Ball State University's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity is starting the school year suspended for having a party last weekend with underage drinking.
Director of Public Safety Gene Burton said a radio call came in at 1:23 a.m. Sunday. When the police got to the fraternity, Burton said about 11 people were charged for minor consumption.
Fraternity President Nathan Elsworth said he did not think anything got out of control and the party was coming to an end, but the police came as about 20 people were leaving the house.
In light of the citations, Elsworth said he made the decision to make Zeta Beta Tau a dry house until further notice.
"I decided that there would be no drinking whether people were 21 or not," he said. "I also advised the brothers that there should be no drinking at other house parties or fraternities."
The Zeta Beta Tau's arrests are among 74 on or near Ball State's campus this weekend, John Folk, district two commander of the Indiana State Excise Police, which was involved in the arrests, said.
Elsworth wanted to reiterate the fraternity's 20-person incident was separate from the 74 arrests because other reports made it seem otherwise.
"Ball State had 74 arrests, but we had about 20 and nobody was arrested," he said. "Other news reports kind of made it seem as if we had all 74, making us get portrayed even more negatively, but we only had 20 people."
Cara Luyster, assistant director of student life, said the office suspended the fraternity's activities except for house and Interfraternity Council meetings while it investigated the situation. Once all the facts were gathered, the office would make further decisions, but there was no timetable on how long the investigation would last, she said.
"We'll do it in a timely manner, but efficiently," Luyster said.
The fraternity has also had low grades the past couple of years, but Elsworth said he was informed the weekend's incident and the grades were two separate things and would not affect one another.
Although this situation is mounting on top of Zeta Beta Tau's academic issues and Delta Tau Delta's Nov. 11, 2006 incident when a chapter member was suspended after allegedly striking a student on the head at a house party, Luyster said she did not think any policy needed to change.
"When we look at our policies, we ask ourselves if it works," she said. "We don't look at them as a reaction, but if it is in the best interest for everyone."
The greek community social events policy says:
"No chapter members, collectively or individually, shall purchase for, serve to, or sell alcoholic beverages to any person under the legal drinking age."
Luyster said the house broke that policy and more because it broke the law by providing alcohol to minors, so the fraternity was suspended. The office's investigation would determine if any other policies were violated, she said.
With recruitment about three weeks away, Elsworth said he did not know how the suspension would affect students wanting to join Zeta Beta Tau. He said if the investigation and further meetings with officials finished before fraternity recruitment, the house could participate. If the investigation went longer than when recruitment begins, the fraternity would not get new students this semester.
Luyster said she could not speculate on the impact the fraternity's situation would cause on recruitment for the entire greek community, but she did not want it to deter students from joining.
"This is not the best news story on the first day of class, but I would hope if they're still interested in joining, they'd educate themselves through the Student Life Web site, informational packets that were sent in the mail and other people who are greek," she said.
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