Tau Kappa Epsilon removed due to hazing violations

After legislation investigated hazing and risk-management violations inside the fraternity, TKE is being removed from the University of Maryland campus. Additionally, the recognition of it to the university is being rescinded.

The decision to remove the chapter was made by both the national fraternity and local alumni of the fraternity. This comes after the chapter was placed on probationary status for three years, according to Corin Gioia Edwards, the associate director of fraternity and sorority life. The residents of the fraternity’s chapter house at 3 Fraternity Row will be forced to vacate by March 20th. Whichever is farther away, it is said that the university will not recognize TKE until the fall of 2020 or until all the current active undergraduate members have graduated, said Matt Supple, the department’s director.

The decision to remove TKE from campus was “not made lightly” according to sources who were involved and the removal is the final step in ongoing efforts to address the chapters “deficiencies” it said in an email. Edwards says on the matter that “Our community must learn to help identify chapters who are in need of assistance and provide them with the necessary resources to turn things around.”

Although it has not yet been made publicly known which fraternities they are, a move of this gravity may be made against other fraternities on campus. The removal of TKE follows the removal of Delta Chi’s charter in June after it was reported that they exhibited “unacceptable patterns of behavior.”

The fraternity house at 3 Fraternity Row

This is the second fraternity to lose recognition at the University of Maryland in one year. Potential new TKE members were informed of the movement in a letter from the Office of Student Conduct on Febuary 19th. The assistant director of student conduct at the university, Vanessa Taft, says that “We have reason to believe members of the chapter have been conducting activities that have threatened your safety and well-being.”

The national organization of TKE said, “We stand with the university in seeing that this is a time for the group to take a pause. We look forward to working with university leadership and once again being a positive contributor to the University of Maryland campus in the future,” according to the spokesman Alex Baker.

This is not the first time that TKE has been removed from campus. In September of 1995, the chapter was removed due to hazing and alcohol violations that the university does not condone. The chapter came back to campus in 2005 and members moved into their new chapter house in 2008.

Upon hearing news of the removal, Edwards wrote, “The university is committed to helping Tau Kappa Epsilon restore a chapter on campus that will embrace both the university’s mission and the organization’s purpose,” Edwards wrote. “It is our belief that the closure will allow the chapter to return a stronger, healthier organization.”

With proper organization and following the rules correctly, TKE will surely return to the university and join its other 252 chapters and colonies in the nation.

The Tab reached out to members of TKE for a comment but all they said was, “We got fucked” and “We’re not fucking leaving.”