The Interfraternity Council announced March 6 that new member activities will be placed on hold for two weeks. The decision came following hazing allegations in several MU fraternities.

“The IFC and all 29-chapter presidents unanimously decided to pause new member activities for a period of two weeks,” according to a statement released by IFC. “During this time as the University investigates, chapters will work with university officials and their national organizations to review all aspects of their new member program to ensure activities are positive, educational and comply with all policies.”

According to a statement provided by an anonymous source, pledges at Delta Tau Delta, Phi Gamma Delta, Delta Sigma Phi, Phi Kappa Psi, Sigma Chi, Beta Sigma Psi, Pi Kappa Alpha, Alpha Gamma Sigma and FarmHouse were hazed through a variety of activities.

The statement alleges that pledges from Delta Tau Delta and Phi Gamma Delta were forced to write essays for active members’ homework assignments. One new member was rumored to write up to four essays a week.

It also states that pledges from Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Chi, Pi Kappa Alpha and Alpha Gamma Sigma were subjected to “sleep deprivation that was accomplished through various means, such as scheduling ‘meetings’ at 2 a.m. that would last until sunrise or even the active brothers going into pledges’ rooms to make sure they were awake.”

New members from Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Chi, Delta Tau Delta, Delta Sigma Phi, Beta Sigma Psi and various others were also allegedly “blindfolded at ‘lineups,’ forced to chug various amounts of jungle juice (mixed alcohol), and then forced to do calisthenics,” according to the statement.

During these “lineups,” pledges were quizzed about fraternity history. Beer and other substances, like mayonnaise and mustard, were dumped on them during these events. Lineups could last for hours and could sometimes occur early in the morning or late at night.

Pledges were sometimes ordered to drink concoctions of various substances and alcohol (at Delta Sigma Phi, the concoction was reportedly made of chewing tobacco spit). One pledge was allegedly told to lick spilled beer off the dirty floor.

The document accuses Phi Gamma Delta, Delta Tau Delta, Sigma Chi and Pi Kappa Alpha of driving pledges to the off-campus apartments of “active brothers where they [were] told that ‘there are less rules here and nobody will notice.’ There they would have ‘lineups’ with more intensity and greater length. Pledges for one fraternity were told to drink a ‘foul smelling mix’ out of a toilet bowl with a threat to punish their entire pledge class if they failed to comply — they were told not to let down their pledge brothers.”

Pledges at FarmHouse fraternity were allegedly forced to eat ice cream made of human semen. According to the document, FarmHouse is notorious for a more “involved” pledgeship.

“The allegations made against several IFC chapters demanded that we immediately address the overall situation,” said Matthew Oxendale, IFC vice president of public relations, in an email. “The health and safety of every community member has to remain our utmost priority. Suspending new member activities across all chapters was a decision that our executive board and all of the presidents agreed upon so that we could pause and take a closer look at our operations.”

IFC has not officially named any specific fraternities, as the investigation is active and being handled as a collaborative effort between the national headquarters, each fraternity involved and the Office of Student Accountability & Support.

While new member processes differ for each organization, only activities that are specifically catered to new members are on hold for this two-week period.

“The IFC community does not tolerate hazing and places a focus on the safety of all students,” Oxendale said in the email. “We trust that the investigations will be handled accordingly and anyone found to have broken university policy will be held accountable for their actions.”

Oxendale said that all new member activities are expected to continue March 19. All other chapter activities are set to continue as normal.

_Edited by Skyler Rossi | srossi@themaneater.com_