The Kappa Deuteron chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity has lost its charter for the second time in 13 years.
AEPi’s national organization revoked the charter of the George Washington University chapter on Jan. 26. This action came less than two months after GW evicted the fraternity from its house on 22nd Street. An email from the university’s director of Greek life, Christina Witkowicki, to members of the Greek community said that the national AEPi office had found the chapter to be “in violation of multiple risk management violations during the investigation,” according to an article in The GW Hatchet. Neither AEPi nor GW would comment on the specific violations.
In 2001, the chapter was suspended due to violations of the university’s and the fraternity’s anti-hazing policy. It returned to campus in late 2002.
AEPi spokesman Jon Pierce said that the national organization had advised the 85 members of Kappa Deuteron prior to revoking their charter.
“What we were asking of the group was to do a better job of making progress towards risk management, doing philanthropy, conducting themselves appropriately, etc., and we didn’t see that progress being made,” said Pierce. He went on to say that AEPi discussed and determined ways for the chapter to meet those requirements, but that the undergrads “were not going to do that.”
In an email, GW’s associate director of media relations, Dave Andrews, said that “GW fully supports this decision from the AEPi National Headquarters.” The university released a statement regarding its Dec. 4 eviction of the fraternity, saying that the “action from the university is the result of a thorough review into multiple accounts of misconduct and neglect of university property.”
Pierce told the Hatchet in December just before the eviction that the national fraternity would be imposing sanctions.
“We have decided to sanction the chapter,” he said, “because we want to make sure that our seriousness and our intents to not have any hazing in our chapters is understood.”
He said that AEPi was working with GW on a plan to respond to the reported incidents of hazing from earlier in the year.
In April 2012, AEPi revoked the charter of its Boston University chapter after police responded to a reported hazing incident.
The most recent president of the AEPi chapter at GW, Nathan Kropp, did not feel that the actions taken by either GW or AEPi were justified.
“I attribute a lot of what happened to anti-Greek sentiment by GW’s administration,” he said in an email. “There is a reason GW and AEPi Nationals won’t release specifics about our alleged indiscretions. … AEPi Nationals is a business, and when pressured by GW, they made a business decision to come down on a chapter that was causing them angst.”
Despite the ruling that the brothers are prohibited from doing anything resembling a fraternity, Kropp stated that “we have an incredible group of guys – guys of high character, guys of ambition, guys of confidence. What we have doesn’t end because Nationals or GW no longer recognizes it … and despite everything, [what we have] will live on.”
Pierce stressed the importance the national fraternity places on its policies.
“We take our not hazing and risk management policies very seriously,” he said, adding that he hopes to re-establish a chapter at GW in the future. Citing the vibrant Jewish communities of both the university and of Washington, D.C., Pierce said, “they deserve to have an AEPi chapter there.”
