On Monday nights, fraternity and sorority houses fill with members for chapter meetings to discuss upcoming events, changes in the house, new members or any other matters that may be important. For the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity however, Monday nights will just be Monday nights due to reprimands for a hazing incident.

“We received hazing allegations and in cooperation with [SMU], we have pursued an investigation,” said Bill Martin, executive director of Phi Gamma Delta International headquarters.

“We have taken action placing the chapter under the supervision of a graduate trusteeship,” Martin said. The trusteeship is a group of alumni that supervises the operation and actions of the chapter.

“The [SMU] chapter is temporarily suspended,” said J. B. Goll, director of chapter services at fraternity headquarters, “pending fraternity and SMU conduct investigations.”

According to Goll, the SMU chapter is currently not allowed to function as a fraternity. This means that the organization cannot hold meetings to discuss fraternity matters, sponsor events, or participate in events under the fraternity name.

Headquarters would not release the date of when the incident is said to have occurred but Martin did say that the fraternity was made aware of the situation “during the third week of January.”

Coordinator of student activities and Greek affairs for SMU, Ryan K. Williams, declined to comment on when the university was made aware of the hazing incident or when the incident is said to have occurred.

“The best scenario [if an investigation was being conducted],” Williams said, “is for headquarters and the university to collaborate because there are different ways for both parties to handle things.”

Though Williams would not comment on the current standing of the fraternity with the university, he did say it was uncommon for a university to keep an organization’s charter if the international headquarters of the organization has revoked it.

Williams said that if an investigation was being conducted and if the organization was found guilty of violating the student code of conduct, that action ranging from “as little as a written reprimand to as much as chapter and organization expulsion from campus” is possible.

Both SMU and fraternity headquarters declined to comment on the number of students supposedly involved in the incident but Goll did say that the chapter would determine what, if any, individual sanctions would be issued and that headquarters would not be involved in this process.

One member of the fraternity, who asked not to be named, said that members were notified of the incident but specific details were not given. Other Phi Gamma Delta fraternity members could not be reached for comment.

Williams said that it didn’t make sense for a fraternity or sorority to invite a student to join their organization and then do something [like hazing] to separate the new member from the group. Despite this, he said that the university had two incidents of hazing in 2004.

Goll would not release information concerning hazing practices of other chapters of the fraternity but he did not deny the presence of hazing.

“Hazing is a problem that every fraternity deals with,” said Goll. “It pops up in different ways every year.”