Nineteen members of Delta Chi became inactive after the fraternity’s national board reviewed the house earlier this month. Five seniors, six juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen will be banned from living within the house by the end of fall semester, said Brandon Cary, Delta Chi president.
“It has been a rough road for us,” Cary said.
Cary said he was unprepared for the review, conducted Nov. 9 and 10.
“I felt like I overlooked the warning gave earlier in the year,” Cary said. “I didn’t think (the review) was even close to necessary. I expected it to be an incident (that caused the review), not a decision.”
The decision to review the University of Idaho chapter was made after members of Delta Chi voted to allow alcohol in the fraternity, Cary said.
“The whole issue was that we had been dry … then the house started to be allowed to have alcohol in the house again, do small social things with sororities,” Cary said. “Our adviser notified our housing corporation (that we were no longer dry) and also our headquarters. (The national chapter) saw that we were one incident away from being kicked off campus.”
Cary said he defined ‘incidents’ as events such as underage drinking, rape accusations and drinking-related injuries.
Cary said members of the national chapter told Delta Chi that there would be changes in the fraternity in response to past incidents. During the national review, he said all in-house and out-of-house members were interviewed individually and asked to fill out surveys rating their fellow members on their ability to conform to the national chapter’s standards.
“Basically, they were trying to get us to rat out our brothers,” said Delta Chi sophomore Alex Booth. “They wanted us to name people specifically.”
Every member of Delta Chi, apart from Cary and six other house officials, were asked to fill out the surveys. Members were also required to submit academic and legal records for review, Cary said.
The review came before a final incident even had a chance to happen, he said.
After the 19 members who were deemed ‘unfit’ were removed by the national board, Booth said his fellow Delta Chi members were upset and angered by the situation.
Dan McCarthy, a Delta Chi sophomore, said the majority of the house pointed to Bruce Pitman, Dean of Students, as a cause of the national review. McCarthy said Pitman was the last to be consulted by the national board before the fraternity was reviewed.
“Dean Pitman has an unfair outlook and doesn’t give Delta Chi a chance to be a part of this fully-functional campus,” Booth said.
Pitman said he was not heavily involved in the decision to review the chapter, and was not the only person involved in contacting the national chapter. As dean of students, Pitman said he had worried about Delta Chi before 19 members were made inactive.
“I, along with others, were concerned about the activities associated with Delta Chi,” Pitman said. “I was involved with making the recommendation that they be reviewed. It was a consensus made by several of us in Student Affairs.”
Pitman said he was surprised by the number of members that were ultimately made inactive.
Cary said the only option for Delta Chi is to repair, refocus and move forward.
“(Delta Chi’s inactive members) can’t be a part of the process to get back on track and move forward,” Cary said. “We have some transfer students that we have been talking to so we can fill the house up.”
Cary said he is preparing for spring recruitment and expects a substantial summer rush to fill the spaces left by the Delta Chi national board.