The national headquarters of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity should heed Friday’s request of its MSU branch to review the chapter’s membership. It is obvious from recent events that some serious housecleaning needs to be done to rid MSU’s greek community of the stain caused by the ignorance of Pi Kappa Phi members.
The national fraternity suspended its MSU branch Wednesday, pending a discrimination and hazing investigation for sending its pledges, wearing pink, sleeveless T-shirts with phrases such as “I like little boys” and “Capt. Gay Sex” written on the back, into the Mason and Abbot halls cafeterias on April 1 and April 2.
MSU’s greek community Wednesday found the fraternity in violation of its anti-discrimination policy for the incidents.
Murat Bashelvaci, Pi Kappa Phi president at MSU, said his fraternity didn’t mean to offend anyone. But it seems as though its members have yet to learn a lesson.
On Thursday, while a WLNS-TV reporter was interviewing transgender residents outside Mason and Abbot halls about the incident, Pi Kappa Phi members began yelling obscenities from across Bogue Street.
To make matters worse, Pi Kappa Phi members allegedly returned to Mason and Abbot halls early Friday morning and engaged in an animated argument with hall residents about lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender students. The complex director said the dispute was quickly broken up and Pi Kappa Phi hasn’t commented on the occurrence.
And although the greek system suspended Pi Kappa Phi from holding social gatherings at its house for one semester, WLNS reported seeing a party there.
As part of the greek system’s punishment of the fraternity, the chapter is required to sponsor an anti-discrimination speaker for the entire greek community, attend three education seminars on hazing, discrimination and risk management and spend 150 hours compiling and distributing anti-discrimination packets among the greek community.
But, as evident by the events of Thursday and Friday morning, it doesn’t seem these punishments, along with the looming investigation from their national headquarters, are enough to endow the members of Pi Kappa Phi with a sense of common human decency.
It seems some members of the fraternity don’t realize how their ignorant actions affect other individuals. Their actions have given a black eye to MSU’s greek community - which doesn’t deserve it.
The greek system, for the most part, has been a positive force in the MSU community. Its members work hard every year to promote openness and serve as welcomed and needed philanthropists.
It is painfully obvious that at least some members of Pi Kappa Phi don’t belong in the greek system. The fraternity’s national headquarters should perform an adequate review of the branch’s membership along with its investigation into the April 1 and April 2 incidents. The national leaders also should take the events of Thursday and Friday into consideration.
There are members of Pi Kappa Phi who do not exemplify the concept of decent human beings and all actions should be taken to weed those individuals out of MSU’s greek community.
