Timothy Piazza died on February 2, 2017, from both a fractured skull and a lacerated spleen during initiation night at Penn State’s chapter of Beta Theta Pi. The aftermath of the tragic incident involved a pre-litigation settlement for the Piazza family, with the national Beta fraternity agreeing to make all Beta houses substance-free starting in 2018. Five years later, the Sigma chapter of Beta Theta Pi at Stevens has failed to observe this national rule and implement it within their house.
According to Beta National’s Substance-Free Housing Transition Guide, efforts to remove substances from all Beta houses were “to be carried out in two phases across multiple years, with all Beta homes becoming substance-free by August 2020.” The transition timeline states that Beta houses were supposed to observe the following protocol before August 15, 2018: “No hard alcohol within chapter housing, all common spaces must be substance-free.” The Beta national website goes on to describe a chapter in “Good Standing,” as one that abides “by federal and state laws and all Beta Theta Pi policies, including the Risk Management Policy and Substance-Free Housing Policy,” putting Stevens’ Beta chapter in a compromised position due to their failure to comply.
Stevens student Samantha Reilly was friends and teammates with Timothy Piazza. She has long been advocating for reform towards the Sigma chapter’s practices and reignited the discussion on why they are not compliant with national rules. In an interview with The Stute, Reilly mentioned Beta “has been continuing to host parties and mixers serving alcohol in their house.” Reilly alerted Stevens of Beta’s national “dry” policy in February of 2021 and mentioned that the Stevens administration “had no knowledge of this, even though it was to have been adopted at least a year and a half prior to that.”
In terms of the proactiveness of administration, Reilly stated, “it only seems like discussions are being had with the chapter about how they can finally ‘adapt this policy’, but no punishments or reprimanding seems to have taken place.” As far as The Stute knows, Beta has hosted parties with substances in their house this semester and has also attempted to host mixers with sororities without registering them through Stevens. Beta also allegedly told sororities that they should not post their parties on social media, seemingly with an intent to conceal the substances at their parties. These calculated moves imply that Beta is knowledgeable about its violations of the substance-free housing policy and shows their deep disregard for the fraternity’s national policies.
In an email interview with Kevin Grunder, Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, he stated “Beta Theta Pi is currently on University Probation status.” However, there is no formal investigation being done on the fraternity. According to Grunder, “administration must receive a report of an alleged violation of the Student Code of Conduct in order to launch a formal organizational investigation,” meaning that for Stevens to take any action against Beta, they require evidence of substances in their house. Reilly goes on to mention, “just because Stevens does not own [Beta’s] house does not mean measures can not be taken. Things like social events, formals, getting a pledge class, etc. are all a privilege and are all within Stevens’ ability to take away.”
Other schools have buckled down on their Beta chapters’ failure to comply with Beta’s national rules. On February 11, 2022, North Carolina State University’s chapter of Beta was disbanded due to “multiple violations of Beta Theta Pi’s Substance-Free Housing Policy.” Other schools believe that a violation against a fraternity’s national policies provides grounds for disbandment; Stevens however, seems to be taking a hands-off approach, waiting for Beta’s national organization to take action.
Stevens’ lack of action towards Beta creates larger discussions about the regulation of Greek life on campus. Most recently, the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was banned from campus on January 28, 2003. According to a Stute article, “Sigma Phi Epsilon charter revoked and house closed,” published in 2003, the chapter was banned after a “fight at the house […] which left one person severely injured and had 4 of their brothers arrested, and after finding 3 kegs in the houses two weeks ago, when they were supposed to be under restriction not to even have empty containers in the house.” The article further reports that “the school put their foot down against this “blatant disregard for authority.” Prior to Sigma Phi Epsilon, another campus fraternity, Pi Lambda Phi, was revoked from campus after “they not only owed the university an overly large amount of money but they also had an extremely low membership.”
Beta’s lack of respect for their national policies opens up a larger conversation about the presence of safety measures in Greek Life. As mentioned by Reilly, “Stevens Greek Life needs a major overhaul because if we continue to stand idle as chapters blatantly break national, and campus wide rules, something bad could happen.” While leaders in sororities have buckled down on safety by creating effective risk management and policies, Stevens Greek Life should have more involvement with regulating national policies and auditing organizations to ensure they are being followed.
