Freaking out the Frats: The University of Kansas suspended fraternities Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Delta Theta, changing how East seniors approach rushing

*names changed to protect identity

The University of Kansas suspended two fraternities, Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Delta Theta, for five years on January 4, leading many East seniors planning on going to KU to adjust their rushing plans for the fall of 2022.

This decision came following an investigation of both fraternities resulting from hazing allegations toward their pledge classes. Both fraternities will become affiliated with the university again in spring of 2027 — after all current members have graduated.

Senior Tucker Martin*, who plans on attending KU, originally considered pledging Phi Delt due to his friends in the fraternity and family legacy there, but the suspension has caused Martin to widen his options of fraternities to rush. Now, he’s talking to and touring other fraternity houses that he hadn’t looked into prior to the removal of the two fraternities from campus.

“It definitely makes me look broader at the different houses and look more seriously at them,” Martin said. “And really talk to friends that I have in the different houses. Just get to know more houses than I had.”

Both fraternities will be given the chance to appeal the suspension in the next 30 days, where it will await trial in front of a judicial board, as reported by the University Daily Kansan. 

Martin thinks the main issue with the suspension is the uncertainty it holds for the future. While both fraternities are suspended, he doesn’t know the extent of how the suspension will affect the two fraternities or how the houses will change in the next year. Martin believes these next few months are crucial in determining how both him and other East seniors planning to go to KU will change their rushing plans for the fall of 2022.

The two fraternities were alerted of their suspension in a letter by Tammara Durham, the Vice Provost for Student Affairs at KU, which described how they’d exhibited patterns of hazing, resulting in their five-year suspension.

While the University of Kansas hasn’t officially released the reports of what the hazing consisted of, the investigation of the two fraternities for hazing found that each organization had specific types of hazing, which included both verbal and physical harm, according to the Kansas City Star. For senior John Owen*, the allegations were alarming enough to cause him to look away from both Phi Delt and Fiji and toward other houses.

“The suspension is kind of weird,” Owen said. “Both Phi Delt and Fiji are really strong houses. It’s honestly scary that they were doing all that to their pledges.”

Owen heavily looked at KU’s Fiji house because of the family aspect of the house and the helpful conversations he had with alumni, touring it and meeting with older members of the house. He was set. However, after learning about the hazing allegations, Owen has learned to be more careful when looking at fraternity houses where he plans to rush in the fall.

“Moving forward, I’ll try to get to know the people in each house a little bit more and look at their history,” Owen said. “I’ll see if I can tell if they’ve been in trouble a lot recently because Fiji, for example, has been in trouble a lot over the past 12 years. That says something.”

Senior Eli Sumners*, who also plans to attend KU in the fall, believes that while the suspension will affect the rushing process next fall in terms of the amount of hazing present at KU. After other universities around the U.S. began to question hazing in fraternities since it was reported by members, Sumners heard that the overall amount of hazing practices has decreased in the past few years from friends and family members at KU.

But although hazing still exists in fraternities around the country, Sumners thinks the suspension will stop the majority of hazing at KU as it will serve as a warning to other fraternities. In fact, he’s thankful to get a less intense pledging process moving into his freshman year at KU.

“I think that frats were definitely reforming their hazing techniques,” Sumners. “This is the nail that sealed the coffin. I think there will be zero hazing in the future. It’s a good thing in that way.”

However, Sumners does think that the removal of both fraternities will cause the rushing process to be more competitive moving forward. Phi Delt and Fiji were two top fraternities at KU, so now that they’re suspended, Sumners thinks there will be more people rushing for a lower number of overall spots. With only 19 fraternities now on campus instead of 21, it will make the rushing process harder, according to Sumners, especially for East students.

“What I’ve seen so far is pledge classes trying to diversify their kids from schools,” Sumners said. “There’s only a certain number of East guys that they want. The picking pool is so much bigger now. [The suspension] makes rushing so much more competitive now.”

Owens agrees that suspension will add more uncertainty and competitiveness to the rushing process. However, he hopes that fraternities will revamp their approach to recruiting moving forward as he and other seniors now have to rethink their original plans of rushing.

“I think it will make a big difference in the Greek life system,” Owen said. “There will be a big difference between the houses and what people think of them. It will force people to look a lot deeper into houses and decide what they want to do.”