Beta Theta Pi Update
The Eta Delta chapter of Beta Theta Pi will remain suspended through the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, a cease and desist preventing the brothers from functioning as a formal chapter until 2026.
An accusation of hazing sent the fraternity into a three-month frenzy of gathering evidence, character references, and witness statements. After a hearing in front of a board appointed by the university, Beta Theta Pi was suspended from campus. Shinkle attempted to appeal the decision as his 44-page case packet containing the organization’s entire defense was not given to the board to review. However, this appeal was denied and the suspension began.
Despite the scandal that descended upon the organization last school year, some individuals are hopeful about the future of Beta Theta Pi on the University of Dayton’s campus.
“I’m pretty confident it’ll be back. We have a really strong general fraternity,” said Nicolas Riboni ‘21, the chapter counselor of the alumni advisory committee for Beta Theta Pi. “The headquarters are at Miami of Ohio, so they’re very local, very close to the University of Dayton and the general fraternity has made a very strong commitment to all of our alumni and us as an advisory group that they will be making an attempt to come back on campus.”
While Beta Theta Pi may return to campus, the brothers still at UD will not be returning to their fraternity. All of the individuals who were members of the organization at the time of the suspension were granted early alumni status, recognizing them as former members of the fraternity despite still being students at the university.
This means that when it is time for the Eta Delta chapter to make its comeback, male students going through the recruitment process will not be guided by peers but by officials of the general fraternity.
“Once our suspension is done, the general fraternity will be able to come in and they will do their recruiting as a general fraternity. So that will be recruitment done by people who work for Beta Theta Pi’s general fraternity office, adults who can get the right folks in there and set them back on the right track,” Riboni said. “There will be no involvement with the former members whatsoever.”
While the general fraternity is optimistic about Beta Theta Pi’s future, some former brothers don’t support the chapter returning to campus.
“I’ll be honest, none of us want it to return to campus because we kind of think there is a lot of corruption in the general fraternity and our alumni association,” Robbie Shinkle, the former internal vice president of the fraternity said.
Many brothers were disappointed with the outcome of last year’s hearing which resulted in their suspension from campus and felt the actions of a few were attributed to their chapter as a whole.
“They let us out to dry a little bit and they just decided amongst themselves that it wasn’t worth it for the people we had still willing to try. We were all a little peeved about that,” Shinkle said.
The general fraternity reached out to the brothers via email to express their disappointment with the suspension.
“They expressed almost the entire fraternity as bad eggs which just isn’t true; it was only the four members that suggested that were doing these activities out of around 40 kids, which 10 percent sounds like a lot until I say four people” Shinkle said.
The Beta Theta Pi general fraternity responded to a request made via email for an interview with a statement by Justin Warren, the organization’s chief communication officer.
“Findings from a fraternity and university investigation last spring called into question the local Beta chapter’s ability to maintain a safe environment for members and guests. While we’re thankful no one was hurt, member and chapter accountability was the appropriate next step. The chapter has been suspended, and Beta Theta Pi looks forward to returning a strong, vibrant chapter to the University of Dayton campus in fall 2026” the statement read.
The chapter alumni that remain at UD will be forced to remember what they lost, being on campus yet unable to unite as the men of principle they once were. But the bond of brotherhood remains despite the chapter’s suspension, the friendships formed in the fraternity enduring in its wake.
Marilyn Moores