A Cal Poly fraternity’s decision to remove a member accused of multiple sexual assaults has played a role in its dissolve, according to its president and several members.
The Kappa Delta chapter of Delta Tau Delta (DTD) fraternity officially dissolved Jan. 19 following a membership review conducted by the fraternity’s national organization that removed all but 15 men from the fraternity, according to former DTD President Nick Miller.
DTD announced the dissolve in a Facebook post Jan. 21.
“We regret to inform the Cal Poly community that as of Friday, January 19, 2018, the Kappa Delta Chapter of Delta Tau Delta has been dissolved. This decision was made by the members of the chapter following a membership review the pas Sunday in which we felt that our national organization showed a pattern of unfair and disrespectful behavior toward our members. We would like to thank those who have supported Cal Poly Delts the past four years and made our existence as an organization, while short, meaningful and memorable.”
The probation was to last until June 15, 2018.
In Spring 2017, DTD removed a member of their fraternity accused of at least seven sexual assaults. According to industrial engineering junior Miller, the expelled member sent a video of an unregistered party to DTD’s national organization as retaliation against the chapter.
This video resulted in full probation for DTD, according to Miller.
“He was obviously incredibly angry,” Miller said. “He was invested deeply in the fraternity, or he felt like it was a big part of his identity.”
Chief Operating Officer of DTD national fraternity Jack Kreman declined to comment about the expelled member or his involvement in DTD’s probation.
Then, during Fall 2017, DTD hosted a party while on probation which extended social probation until Dec. 14, 2018.
Because of the extended sanctions, DTD’s national organization conducted the individual membership review between Jan. 12-14. When the review concluded, the chapter had shrunk from 65 members to about 15, according to Miller.
According to Miller, the fraternity’s remaining members then voted unanimously to dissolve. Miller said this was because of a “disrespectful” and “coercive” line of questioning during the members’ reviews.
“They were borderline threatening and incredibly disrespectful,” Miller said. “They would ask us to pick out guys who we didn’t respect or we thought should be kicked out of the chapter.”
Miller also said DTD could not have realistically operated with only 15 members.
Miller on sexual assault accusations
Miller said he finds it ironic that DTD’s decision to expel a member of the fraternity for sexual assault allegations ultimately led the chapter to be punished by their national organization.
The expelled DTD member was found not guilty of at least one incident of sexual misconduct. Three formal Title IX complaints are among at least seven brought forward to Safer. Mustang News is not aware of the outcomes of the other two Title IX investigations.
“My personal opinion, not representative of the guys in the fraternity, is that the Title IX system is kind of broken right now,” Miller said. “There’s a big disparity between what the school preaches sometimes and what their actions show.”
Miller continued to say he feels DTD did more to punish the accused sexual assailant than Cal Poly’s Title IX Office, noting that the former member is still a student.
Dean of Students Kathleen McMahon said the university is prohibited from discussing or acknowledging any Title IX cases.
“A group of 80 frat boys can take a stand against sexual assault and the school still hasn’t expelled the member,” Miller said. “I think it’s ridiculous that he’s still here.”
Moving forward
According to DTD’s national organization, the Kappa Delta chapter was chartered by the international fraternity Sept. 26, 2015. To date, 116 men have been initiated into Delta Tau Delta by Kappa Delta.
In a statement to Mustang News, Kreman said that while DTD respects Kappa Delta’s decision to surrender their chapter, they are disappointed in the fraternity’s decision. Kreman also said DTD desires to have a presence at Cal Poly and will work with administration to discuss returning to campus.
“I am disappointed by the decision of the chapter [to dissolve],” Kreman said in a statement to Mustang News. “The recent mistakes made by certain members were correctable. With commitment and support, we believed the chapter would rebuild. The students decided otherwise.”
According to McMahon, the students who disbanded the chapter have forfeited their opportunity to be involved in another fraternity.
“It affects our students,” McMahon said. “Some students were in an organization and now they don’t have one. We are here to support them and offer other opportunities for leadership involvement. This all happened at the national level. That’s not a bad thing. That’s the role of the national level to be very involved; they were, and this is the outcome.”