Penn State Fraternity Banned Three Years for Nude Photos, Hazing, and More Frat Shenanigans

Then it'll be able to recolonize.

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The Penn State fraternity busted for posting photos of nude, unconscious women to a secret Facebook page won't be recognized by the university for three years, the school announced yesterday. The Kappa Delta Rho chapter was found to have participated in "a persistent series of deeply troubling activities within the fraternity," according to Damon Sims, vice president for student affairs. 

These "deeply troubling activities" include the aforementioned photos, underage drinking, drug dealing and use, and hazing. From The New York Times


Penn State said its investigation had found that members hazed pledges, forcing them to run errands and clean the fraternity house. Pledges were also forced to hold their bodies in a rigid horizontal position using only their arms in a move called planking, but with a painful twist — bottle caps were placed underneath their elbows.


In addition, pledges were required to make stories with pornographic images and “a sex position of the day.” Members regularly posted embarrassing photographs of women in “extremely compromising” positions and used demeaning language to describe them, the university said.

Fraternities are generally booted from campus for three or more years so that the chapter can reform when all the past members have graduated (or should have graduated). The idea here is that the offending brothers won't be able to influence the chapter once it's recolonized, but in reality more white, teenage males with vast privilege will be recruited and continue the unofficial tradition of reprehensible behavior. It just might be a little less awful at first because of the watchful eyes of Nationals.

I saw this happen in my own chapter, which recolonized years after causing $10,000 worth of damage at the Lake of the Ozarks. Not having the previous frat bros around didn't stop a culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia, and other problematic behavior from developing. 

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