Prank, slurs probed

    __A TDX brother filed a complaint against a Phi Tau member__

    p. At 1:40 a.m. April 1, Theta Delta Chi’s “Preps vs. Punks” dance party ended abruptly after students discovered human excrement on the dance floor. Members of the fraternity quickly cleared the Unit C basement and cleaned the floor, but the incident caused a verbal dispute — allegedly laced with anti-gay rhetoric — between members of TDX and members of Phi Kappa Tau, who occupy the adjacent Unit D residence.

    p. A member of TDX, who asked to remain anonymous, has individually filed two complaints to Dean of Students Patricia Volp, one regarding the excrement on the dance floor and the other against a member of Phi Tau, who is charged with yelling the anti-gay remarks to TDX brothers after Unit C was cleared.
    “I can’t imagine anything more disgusting,” Volp said about the incident on the dance floor.

    p. Assistant Dean Dave Gilbert, agreed.
    “[I can’t imagine] a scenario where that wasn’t deliberate,” Gilbert said. “I guess you can imagine it, but it’s highly unlikely, let’s put it that way.”

    p. Gilbert, who heads Judicial Affairs, said that TDX believes the excrement on the dance floor was the result of a prank, but neither he nor the complaint named a perpetrator.

    p. “I can certainly verify human excrement on the floor of [TDX’s] dance floor,” Gilbert said. “They think someone brought it in.”

    p. While the student who filed the complaint did not name any suspect in the dance floor incident, the report to the dean claims that a Phi Tau brother used anti-gay remarks against some brothers of TDX after the unit was cleared.

    p. Due to the confidentiality of the incident report, Gilbert could not state the content of the remarks. He did say, however, that they were the type of words “an eighth grader would use.”

    p. Billy Hafker, a sophomore and Phi Tau’s vice president, acknowledged that members of both fraternities shared words after the unit was cleared, and that members of both groups had been drinking that night.

    p. “We were all just real drunk,” Hafker said. “We got on each others’ nerves and we started yelling at each other. A few people in each of our groups were trying to rile things up a little bit and took it too far.”

    p. Hafker also said that the dispute was an isolated incident, one that did not indicate a continuing rivalry between the two fraternities. He stated that the “derogatory” remarks were only made by one of the Phi Tau brothers, who is currently under judicial review.

    p. Gilbert verified Hafker’s statement.

    p. “It does appear that it’s primarily an individual and not a contingent of the group or an officer of the group acting on behalf of the fraternity,” he said.

    p. Hafker acknowledged that campus police were involved, but no one was written up for the incident.

    p. TDX declined to comment, stating that the incident was an individual issue, and did not involve the entire fraternity.

    p. “This is being pursued as an individual issue, not as an organizational issue. Therefore, as an organization, we do not feel it is our place to comment,” the statement read.

    p. The student under investigation will undergo a cursory review, where Gilbert will outline the judicial process and make sure the accused student is aware of his rights. After the cursory review, the student will face the judicial council.

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