Jewish Fraternity At Syracuse Suspended Over Student Safety Concerns
Image by Anya ulinich
By Josh Nathan-Kazis February 21, 2018
Officials at Syracuse University in upstate New York suspended the school’s chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, citing an unspecified threat to student safety, Syracuse’s student newspaper reported.
“As soon as we were made aware of conduct that threatened the safety of a student participating in the new member process, we took immediate action to halt fraternity activities at Alpha Epsilon Pi,” Sarah Scalese, a spokesperson for the university, told the Daily Orange.
AEPi is a Jewish fraternity with chapters in colleges across the United States. AEPi’s national office is defending the Syracuse chapter, saying that the misconduct was on the part of an individual student.
“Syracuse administrators have taken this unilateral action with little regard to the facts of the case or the possible impacts on many innocent students,” Jonathan Pierce, a spokesperson for the national office, told the Daily Orange.
The Forward reported last summer that two top officers of the national fraternity had resigned over a lack of financial transparency.
At Syracuse University, all three national Jewish fraternities are currently in disciplinary trouble. According to the Daily Orange, the local chapter of Zeta Beta Tau is “on disciplinary reprimand,” while the local chapter Sigma Alpha Mu is under investigation for hazing.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
