The morning of April 12, approximately 30 students in the School of Architecture entered Campbell Hall to be initiated as members of Alpha Rho Chi — a pre-professional fraternity for students of architecture. Twelve hours later, the Architecture students had indeed been initiated, but only after enduring a series of events that the Office of Student Affairs later determined to be hazing.
After opening an investigation into the conduct of national representatives who were present, Student Affairs released its findings Aug. 11, with the sanction being the non-renewal of the University’s Contracted Independent Organization agreement with Alpha Rho Chi. The findings detailed four different hazing behaviors perpetuated by representatives of the fraternity’s national headquarters.
David Hawkins-Jacinto, executive director of strategic communications for the Office of Student Affairs, told The Cavalier Daily in a written statement that it is unusual to receive reports that national representatives had been involved in a hazing incident.
“Reports to the University do not often allege hazing behavior conducted by individuals who are not students,” Hawkins-Jacinto wrote. “This is unusual.”
The representatives from Alpha Rho Chi national headquarters allegedly included several members of the fraternity’s grand council, which serves as its board of directors, according to members. The grand council consists of seven alumni volunteers. Representatives from Alpha Rho Chi’s national headquarters did not respond to a request for comment.
Student Affairs found that the Architecture students were “forced or coerced” to attend the 12-hour initiation with limited opportunities for breaks. Three additional hazing behaviors were cited in the findings.
“New members were referred to as slaves during the installation and told to bow down to members of national headquarters. New members were forced or coerced to lay down in a coffin and made to believe that an arch-like object was to fall on top of them causing injury. New members were subjected to various intimidation and scare tactics throughout the installation, including a dangerous situation where a tile which they created was smashed close to their heads,” the report said.
Third-year Architecture student Aya Leone was present during the hazing event and said that representatives from national headquarters put pressure on new members to tolerate the hazing.
“[Members from national headquarters] gave us the opportunity to leave, but they told us that if we did leave, we wouldn't be able to be recognized as a national member,” Leone said. “It sort of created this weird feeling of whether or not we should leave.”
Page six of the Alpha Rho Chi’s rules and regulations document includes a section on their anti-hazing policy. According to the policy, chapters, the national headquarters, members and alumni are prohibited from engaging in hazing activities. The fraternity’s punishments for hazing activities range from the expulsion of individual members to the closure of offending chapters. The anti-hazing policy does not mention punishments for members of the grand council who engage in hazing activities.
Elizabeth Ortiz, assistant director for Policy, Accountability and Critical Events at Student Affairs, confirmed the existence of an Alpha Rho Chi ritual book that called for new members’ ankles to be chained together. Ortiz also wrote that representatives from the fraternity’s national headquarters voluntarily cooperated with Student Affairs' investigation.
Hawkins-Jacinto wrote that the hazing behaviors perpetuated by the national headquarters did not rise to the level that would necessitate making a report to the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
“University Police are part of the Hazing Evaluation Panel that reviews initial reports of hazing,” Hawkins-Jacinto wrote. “As determined by the Hazing Evaluation Panel, the alleged behavior in this instance did not rise to the level of notification to the Commonwealth’s Attorney, but information regarding how to contact law enforcement was provided to the reporters.”
Alan Watts, former president of the Alpha Rho Chi chapter and fourth-year Architecture student, was also present for the hazing and described the immediate aftermath of the initiation event.
“It [was] hard to realize what's going on during the actual event,” Watts said. “A lot of us were left with a bad taste in our mouth, [with] different levels of discomfort.”
Watts said that he and a group of friends became interested in establishing a pre-professional and community-building organization within the Architecture School during his first year at the University. This was in part because he had noted a lack of service opportunities, connections across different disciplines and years or mentorship within the school.
The allure of connections and professional resources made affiliating with a national organization appealing to Watts and his fellow Architecture students. Alpha Rho Chi, founded in 1914, is the only national fraternity in “architecture and the allied arts.” According to the national fraternity’s website, there are 31 active chapters — however, that number includes the now inactive chapter at the University. Before April 12, the group operated as a “charter” and was not fully initiated as a chapter under the national headquarters.
“Alpha Rho Chi was the only national architecture fraternity that we knew existed at a couple other universities,” Watts said. “We [thought], this could be a good supplement to the good work we’re doing here at U.Va.”
Leone said that the now inactive Alpha Rho Chi chapter provided her with both a social outlet and valuable career development opportunities as she transitioned to the University.
“[Alpha Rho Chi] was presented as an opportunity to interlink the different disciplines in the [Architecture] School, along with different year levels,” Leone said. “As a first year, [that was] something I was very excited about because I was an out-of-state student who didn’t really know anyone going into the University.”
Leone said that the chapter was promoted to Architecture students as an option for connection outside of Greek life, which is a point she emphasized once she joined the executive team.
“I didn’t expect any hazing at all, especially because [Alpha Rho Chi] was promoted as a non-Greek life alternative,” Leone said.
Watts expressed disappointment that the hazing actions detracted from an event that was supposed to culminate two years of work to make the University’s Alpha Rho Chi chapter nationally recognized.
“We were expecting the day to be a celebration of so much hard work that we put in leading up to the event,” Watts said. “I think that was what I was really disappointed with, that [the initiation] didn’t make anyone feel excited about the work that we had done. It just really wore people down.”
Compounding Watts’ disappointment was that, prior to initiation, the University’s chapter did not have access to Alpha Rho Chi’s resources, but members were still required to pay dues to the national headquarters. The fraternity’s dues are currently $80, but Watts said that he and his team offered dues waivers to any chapter member who could not pay that amount.
Watts said that the representatives from national headquarters also brushed off his growing concern during the initiation event.
“I was very unhappy with the way the day was going and I expressed my concerns,” Watts said. “[National headquarters representatives] just weren’t really interested in hearing about that [from] me, which was tough.”
Watts said that the chapter decided to hold an impromptu meeting the next day to debrief and discuss how to move forward after being hazed.
“From that conversation, we decided that what happened made people pretty uncomfortable, and it was something that we thought, since it did happen in the School of Architecture, it was an important thing to talk to Student Affairs about,” Watts said.
According to Watts, the Student Affairs representative they spoke to, who was not named, explained that the national representative’s behavior could be considered hazing. As a mandatory reporter, the Student Affairs representative subsequently reported what the chapter told her to the Policy, Accountability and Critical Events Unit — also within the Office of Student Affairs.
Leone is part of a group of former leaders in the now inactive Alpha Rho Chi chapter that is forming a new organization disaffiliated with the fraternity’s national headquarters. The new organization, called the Virginia Society of Architecture and Planning, will continue the community-building and professional development aims of the inactive chapter.
“Something that we really focus on [is] transparency and letting every member of our brotherhood have a say in what our next steps are,” Leone said. “We’re really excited for our upcoming events [such as] hikes, picnics, portfolio reviews and big-little pairings.”
According to Leone, the decision to disaffiliate from Alpha Rho Chi came after the national headquarters refused to alter their initiation practices.
“We voted to attempt the negotiation between us and the national chapter of Alpha Rho Chi and [we] let them know that we wouldn’t perform what happened on that Saturday to incoming members in order for us to stay affiliated,” Leone said. “After a long discussion over the summer, we decided that our best choice was to disaffiliate.”
If Architecture students at the University were to re-establish the now inactive Alpha Rho Chi chapter, PACE would first need to review the fraternity’s initiation practices. The national fraternity would need to agree to change its practices to comply with University policies.
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