Berkeley Fraternity Closed for Year

After a hazing incident in which a student was shot repeatedly with a pellet gun, a UC Berkeley fraternity chapter was ordered closed for a year and fined $4,000, university officials said Tuesday.

The sanctions against the Gamma chapter of Pi Kappa Phi, which will be closed until August 2006, include a requirement that the chapter replace all but four of its 58 members.

New members will be required over the next two years to perform community service, produce a seminar for other campus fraternities and sororities on the dangers of hazing, and complete an online alcohol abuse awareness program.

The announcement came after the April 8 incident, in which a pledge was shot 30 times in the chest and arms with pellets fired by several fraternity members.

The student was treated for bruises at a hospital and released, but hospital staff reported the incident to the Berkeley Police Department. The department is investigating the incident.

Karen Kenney, dean of students at UC Berkeley, said that the incident was “shocking and disturbing” and that the sanctions were part of an agreement between the campus and the North Carolina-based national fraternity.

“Strong disciplinary action was called for and appropriate,” she said.

The university may also discipline individual students, with punishments ranging from warnings to expulsions, Kenney said.

In addition to the hazing violation, Pi Kappa Phi was accused of holding an unauthorized party in March at which alcohol was served to minors. The university banned the serving of alcohol at all sorority and fraternity houses in May.

Pi Kappa Phi has been disciplined for allowing inappropriate alcohol consumption in the past. The fraternity was banned from Cal State Chico after the alcohol-induced death of an 18-year-old freshman in 2000. UC Berkeley has more than 70 sororities and fraternities, with about 2,000 members among the university’s 32,000 students.