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Students participate in various activities during Lambda Chi’s annual Watermelon Bash, held in Burleson Park on University. Photo submitted by anonymous student
Members of Lambda Chi Alpha chapter found out Monday night that the fraternity would be placed on deferred suspension for the rest of the year, as well as fined for damages resulting from a philanthropic event.
Lori White, SMU’s vice president for student affairs, said the deferred suspension was a result of infractions committed by fraternity members related to an event in Burleson Park in University Park on Sept. 19. A member of Lambda Chi Alpha identified the Sept. 19 incident as the Watermelon Bash.
Lambda Chi President Harrison Kaufman declined to comment.
White said the decision by the University Student Conduct Office was a result of complaints consisting of phone calls, e-mails and a report from University Park police.
According to The Dallas Morning News, University Park police received two complaints from neighbors, one about loud music and the other about someone urinating in a yard.
But according to SMU Police Department’s crime log, at the time of the event, only one student was cited for consumption of alcohol by a minor.
Two days later, a staff member reported to SMU PD that the Late Fountain at 6501 Airline Court “had mud and watermelon seeds in it.” The fountain had to be drained and cleaned.
According to White, Lambda Chi was in good standing with the university prior to the incident but now the fraternity must complete a series of requirements before the end of their deferred suspension.
“[Lambda Chi] will be required to pay restitution to the city of University Park for damages to the park which we estimate to be about $1,200; $275 to SMU for damages to one of the SMU fountains, a service project for the University Park community, letters of apology to the city of University Park and the neighbors who live adjacent to Burleson Park,” White said.
According to the community standards Web site for SMU fraternity and sorority life, deferred suspension can result in “various sanctions and requirements levied against an organization” including the restriction of social events. Organizations that fail to follow the rules associated with the deferred suspension can be removed from the university for a specific amount of time.
Officials from Lambda Chi Alpha’s national office said on Tuesday, they agreed and supported the university’s decision to put SMU’s Gamma Sigma chapter on deferred suspension.
In a statement released to the media, Tad Lichtenauer, director of communications of Lambda Chi Alpha said, “The university’s terms for deferred suspension, and related sanctions, were the result of a collaborative effort between the university, the undergraduate leadership and the International Headquarters.”
Lambda Chi Alpha joins Sigma Alpha Epsilon on the list of fraternities currently on deferred suspension. SAE was placed on deferred suspension last spring after university officials concluded that the drug use involved in the 2006 death of Jake Stiles was not an isolated incident.
Currently Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, Phi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Chi and Sigma Phi Epsilon, are on probation, as well as Kappa Kappa Gamma, according to the community standard’s Web site.
White said, “We expect all of our students to uphold the standards delineated in our student code of conduct which requires all students to be responsible and respectable of others.”