Recently, rumors have been circling that one of the largest fraternities on campus, Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE), has been removed. After attempting to access the fraternity’s chapter, Theta-Upsilon on Sacramento State’s website, the rumors have only been fueled.

According to the website, “The page cannot be found.”

Tom Carroll, program adviser for Clubs and Organizations with Student Activities, said the fraternity’s alumni chapter removed the fraternity from campus indefinitely.

“Currently, Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity is not represented on campus,” Carroll said. “Their alumni removed them from campus.”

“They don’t have the privileges of clubs and organizations on our campus, that would include having a website hosted by the csus.edu domain,” Carroll said.

Even though it is apparent that TKE will not be represented on campus next year, the actions and reasons are not. Officials involved ?” including TKE alumni, members and Student Activities advisers ?” are not making any definite statements at this time regarding reasons why, for how long it will be and the extent of the action.

“They made some mistakes,” Carroll said. “They didn’t follow some rules, and their alumni made the decision to remove them from campus.”

There seems to be a disagreement on the exact action that was taken on the fraternity. Although Student Activities made a statement that the chapter was removed, some active members are not aware of this.

“We were not removed off campus; we are just suspended,” said Adam Scheiner, an active TKE member since fall 2004.

Vartan Vartkessian, former president of the Theta-Upsilon chapter of TKE and member of its alumni board, would not comment on the situation at the time of publication.

It is rumored that TKE has been removed for pledging members that are not Sacramento State students and giving false information to alumni of the fraternity, but these allegations have neither been confirmed nor denied.

“Once we found out we weren’t allowed to rush them, we stopped. They never crossed over,” Scheiner said of the allegations.

Even though this claim has not been confirmed, it is apparent that trust issues are involved.

“Sometimes, when the undergraduate chapter has lost the ability to communicate with the advisers, or when they have broken the trust that is there, the working relationship is no longer available, so closing the chapter may be the only sensible solution or the last solution,” Carroll said. “There are lots of reasons.”

And Scheiner admits, “It wasn’t just one incident.”

This is not the first time the fraternity has been in trouble.

In 2003, neighbors of the fraternity house threatened to sue for noise and various health and building code violations, and in September of 2004, the chapter was suspended because of “repeated behavior and noise violations.”

After the suspension, a proposal ?” written by TKE, its alumni and national headquarters ?” to prevent future problems was rejected as insufficient by Student Activities Director Lou Cameron, and the fraternity remained suspended.

The extent of the actions taken by the alumni and the effect of their decision is yet to be determined.

“There are a lot of rumors going around that they will be back in a year. We are going to work with them, Carroll said. “It’s up to us, the campus and the alumni, but there is no guarantee that they will back in a year.”

“We support the alumni, and we hope that in the future we have another good relationship with Tau Kappa Epsilon,” Carroll said.

Andrew Jarvis, a first semester TKE member said the incident will not negatively affect the fraternity.

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Jarvis said. “We are still here and still stronger than any other fraternity even after the decision. And when we do get reinstated, we will be back bigger, and stronger than ever, and I guarantee another Greek Week victory.”

Liz Gransee can be reached at [email protected]