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UPDATE: This post was updated at 7:37 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024.

Syracuse University has placed its chapter of Phi Kappa Psi on immediate interim suspension, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced in a campus-wide email Wednesday afternoon.

The chapter is under investigative status for alleged violations of the Student Conduct Code, according to the email.

Phi Psi must suspend all activities amid the investigation, Syverud said. The fraternity’s national office has also ordered the chapter to cease and desist all activities, according to the email. SU’s decision follows the circulation of multiple videos online that allegedly depicted members of the fraternity engaging in hazing.

“I am disgusted by the actions that appear in these videos and condemn this conduct,” Syverud said in the email. “Hazing and related actions that place our students at risk is both a serious violation of University policies and of New York law.”

A university spokesperson did not have further comment as of 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.

The executive director of the national Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, Ron Ransom, responded to the videos of the alleged hazing in a statement sent to The Daily Orange Wednesday evening. He described the videos’ content as “disturbing,” and wrote that the acts of hazing violate fraternity policy.

“Phi Kappa Psi will work closely with university officials to identify those responsible and ensure accountability,” Ransom wrote in the statement. “Hazing has no place in Phi Kappa Psi or in society, and we remain committed to eradicating it from our organization.”

SU’s Department of Public Safety and Office of Community Standards have opened an investigation, and DPS has notified the Syracuse Police Department that some activities in the videos may be criminal, according to the email.

Syverud encouraged anyone with information to contact DPS or the Community Standards office, and said reporting will be kept confidential.

The videos of the alleged hazing were not included in the email. The D.O. obtained the videos but could not yet independently verify that those depicted in the footage were members of SU’s Phi Psi chapter.

At 3:33 p.m. Tuesday, X user @woopigbradshaw shared a video showing two unidentified men seemingly forcing themselves to vomit on two people lying on the floor. The camera then shifts to reveal another man with his mouth taped shut and his arms bound to a cross-shaped structure.

The post, which had up to 174k views as of Wednesday afternoon, claimed the footage featured members of Kappa Sigma fraternity at the University of Mississippi. Multiple users commented on the post claiming the video was of Phi Psi at SU, not this chapter of Kappa Sigma.

A now-deleted X post from user @joe557755, shared at 6:20 p.m. Tuesday, showed a similar incident. In the clip, one man repeatedly forces himself to vomit on another man who is lying on the floor, while a group of onlookers stand around, passing around cans and drinking from them. The post was captioned, “This is at @SyracuseU #Syracuse.”

In another clip that circulated Tuesday on Yik Yak, the man recording shouts expletives at a man lying on the floor with what appears to be an octopus on top of his face. Another video, posted to Yik Yak at around 10:40 p.m. Tuesday before being deleted, showed a man verbally berating a “pledge” with expletives and slurs while forcing him to do a plank.

In a Thursday morning campus-wide email, Student Association President German Nolivos and Vice President Reed Granger urged students not to share videos of the alleged incidents. They also called on campus governing bodies, on-campus organizations and all students to not be complacent in acts of hazing.

“Engaging in hazing is a direct assault on the values of civility, respect, and humanity that we must uphold as not only students but people,” Nolivos and Granger wrote. “These actions not only jeopardize students’ well-being but erode the trust and sense of community that should be at the core of any organization.”

Phi Psi was previously placed on disciplinary and social probation from April 2022 to April 2024 for violating the Student Conduct Code.

This post will be updated with additional reporting.

Published on October 16, 2024 at 2:43 pm

Contact Julia: jmboehni@syr.edu