Penn is reinstating the Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity — commonly known as “Skulls” — which was suspended in 2012, following the death of a student at a party.
The University is working with the fraternity’s national chapter to recharter the group on campus, beginning with the recruitment of founding members. The process comes 14 years after John Carroll University student Matthew Crozier died at a Skulls-hosted party in 2011, leading to a wrongful death suit that named Penn as a defendant.
“With each case where a chapter is closed, the University will carefully weigh their readiness to return and reengage in the fraternity and sorority community here at Penn,” Senior Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs Tamara Greenfield King said in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. “We want to be able to support a safe and inclusive environment.”
An advisor from the national office of Phi Kappa Sigma is currently on campus to engage with students interested in joining the fraternity as founding fathers. Starting in spring 2026, the fraternity will be allowed to formally recruit as an Interfraternity Council-recognized organization with provisional status.
The group is also working to return to their on-campus house, though students will not be permitted to live there for two years, while the rechartering process is underway.
“I'm really excited to have another fraternity join campus because it just adds on to all the good we do for the community,” IFC President Lenny Annunziata told the the DP. “One of our main goals this semester, me and my board, has been fully focusing on Skulls and making sure we welcome them into the community with open arms and get them started.”
Greenfield King highlighted that the rechartered chapter would be required to follow all Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life guidelines throughout the rechartering process, including “commitment to supporting the values-based fraternity and sorority community” and following “the same standards that we have for student safety, leadership development within that community.”
“They must follow additional or enhanced oversight measures and serve as a model for growth, accountability, and constructive campus engagement,” she added.
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These measures include a full-time national chapter-appointed point person who will be “working closely with them to ensure that they are also following all of their organization’s requirements for rechartering and initiating and bringing in new members,” according to Greenfield King.
Greenfield King’s hopes for the fraternity include “full engagement” in university life leadership programs and involvement in a “plethora of community service.”
“We expect nothing but excellence from the group,” she said to the DP, “which is what we expect from [all] our current chapters that are here.”
Skulls was suspended in 2012 following the death of Crozier who died in 2011 after suffering fatal injuries at a Skull’s New Year’s party.
Crozier’s parents filed a wrongful death suit implicating the University, Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity, and the independent housing corporation of Penn’s former Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma, which was settled in 2012 for $3 million by Phi Kappa Sigma International Fraternity and the independent housing corporation.
The University also reached a settlement with the family’s attorneys, though the terms remain confidential.
