Whew, it has not been a good year for Florida fraternities.
In February, the University of Central Florida suspended all Greek life following numerous reports of hazing and alcohol abuse.
On Friday, the Miami Herald reported that the Florida International University chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha was suspended over Facebook posts involving drugs, homophobic slurs, allusions to hazing and semi-nude photos of women posted without the women’s consent — one of which, CNN reported, may have been a minor.
The board of directors of the Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity immediately suspended the chapter once 70 screenshots from a private Pi Kappa Alpha Facebook page were leaked.
“The immediate decision to suspend by the Supreme Council was made to communicate clearly that this type of behavior is not tolerated,” Executive Vice President Justin A. Buck wrote in a statement released Friday, CNN reported. “It is clear these individuals never had any concept of what Pi Kappa Alpha stands for.”
Translation: How could you let these morons slip through the cracks, FIU? It’s as if nobody learned a thing about online discretion from the now-infamous “deranged sorority girl” email.
The news of this latest fraternity scandal is hardly shocking. Pi Kappa Alpha, commonly known as “Pike,” has a well-known, unsavory history in Florida.
“Pike has always had a bad reputation for being meatheads,” one FIU “fraternity insider” said, according to the Miami New Times. “Now it looks like that stereotypical reputation is pretty spot-on.”
Or, as TotalFratMove.com user “Diplofrat USA” wrote, “Classic Pike.”
The Miami New Times also reported that Pi Kappa Alpha has been suspended from nearly every major state school over the past few decades, beginning in 1988 with a high-profile case when four Pike members were arrested for raping an 18-year-old female student at Florida State University. The chapter at FSU was banned for a decade and only allowed to reopen in 1999.
Pi Kappa Alpha chapters have faced suspensions at Stetson University, the University of Miami and even UF, back in 2007 after four women passed out at a barbecue in September 2006 and suspected they had been drugged. A court later overturned the suspension after investigators found no signs of foul play.
In 2007, UCF shut down its Pike chapter after the house racked up 28 code violations. Just this past March, Florida Atlantic University suspended its Pike chapter after members allegedly assaulted another student outside a nightclub.
It’s hard to muster up shock and anger anymore, quite frankly. These destructive side effects of frat culture, especially in the South, will never go away. In the meantime, it’d be nice if our public universities could invest a little more effort in monitoring Greek goings-on behind the scenes.
A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 8/27/2013 under the headline "Facebook Fiasco: FIU Pike chapter suspended"
