A fraternity at Arizona State University chose to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by throwing a party featuring basketball jerseys, gang signs and watermelons used as vessels for alcohol.

After photos of the party surfaced on social media with the hashtag #blackoutforMLK, ASU responded by permanently revoking recognition of its Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter..

According to the university’s press release, TKE has been on probation since 2012 but after the MLK day party, ASU permanently suspended the fraternity “for hosting an unregistered, off-campus event on January 19, 2014 that encouraged a racially-insensitive theme and created an environment conducive to underage consumption of alcohol.”

The national fraternity, conversely, has decided to put the ASU chapter on probation for at least one year but not revoke their charter.  After its own investigation, the national organization concluded that the party was not an official TKE sponsored event because it was held at an individual member’s private residence and only 16 members of the fraternity were present. Thirty people attended the event.

All officers who attended the party resigned their positions and all of the brothers who attended are facing possible suspension or expulsion from the fraternity.

TKE’s national website also reports that the watermelon cup was brought by an attendee who is not a member of the fraternity and that some of the pictures that were shared by national media were actually from other Halloween and sports themed parties.

In TKE’s official statement, they said that the party strayed from their mission statement.

“We apologize for any offensive actions that a few of our members might have participated in,” Alex Baker, the chief information officer for the national organization, said in the statement. “We can assure all other parties that these actions do not represent Tau Kappa Epsilon and the beliefs of love, charity and esteem that we have stood by for 115 years.”

Eduardo Pagán, the vice provost for academic excellence and inclusion at ASU, described ASU as a diverse campus.  He said that in October 2013, the university received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity award.

“Over the last decade we have steadily grown our racial and ethnic minority enrollment by pretty impressive numbers,” Pagán said. “It’s growing by design. One of the values that we embrace as an institution is that we want to recruit a diverse student body, but staff and faculty as well.”

In a statement that was sent to ASU students, faculty and staff, president Michael Crow affirmed this commitment to diversity.

“Teaching and nurturing integrity within our diverse university community is a significantly complex challenge but one to which we are wholly and unwaveringly committed,” Crow wrote.

Pagán said the issue has brought a lot of national attention to campus.  However, he still believes it is a diverse campus.

“The actions of a few at this reprehensible, off-campus event do not reflect the efforts of over 70,000 students at ASU who daily strive to create a more inclusive and welcoming campus,” Pagán added in an email.

Published on January 30, 2014 at 2:00 am

Contact: clmoran@syr.edu