chapter be allowed to continue with your recruitment activities this calendar year,” Daniel wrote. “I do uphold the recommended sanction as set forth in the complaint [filed by Associate Dean of Student Affairs Birney Harrigan]: suspension of recognition of your chapter, effective Dec. 19. 2003, through Dec. 31, 2004.”

The hearing officers, according to the letter, originally recommended that the fraternity be placed on probationary status for two years, beginning Jan. 1, 2004, and that each current group member be required to complete 100 hours of community service by April 15, 2004.

Daniel upheld the 2-year probation, which he modified to begin on Jan. 1, 2005 — after a year of suspension — and reduced the mandatory community service requirement from 100 hours to 50 hours.

In addition to the modified sanctions, Daniel upheld the hearing officers’ recommendations for a sponsored anti-hazing program, with “assumption of all fees”; to occur by March 2005; a minimum of two brotherhood retreats, “as an alcohol-free event [sic] with a representative from alumni, national affiliate and/or a chapter adviser, to be completed by April 2005”; and attendance at the Greek Alcohol Awareness Program, as an annual condition of fraternity membership.

The letter, which The Pitt News acquired, was also sent to Sara Hammond, the manager of the University Student Judicial System; Katelyn Miller, of Student Volunteer Outreach; and Triggs. Triggs left Pitt on March 3, 2004.

“[Triggs] called us into the office, we had a little conference with her, [and] we admitted to the charges so that we could improve upon our [fraternity] and correct these things,” Sample said.

“The main thing that our chapter wanted was to still be recognized by the University and to still be able to rush,” Sample added. He explained that TKE, which received its charter in 1999, has only 13 members and will suffer from being excluded from rush for a year.

“Dr. Harrigan had it out to get us,” Sample said. “She threw the book at us, and everything she could at us.”

“The judicial board actually went in our favor,” Sample said, “[but] it was unacceptable to both Birney Harrigan and Jack Daniel.”

Harrigan could not be contacted for comment late last night.

According to the recommended sanctions sent by the judicial board to Jack Daniel, the board advised that the fraternity “remain as recognized organization by University”; “community service 100 hours/current member to be completed by April ’04”; and “recruitment activities able to be continued [with] direct oversight, approval, monitoring of new member activities by Fraternity and Sorority Life Coordinator and national organization.” The judicial board also recommended that the fraternity be put on probationary status from Jan 1, 2004, until Jan. 1, 2007.

The board recommended that the fraternity attend the Greek Alcohol Awareness Program annually — an event that they had already registered for this year.

Sample said that, while Triggs seemed to recognize the work TKE was doing to improve the situation, she was not able to hand down the sanctions she chose.

“I felt that she was greatly limited in what she could do, and that some of the things Dr. Harrigan wanted her to do, she did not agree with,” Sample added.

“Our campus Greek community is nothing like it should be,” Sample said, explaining that he would like more support and participation at Greek events.

Sample said no one contacted him from the time he heard the judicial board’s ruling, until he received the letter from Daniel overturning the decision not to suspend TKE.

“The judicial process was a farce,” Sample said.

TKE’s national chapter does not have an official policy to revoke charters from chapters lacking university recognition, Sample said, and Pitt’s chapter will maintain its national recognition.

TKE’s national chapter could not be reached for comment.

“They’re not going to pull a chapter from a major university,” he said, adding that the national organization has been “very proactive” in working with the chapter to improve it and correct problems.

“We’re still a fully functional chapter, and we will be,” Sample said. “We don’t need the University’s recognition to be a chapter.”

Although TKE will not be able to participate in Greek Week events and is not a member of the Interfraternity Council until the suspension ends, he expressed optimism about the fraternity’s activity level.

“Everything I can do, I will still do,” Sample said. “They can’t really stop us from associating and gathering.”

Addressing TKE’s pledging process, Sample said that pledges were not forced to take part in anything uncomfortable.

“Our pledges enjoy their pledge process,” Sample said, explaining that the fraternity members do not do “anything physical” to pledging members.

Sample expressed scorn for unpleasant hazing processes, calling them “idiotic.”

He added that he was told he should have fought the hazing charges, as neither Brett Wilson nor his mother was present at the hearing.

In TKE’s pledging process, potential members are required to wear the fraternity’s pin, pass five quizzes on the fraternity’s national and chapter history, and visit at least one other TKE chapter to see “how it functions,” Sample said.

“Anita was very helpful in our case. She did not want to get rid of [fraternities],” Sample said. “From what I have seen from the others, from [Harrigan] and Jack Daniel, they want to get rid of us.”