Alpha Chi Rho on probation, no longer suspended
Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer
The conduct board in late January found Crow responsible for violating SU’s conduct code and suspended the fraternity for a year.
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Syracuse University’s chapter of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity is no longer suspended but is now on probation, an SU official said Saturday.
SU suspended its chapter of Alpha Chi Rho, known as Crow, in November after the university alleged members and guests shouted a racist slur at a Black woman near College Place. Chancellor Kent Syverud later said the university placed four members of the fraternity on interim suspension for their involvement in the incident.
The national organization of Alpha Chi Rho filed an ongoing lawsuit against SU in June asking the Onondaga County Supreme Court to reverse Crow’s suspension. The university has now lifted that suspension, although Crow remains on probation as it seeks to expand within the Interfraternity Council, said Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for communications, in a statement to The Daily Orange.
“Since Alpha Chi Rho is currently participating in IFC expansion, they have been placed on probationary status by the council,” Scaelse said. “This chapter status and conditions associated are set by the IFC in accordance with their bylaws.”
The University Conduct Board found on Dec. 19 that the four members of Crow who had been suspended were not responsible for violating the Code of Student Conduct, letters sent to the students show. Despite this, disciplinary proceedings continued against the fraternity as a whole.
The conduct board in late January found Crow responsible for violating SU’s conduct code and suspended the fraternity for a year. The conduct board was unable to determine what was said to the woman but concluded that a guest of the fraternity, a student from Rutgers University, likely said something that “startled or offended” the victim and that he likely attempted to look up her dress.
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After the fraternity appealed its suspension in February, SU’s appeals board overturned the conduct board’s decision to lift the sanctions against Crow. But Dolan Evanovich, SU’s former senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, announced March 3 that he had rejected the appeals board’s decision and had found the fraternity responsible for violating the conduct code.
In its ongoing lawsuit, Crow has alleged that SU violated its own policies when one official decided to suspend the fraternity in March after the University Appeals Board had lifted the fraternity’s sanctions two weeks earlier.
The university later claimed that it acted within its own policies in suspending the fraternity, referring to a section of its student conduct system procedures that grants the senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience the authority to alter or overrule the decisions of SU’s conduct or appeals board.
Published on October 4, 2020 at 9:36 pm
Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu
