KAs lose campus charter
The Kappa Alpha Order National Administrative Office suspended GCSU’s KA chapter sighting “failure to comply with the Kappa Alpha Order Risk Management Policy and social suspension order.”
Chapter leaders and brothers declined to comment on the suspension at this time.
Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, vice president for Student Affairs, said the suspension stems from an incident at a hotel during a social function for the fraternity.
“We were copied on a letter from an Atlanta-area resort that said the KAs had behavioral problems during a dinner-dance,” Harshbarger said. “The resort wanted the nationals to know what had happened, and even though the issue didn’t happen on campus, we didn’t want to turn a blind eye.”
The hotel, the Marriott Evergreen Conference Resort in Stone Mountain, confirmed that the group had an incident at the resort but did not comment specifically.
Harshbarger said that the chapter also had problems paying bills to the NAO and had been suspended from holding social events.
“(NAO) had told them ‘don’t do anything,’ but they did something,” he said.
Michael Wilson, director of chapter services for Kappa Alpha Order, met with the brothers, school administrators and the staff of campus life to discuss the punishment.
“It’s not a small issue when Risk Management Policy is involved,” Wilson said. “It’s a portion of our law that all members of the organization must follow.”
The Risk Management Policy includes provisions on drugs and alcohol, hazing, sexual abuse and education among other topics.
NAO’s suspension calls for the chapter to cease all official chapter operations and places all current members under the involuntary alumnus status which restricts them from acting as KAs.
Wilson said that NAO will return to GCSU in 2011 to discuss reinstatement.
“This kind of suspension is necessary, on rare occasion when a chapter fails to comply with the policies and expectations set forth by the national organization.” Wilson said. “We appreciate the cooperation we are receiving from the men and the university.”
Harshbarger said that Wilson has had other groups in the past become hostile during similar meetings.
“I pulled him aside after the meeting and he said that this was ‘the most professional meeting of this kind I’ve ever had,’” Harshbarger said. “Certainly they were disappointed, but they handled themselves with class.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 3 2009. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
