Correction Appended
AU fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa has been charged with multiple recruitment and rushing violations by the Inter-Fraternity Council and will stand in front of the standards committee for a hearing in the near future, according to a statement released by the IFC to The Eagle.
The IFC passed an updated constitution and bylaws last semester providing rules for the recruitment process and sanctions for violating them, according to the statement released by the IFC on Saturday. PSK has has been charged with six violations: distributing alcohol during a recruitment event, holding an alternative event during another fraternity’s rush time, holding and distributing alcohol at a recruitment event not recognized by the university, breaching social function guidelines, posting unauthorized flyers and for conduct “unbecoming a fraternal organization.”
“[PSK] is charged with violating these rules on numerous occasions, effectively tainting their recruitment process and the potential new members who were involved with it,” the statement reads.
The IFC will assemble a standards committee — which will serve as a judicial committee — to hear the case, which could happen as early as Wednesday, IFC Public Relations Chair Adam Tager said. If proven guilty, the committee will recommend sanctions, according to the statement.
“Phi Sig has been brought to our judicial board and one of the punishments that can be levied on them is losing a pledge class,” President of the IFC Seth Gilroy said. “There is potential for that to happen.”
The IFC has also criticized the fraternity for having what it deemed as inappropriate rush T-shirts. The council received several complaints from sororities and the AU community about the shirts’ derogatory nature, Tager said.
“Since this is an ongoing judicial review, there is some confidentiality surrounding exactly what happened. I don’t want to specifically say what the shirts said, because they do not represent greek life values,” Tager said.
At an IFC meeting held on Jan. 20, Director of Greek Life Curtis Burrill said the T-shirts read “’Don’t feed the sorority girls, Phi Sigma Kappa’s campus beautification.’” As a general standard, if mothers would not be comfortable reading it, it should not be on a rush T-shirt, he said.
“It’s not really the image we want to be portraying,” he said of the PSK shirt.
Upon inquiry, PSK President Mike Kaufman released the following statement to The Eagle:
“We have not received any notification on these charges through official IFC or University channels at this time so therefore at this time we have no comment.”
You can reach this staff writer at srudnick@theeagleonline.com.
In “Frat faces IFC allegations,” from the Feb. 1 edition of The Eagle, Curtis Burrill was misidentified as the director of greek life. His job title is “coordinator,” not director.
