The spring suspension of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity from Sacramento State has been evident during fraternity recruitment so far this semester.

The fraternity was suspended by their alumni association and removed as a student organization by Tom Carroll, program adviser for student activities.

TKE is no longer recognized as a student activity and no longer receives the privileges a student organization would receive, Carroll said.

With TKE suspended, its presence has gone missing on campus. The chapter’s website link has been removed from the Student Activities website, and the members can no longer participate in organized Greek events on campus, including Rush Week.

The fraternity’s absence has hit the Greek community in an obvious way.

Sigma Chi President Paul Houser said the loss of a fraternity isn’t as evident within other campus’ Greek communities. He added that with Sac State being a commuter school there is less support and interest from the students.

We need as many fraternities on campus as possible. Any Greek organization gone hurts the entire community, Houser said.

But with the fraternity prohibited from recruiting new members, there has been an influx of men rushing, Houser said.

Sigma Chi is not looking at this as an opportunity, and we are still selective about who we pledge, but other fraternities might see this as an opportunity to recruit more people, Houser said.

Phi Kappa Tau Acting President Zane Beekman, a senior occupational health and safety major, said his fraternity has been generating a lot of interest ?” this is the fraternity’s first semester actively recruiting since they left campus in the mid-1980s.

We are going after guys who think fraternities are not on their minds, Beekman said. We’re able to recruit guys who never thought they would go Greek.

Having a booth on campus for the first time has helped out Phi Kappa Tau.

It’s to our advantage to step in and pick up where TKE left off in recruiting new guys, Beekman said.

Beekman said he is doing his best to follow procedures while recruiting because he heard TKE was suspended because they broke rules.

It’s my job to make sure to enforce the rules, you can be different, but you have to learn about the rules and follow them, Beekman said.

TKE, the largest fraternity on campus, was rumored to be suspended for rushing pledges that were not Sac State students, a violation of Greek policies. Former TKE President Augie Aguilar refused to comment about the allegations and said TKE has no status on campus.

Carroll also said there has been no progress of reinstating TKE.

The fraternity is meeting with its alumni association to re-evaluate and re-work their chapter and how long it takes for TKE to be reinstated really depends on them, Carroll said.

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

In 2003, neighbors of the TKE fraternity house threatened to sue for noise and various health and building code violations, and in Sept. 2004, Student Activities suspended them.

In Oct. 2004, the fraternity in collaboration with its alumni and national headquarters prepared a proposal to prevent future problems, but was later deemed insufficient by Student Activities Director Louis Camera and the fraternity remained suspended.

The allegations have not been confirmed or denied.

Some say they did; some say they didn’t. But we need as many organizations to maintain strong and work to get TKE back on campus, Houser said.

Elizabeth Wilson contributed to this report.

Matt Beltran can be reached at [email protected]