iStock/Thinkstock(PHILADELPHIA) — Temple University is the latest college to face issues with Greek life on campus.
The Philadelphia school suspended fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi on Friday after “multiple credible reports” of sexual assaults, underage drinking and drug use, according to ABC affiliate WPVI.
At least two reports of sexual assaults have been lodged against the fraternity, according to WPVI. One case, involving a 19-year-old student at the school, has been referred to the district attorney, police said.
“A Temple University student reported that she attended a party there and was indecently assaulted there by one of the residents of the fraternity house,” Capt. Mark Burgmann, commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, said.
Another case was reported in March and involved another 19-year-old student who said she was given drinks by members of the fraternity and passed out, police said Friday.
“She said she became dizzy and disoriented and that’s the last thing she remembered until she woke up in bed with one of the members of the fraternity. She believed she was sexually assaulted,” said Burgmann.
A spokesperson for the national headquarters told The Temple News on Friday it was “very concerned about these allegations as they have no place in Alpha Epsilon Pi.”
Burgmann detailed a number of other allegations at a Friday news conference, including underage drinking and drug use.
The Temple case is one of a number of recent problems with fraternities in the country.
A 19-year-old pledge at nearby Penn State University died in February 2017 after apparently becoming so drunk he fell down a flight a stairs. Beta Theta Pi was suspended at the school. A judge dismissed charges of manslaughter against five of the student’s former frat brothers last month.
Florida State has been embroiled in fraternity issues for the past year as well. Five Pi Kappa Phi frat members pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor hazing earlier this week in connection with a case in which a pledge died of alcohol poisoning last November. A student at the school died after frat brothers allegedly encouraged him to drink excessively and he passed out on a couch. According to grand jury testimony, a fellow pledge found the pledge unresponsive in the morning, but called other frat members instead of 911.
Syracuse University came under fire this week after video from the Theta Tau fraternity surfaced showing members of the engineering fraternity using racist, ethnic, sexist slurs and other offensive language, while pretending to perform sexual acts on each other.
The school’s newspaper, The Daily Orange, reported Theta Tau was the fourth fraternity to be suspended just this academic year.
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