AEPi exec board forced to change

The fraternity's national office is mandating the move after investigating repeated rules violations. After being investigated by its national office for potential rules violations, the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity has been asked to remove certain members of its executive board from the fraternity, according to AEPi President Dan Tehrani, a Wharton junior. The national office placed an indefinite hold on all AEPi chapter events last week while it investigated allegations by the University including hazing during a pledge skit and missed settlement agreement deadlines from a September incident that resulted in the non-fatal poisoning of a female freshman who had at least 12 drinks at an AEPi hotel party. After the September incident, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski warned in November that if there were any further violations, the chapter would be suspended. Yet in a statement released Wednesday, Reikofski said OFSA and the national fraternity defined the pledge skit as hazing "to some degree" but not to the degree that "major action" could be taken, adding that there were "other issues at work" in addition to the pledge skit. Reikofski would not comment further on the decision, saying only that "there will be steps taken between now and the end of classes" to rectify the existing situation. The Indiana-based fraternity headquarters also declined to comment on the specifics of the course of action that the two parties agreed upon during a phone conversation earlier this week and announced to the brothers on Wednesday. OFSA Assistant Director Tom Carroll said yesterday that the AEPi headquarters is sending a representative to campus next week to examine the issues facing the fraternity. Tehrani added that national representatives will arrive Monday night and meet with the chapter on Tuesday to discuss the details of its course of action, specifically how to restructure its executive board. "I assume they'll let us know how we're going to proceed with our executive board," he said. The AEPi pledges, whose initiation has been postponed until after Tuesday's meeting, could be asked to take a more "active leadership" role within the chapter "immediately," according to Tehrani. The AEPi national fraternity said it will work to earn OFSA's trust in dealing with the rules violations of the past year. "Alpha Epsilon Pi is committed to maintaining a viable chapter at the University of Pennsylvania that meets our mission as a fraternity," AEPi National Executive Vice President Sidney Dunn said Wednesday. Reikofski added, "Generally, I am fairly comfortable [with the national's solutions] to this point but will need to see how everything flushes out in the next week before I can say definitively how I feel about the entire process and the outcome."

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