Members of Lehigh’s fraternities received an email regarding high-risk drinking and hazing from interim vice provost for student affairs, Ian Birky, and interim dean of students, Katherine Lavinder, Thursday morning.
According to the email, the university has recently been made aware of incidents of “unacceptable behavior,” “dangerously high levels of alcohol consumption” and “concern for the treatment of fellow students.”
Birky and Lavinder reminded fraternity members of a university-wide effort over the last several years to curb high-risk drinking and hazing in their organizations, claiming the efforts to be moot should concerns continue to be brought to the university.
“Clearly, we have more work to do, and we are committed to working with you to create and sustain the kind of environment where students feel safe and supported,” they wrote.
According to the email, organizations accused of acting out of compliance with the university’s anti-hazing efforts will be investigated by the Office of Student Conduct & Community Expectations. Investigations can take a variety of forms and can result in charges brought against individual chapter members, as well as the chapter as a whole.
“Any actions that put the health and safety of students or other community members at risk will result in significant outcomes for the individuals and/or organizations involved,” they wrote.
Recipients of the email were encouraged to report incidents of misconduct to the university and seek out support from the university as well as their parents. The email provided students with three methods of reporting misconduct including submitting an anonymous hazing reporting form, contacting the anonymous National Hazing Hotline and calling LUPD.
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