Sanctions put forth by the Student Government Association’s Court of Review, stemming from last month’s confrontation between members of the Beggars and Alpha Delta Gamma fraternities, have gone into effect.
“We haven’t had a fight in a long, long time,” said Chris Cameron, director of student activities, “but they happen.”
According to the records of hearing, the fight began between the fraternities after a group of Beggars threw eggs at the ADG house in the early hours of Feb. 19. The egg throwing was a response to the theft of Beggars pledge pins by members of ADG, according to Cameron. The Court of Review could not determine which fraternity began the fight on Feb. 19 due to conflicting testimony, but the court unanimously found both culpable of physical aggression.
The New Orleans Police Department was called in to break up the fight and both fraternities were given administrative orders to cease any form of aggression or retaliation. After Feb. 19, there was a reported incident that violated this order, which was of an ADG member spitting on members of the Beggars.
According to Cameron, in a hearing on March 8, ADG brought six charges against the Beggars and the Beggars brought eight charges against ADG. Of these charges, ADG was found culpable of theft and failure to follow an administrative order but not culpable of property damage or hazing. The Beggars were found culpable with mitigating circumstances of property damage, but not culpable of failure to follow an administrative order. Both fraternities were found, by a unanimous vote, culpable of physical aggression, verbal abuse, behavior inappropriate of Loyola students and of neglecting the responsibilities of student organizations, said Cameron.
Three of the four sanctions put forth are the same for both fraternities. Both must complete 45 hours of community service with at least 80 percent of their chapter in attendance, 15 hours of which must be held jointly between the two fraternities. Both fraternities are also on social probation, prohibited from participating in, sponsoring or supporting any social events on or off campus until Dec. 31, 2005. No members of either fraternity are allowed to wear fraternal clothing, including jerseys, hats or pins, until Aug. 1, 2005.
The fourth sanction for ADG is that their national headquarters must conduct a chapter membership review to determine whether members will remain brothers in the fraternity. The Beggars must attend a minimum one-hour educational session on “Responsible Decision Making” with a qualified speaker with 100 percent attendance from their pledge class. Under these conditions both fraternities will be allowed to continue their new member season and initiate their pledges.
The clash between the two fraternities was a recent occurrence and the fight seemed to be the result of an impromptu action, said Candace Walker, chief justice of the SGA Court of Review. She said the president of each fraternity was disappointed that the situation had to turn out as it did but accepted the sanctions offered. Neither fraternity chose to appeal the court’s decision.
“The idea of discipline is not to punish,” Cameron said, “The goal is to have the group reflect on their behavior.”
Records of the hearing outcome are open to the public and available at the Student Activities Office in the basement of the Danna Center.
Kevin Corcoran can be reached at [email protected].
