The national organization of the Chi Psi Fraternity announced its decision to immediately close the Chi Psi chapter at Northwestern Tuesday night.
The current deadline to close down the chapter’s house is in two weeks, a timeline determined by recommendations from university housing officials and local alumni, who lease the university-owned building as a volunteer corporation. Brad Beskin, assistant executive director of the Chi Psi Fraternity, said the timeline is still being discussed. University housing staff is working with Chi Psi to counsel the former chapter's students about housing options on campus.
"We aren't throwing anybody out into the streets," Beskin said. The national Chi Psi organization's staff and executive council of alumni decided to close the chapter with support from Northwestern University administration. Beskin, who arrived Monday and delivered the news to the former chapter last night, declined to comment on when the decision was made.
The Epsilon Delta chapter of Chi Psi at Northwestern was on probation and was preparing for a second disciplinary hearing stemming from "a series of incidents," but Beskin said the decision extended beyond recent events.
"The decision was bigger than that and based on more things than 'Ooh, the chapter got in trouble,'" Beskin said. "We took a hard and comprehensive look at the experience offered by Chi Psi at Northwestern, and the executive council determined that wasn't an experience it wanted to support anymore."
Current members are now fraternity alumni, while members of the pledge class are no longer affiliated with Chi Psi. After the Northwestern chapter is closed, Beskin said the national organization will work with Northwestern on the possibility of returning to campus.
"We have a very rich history at Northwestern," Beskin said. "Recently, that has not been the case as far as our standards nationally. We would like in the future to return to campus, reopen and create the chapter that our alumni remember and consider successful."
The national organization was founded in 1841, and the former Epsilon Delta chapter was installed in 1892. Chi Psi at Northwestern was the only chapter to refer to itself as Lodge, a nickname Beskin said the organization is "focused on not replicating" in the future.