Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) has been placed on extended social probation through Spring 2017.
According to university spokesperson Matt Lazier, the chapter violated its current probationary status by hosting an unregistered party on Sept. 17.
“This event created an environment that led to a physical altercation, which later resulted in the stabbing of two Cal Poly students near the chapter facility,” Lazier said in an email.
Cal Poly greek life officials notified the chapter of its extended probation in a letter on Jan. 21.
In addition to not being allowed to host social events, AGR must comply with a separate set of directives outlined in a letter sent from AGR’s Home Office on Jan. 21.
The fraternity-imposed sanctions include the removal of members from their house on California Boulevard, according to agricultural business junior and AGR president Thomas Sawyer. AGR members will not be allowed to live in the house, which is owned by the chapter’s alumni association, for one year beginning in Fall 2016.
AGR has the opportunity to appeal its social probation to Cal Poly’s Vice President for Student Affairs within 20 business days of receiving the letter on Jan. 21. Sawyer says the chapter is still discussing whether or not to appeal.
After the stabbing took place in November, then-president Brad Kurtz told Mustang News that approximately 16 nonmembers were present at the house.
Suspect Jay Hernandez, a Cuesta College student, was reportedly denied entrance at the front door, then entered briefly through the back door and was kicked out of the house. Hernandez and an accomplice allegedly stabbed a Cal Poly student and a Cuesta College student, both of whom had attended the party, on Foothill Boulevard approximately a half hour later.
Though the sanctions were imposed separately by AGR’s Home Office and Cal Poly, both Lazier and AGR’s Director of Chapter Advancement Grant Bargfrede said the two groups worked cohesively to resolve any issues associated with the chapter.
“After working in concert with our students and with the national fraternity, we believe Cal Poly’s AGR chapter is well on the road to culture change and that the organization can emerge with a greater focus on the health and safety of all its members and the greater Cal Poly community,” Interim Dean of Students Joy Pedersen said in an email.
AGR also says it is focusing its efforts on the fraternity’s philanthropy and academics.
“We are looking to put AGR in a positive light by improving our academics, philanthropy efforts and agricultural aspects of our fraternity,” Sawyer said.