Pike suspension ends, back in action
The suspension Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity imposed by its national organization was lifted in early November. Since then, the fraternity has operated as usual with a few minor exceptions according to Christopher Walsh, the USU chapter president.
Pi Kappa Alpha, commonly referred to as Pike, was indefinitely suspended from the Greek Council by USU Administration earlier this fall, after an incident involving a minor in possession of alcohol.
The fraternity’s national organization also suspended its charter while to conduct an investigation.
“The national suspension was a 30-day suspension,” Walsh said. “They just wanted to find out what the investigation came out with and to see if we did violate any of their standards. And after the 30 days, they came to the conclusion that we didn’t violate any of their standards and that we could still be a chapter.”
Walsh said once the suspension from the national organization ended, the fraternity resumed functioning as a Greek fraternity.
He said it holds weekly meetings, participates in community service and does everything other fraternities do, with a few exceptions, because the fraternity’s pledgeship was pushed back.
Dave Thomas, who was recently elected as the next Pi Kappa Alpha president, said the fraternity brothers still tried to bond together during the suspension.
“Without having a charter we’re basically not really allowed to operate as a chapter,” Thomas said. “We can still be a group of guys who like to hang out together, and we all are friends, so in that time we really tried to keep the brotherhood strong.”
Thomas said the fraternity members tried to prevent themselves from getting demoralized during the suspension and bonded together with activities such as bowling and brotherhood dinners.
“(We did it) just to keep guys involved and let them know that we’re going to make it through this,” Thomas said. “And although we’ve been derailed, we’re going to get back on our feet.”
Thomas said the biggest setback for the fraternity this semester was being barred from recruiting new members due to the suspension. With the suspension lifted, he said he expects lots of new recruits to join the fraternity in the spring.
“We’re looking at big recruitment numbers for next semester, because a lot of the guys who wanted to join really want to come back,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the suspension from Greek Council, which prevents the fraternity from using USU facilities for organized events, won’t affect recruitment too much.
“Technically since our chapter is off of the university property, we are still allowed to recruit through our own house,” Thomas said. “Most of our events already take place at the house, so that ideally won’t be too big of a hit to our recruitment process.”
James Morales, vice president of student services, said Greek Council has not come to a final decision regarding the fraternity’s suspension from the council.
“The final decision has not yet been made, because there’s an ongoing process that needs to be finalized,” Morales said.
No date has been set for when the investigation will end, Morales said, but it will end as soon as possible. He said he doesn’t want to drag the process out in order to allow everyone to move on.
“It’s good for us to bring some closure for the Pi Kappa Alphas and for the university — for everyone involved,” Morales said.
Morales said the university suspension and the national organization suspension were not interrelated.
“There’s different processes and different organizations that are looking at this,” Morales said. “While the university appreciates the actions that the nationals took to recognize there was a need to suspend the fraternity for a certain period of time, that really has no bearing on what we do or what Greek Council does.”
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu