The person who has responsibility for either handling the appeal or delegating it to someone else is Dr. Frank Shushok, Senior Associate Vice President for Student Affairs (fshushok@vt.edu).

Post on the Chapter’s Closed Group Facebook site

In Hoc Brothers.  This is update from Jeff Mitchell, Carl Mitchell and Edward Spencer.

On December 9th the Chapter planned a “dry” bonfire to reveal their new “sweethearts” to the Chapter. The event was planned to be dry because the Chapter was on deferred suspension from two incidents in the fall.

The Chapter usually announces new Sweethearts at the Christmas Party, but the Chapter could not hold the event because of its probationary status. The brief afternoon bonfire event was organized on relative short notice.

The Sweethearts decided to have their own pre-bonfire activity with the new Sweethearts and the Chapter’s Sweetheart Chairman was present for part of the event.

The Office of Student Conduct charged the Chapter, the Sweetheart Chairman, and 7 females with violations of the Code of Student Conduct and held a single hearing to address all the charges. The hearing focused primarily on the activities that occurred following the bonfire.

One of the charges against the Chapter was Hazing because of a “bootlegging” incident during which two current Sweethearts and one Chapter member aggressively presented a new Sweetheart a Bootlegger (which is a 6.75 oz malt liquor type drink equivalent to a 12 oz beer in alcohol content). The “bootlegging” incident happened before the bonfire.

The Chapter accepted responsibility for all but one of the charges levied against it – even though some may have been challenged – and chose to focus its attention on the Hazing charge, because it did not haze anyone. The bootlegging occurred in an apartment where several females lived, only one Chapter member was involved, and this pre-bonfire bootlegging incident was not a Chapter event.

The hearing officers determined the Chapter (the organization) responsible for the charge of Hazing because (1) the hearing officers found that the women engaged in the hazing were “members” of the fraternity and (2) the hearing officers found that the Sweetheart Chairman was a “executive officer” of the Chapter. The hearing officers needed to make these findings to be able to hold the Chapter responsible for the bootlegging incident.

The University imposed the following sanction:

Loss of Recognition: Your status of Loss of Recognition is effective immediately through the conclusion of the Spring 2023 semester.

The Chapter has appealed the results of the hearing on the bases that the determinations that Sweethearts are members of Sigma Chi and the Sweetheart chairman is an executive officer are both “arbitrary” and the five-year suspension from campus is “unduly harsh.” The appeal is pending.

An answer to the appeal could arrive this week.

Here are a few Q&A to further explain the appeal:

(1) Why did Sigma Chi believe the finding was arbitrary?

University staff completely ignored the basic premise that women cannot be members of Sigma Chi and in fact insisted in their final report that Sweethearts are members of Sigma Chi.

The University staff went to great lengths to try to make the Sweetheart Chairman a Executive Officer of the Chapter.

(2) Why did Sigma Chi believe the sanction was “unduly harsh”?

135 members of the 136 did not even know the bootlegging incident was happening. The ORGANIZATION did not haze anyone. The alleged hazing activities were not carried out by the Chapter, but by individual Sweethearts and one member of the Chapter.

(3) How can you help?

If you are engaged with Virginia Tech as a donor, an advisory board member, or otherwise have relationships with the University leadership now is the time to act.

Ask your contacts to look closely at the membership and not make an overly broad decision. Yes, the Chapter was no deferred suspension because underage students got into two parties in a row the first two weeks of the fall, but that does not warrant a 5 year ban from campus.

Ask if Virginia Tech recently wants to set a national precedent that women are members of traditional Greek fraternities.

Finally, as if the penalty is really fair.

Sigma Chi is a strong Chapter at Virginia Tech.

* 35 dean’s list members Fall Semester
* Overall Chapter GPA above 3.1
* Brother hold several student leadership positions and other campus engagement
* major philanthropic engagement
* well-respected by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life
* Distinguished alumni who support Virginia Tech

Doc and I will keep you posted.

Thank you to the young alumni who have offered to engage with the Chapter

If you would like a copy of the appeal filed with the University, please contact me and Doc.

Thank you to Carl for his help these past few weeks.

Also, a special thank you to John Burlingame for his help with the appeal!

IH

Jeff Mitchell