Thursday, February 14, 2002

Suspended U. of Iowa Fraternity Takes Down Its Web Site After Complaint By DAN CARNEVALE A fraternity that University of Iowa officials suspended in January took down its Web site on Tuesday after the university received a complaint that the site's content was demeaning to women. The complaint, filed by an Iowa man named Dennis Hill, also reported that the Web site named chapter members as "Slut of the year," "Pedophile of the year," and "Most likely to commit a felony," according to the Associated Press. Mr. Hill filed the complaint on Monday with the university's Office of Affirmative Action. The university isn't going to investigate the matter further because the fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, is no longer recognized by the institution, said Thomas R. Baker, assistant dean of students for the university. The chapter was suspended for violating university policies on hazing and alcohol, he said. "Almost as soon as I received the complaint, the chapter -- I don't know who exactly -- but the chapter de-linked from the university Web site," Mr. Baker said. He said that, because of the suspension, the fraternity should not have had a Web site on the university's server at the time of the complaint. But he suspects that the Web site was still up because neither the university nor the fraternity had thought to take it down. "When I was a student, we didn't have Web sites, so I didn't think to check that," Mr. Baker said. "What we need here is a checklist on what to do when you de-recognize a chapter." At some point the fraternity will ask that the university recognize it as a campus organization again, Mr. Baker said. Although he doesn't know when that will be, the university will probably treat the complaint about the Web site as an issue separate from the violations of the hazing and alcohol policies, he said. "We can collect information in preparation for the chapter to submit to be recognized again by the university," Mr. Baker said. "But we probably won't take this incident into consideration." Paul Sabatino, president of Phi Delta Theta, could not be reached for comment. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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