Penn State Suspends Frat for 3 Years for Nude Pics, Hazing

Kappa Delta Rho booted from campus for 'deeply troubling activities'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 27, 2015 6:35 AM CDT
Penn State Suspends Frat for 3 Years for Nude Pics, Hazing
Students and others demonstrate on the Penn State campus in support of women police say were depicted on Kappa Delta Rho fraternity's private Facebook pages, March 20, 2015, in State College, Pa.   (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A secret Facebook page with photos of nude women, hazing, and a slew of other activities that "promoted a culture of harassing behavior and degradation of women" have led Penn State to suspend the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity for three years, the AP reports. The university's decision, outlined in a letter from VP of Student Affairs Damon Sims to the student-run Interfraternity Council, overturned the IFC's ruling that the frat could stay on campus as long as it changed its culture through education and training programs, NBC News reports. Although the university doesn't believe all frat members were "equally culpable" for the transgressions, Sims notes in his letter that "the sum of the organizational misbehaviors is far more than the University can tolerate."

The university's investigative report, which the AP notes hasn't been released, found "a persistent series of deeply troubling activities," Penn State News reports. In addition to the online photos of "individuals in extremely compromising positions," other activities the university uncovered include the use and sale of drugs, the "persistent harassment of two females," and hazing, including making pledges take part in boxing matches and "plank" with bottle caps placed under their elbows. Pledges were also instructed to write pornographic stories, complete with images and a "sex position of the day." If Kappa Delta Rho wants to return in 2018, Penn State would have to receive a request from the frat's national leadership, then decide what conditions it would set, the AP notes. (The University of Florida suspended ZBT for harassing veterans.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X