CSULB suspends fraternity

By Ryan May
Daily Forty-Niner

Sigma Phi Epsilon, a fraternity with a 37-year history at Cal State Long Beach, will be suspended from university recognition Thursday, according to Amy Geist, coordinator of Student Life and Development for Greek life.

The suspension, in effect until December 1, 2000, comes after fraternity members violated an administrative sanction imposed upon them by CSULB's Student Life and Development in March of this year. The sanction required the fraternity to vacate their chapter home, at 1109-1115 Euclid Ave., but they still reside there, according to Kim Padulo, director of Student Life and Development.

"There's a long history of difficulties with noise complaints at the address that they currently occupy as their chapter home," Padulo said.

As part of the suspension, currently in appeal by the fraternity, the chapter will lose the privilege of using the university's name and campus services. In addition, they are not allowed to recruit from CSULB's student body. All members accepted from rush week will not be allowed to join until Spring 2001.

"We still have people living there and we are still in a lease," said Ryan Gordon, chapter president. "We were making steps to basically remove it as a chapter house but it's something that's been in the process for the past year. We haven't had a chapter function there for quite a while."

The sanction also mentioned the chapter's GPA, which is below CSULB's requirement of 2.67.

"We've been doing better with our GPA," Gordon said. "We're right around the middle of all the fraternities on campus. With this new suspension, we're looking to basically improve our GPA, hopefully, quite a bit, so that we could maybe be in the top two or three on campus."

To improve their academic standing, Gordon said the fraternity, comprised of about 50 members, is now limiting social functions to weekend nights.

Although not blameless, Geist said current members of the fraternity are living under the shadow of those who established a pattern of disruptive behavior.

"The guys who are in the chapter, now, are paying the price for people who started the problems two and a half years ago," she said.

Student Life and Development is currently trying to get the fraternity to vacate the property so it will not have to deal with a situation that has been in existence for too long, Geist said

"Fraternities, and even the sororities for that matter, aren't really the typical ëAnimal House' of the past," Gordon said.  "Things are definitely changing for the better but also in different ways, where people have to realize that we won't be able to do the same things and function in the same capacity as before."