Last February, the Kappa Alpha fraternity chapter at Southwestern University in Georgetown was suspended from campus for a host of violations, ranging from allegedly parking a car affixed with a sign that read “Old People Die!” outside the entrance to the Del Webb Sun City retirement community to using racial slurs in front of both faculty and administrators. In the wake of these revelations, Southwestern’s new president Jake Schrum — himself an old KA brother from SU — had a swift response: The KAs would face a four-year suspension from campus and would have to wait until 2005 to apply for a new campus charter.
“The president is calling for a paradigm shift,” said Schrum spokesman Eric Van Denen. “In any petition to return to campus, they will need to exhibit a paradigm shift in keeping with the university’s core values.”
Indeed, SU prides itself on operating based on a set of five “core values,” from promoting “lifelong learning and a passion for intellectual and personal growth” to respecting the dignity of other people, and fostering diverse perspectives. The KAs’ antics appear to have violated all of the above. And now, eight months later, the university has announced it has formed a “core values council” to discuss exactly how the KAs might restructure their order to exhibit the necessary paradigm shift that would get them back in line with SU’s values and back on campus as a recognized brotherhood. (Despite several attempts, the Chronicle was unsuccessful in reaching the Inter Fraternity Council for this article.)
According to SU’s Van Denen, the council — to be overseen by Schrum’s senior advisor, Ron Swain — is charged with making recommendations to the president regarding the KAs’ planned shift and, perhaps, a time line for getting there. But Van Denen is quick to point out that the formation of the council should not be considered as hedging away from Schrum’s original four-year suspension — even though the council could end up advising the suspension be shortened, and Van Denen says the president would remain “open to whatever the council suggested.”
Instead, the council’s purpose is to have the “opportunity to have a considerate conversation” (as opposed to a “confrontational conversation” or an “accusatory conversation”), Van Denen says, about what it will take for the brothers to return to the fold. “This group has existed on campus for almost 120 years. That certainly has a meaningful impact on a number of people,” he says. (Reportedly, Kappa had 24 members at SU at the time of their suspension.) The council “is not established to reinstate the Kappa Alpha Order … it is about establishing guidelines and what a paradigm shift might be,” Van Denen adds.
However, some SU students aren’t as jiggy with the Tony Robbins-esque language of togetherness the administration seems to be pushing. Even the composition of the council, they say, seems to favor the KAs. Indeed, of the council’s 12 members, six are directly affiliated with the Kappa Alpha Order, while the remaining six — including one student member designated to represent the remainder of the 1,309-person student body — come from the remaining campus community. “What hacks me off is that this council was supposed to be made up of unbiased people,” said one SU student. “And still, like, six people [associated] with the KAs ended up on the committee. It is ridiculous to say that this group of people can make an unbiased decision or judgement about what needs to be done.”
Still, Van Denen insists the council is being convened as a way to help the community come together and said it in no way represents an easy out for the KAs to get back to business. “This is not a step backward, this is a step forward,” he said. “We’re a community of inquiry. This is how we, as a community, move forward.”
The core values council is scheduled to commence its considerate charge Sept. 22 with a one-day community building retreat.
This article appears in September 21 • 2001.