COLUMBIA, Mo. — All fraternity activities on the University of Missouri campus were suspended Wednesday while the school investigates after a freshman student was rushed to the hospital after a fraternity party.
A press release from the school said university officials and the Interfraternity Council Executive Board agreed to halt all activities, including social events and university-sanctioned activities.
Conner Sibley, president of IFC and an MU senior, said the board voted unanimously in support of the suspension.
The decision comes as campus police and the university's office of student accountability and support investigate a party that resulted in an unresponsive student being rushed to the hospital. According to the press release, police were called to the Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) house early Wednesday morning, where officers found the student unresponsive.
After an initial investigation, officials believe multiple members of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity "consumed significant amounts of alcohol" during a party.
Both the university and the Phi Gamma Delta national organization have suspended the local chapter temporarily.
“We are extremely concerned about the events that were occurring at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity,” Bill Stackman, vice chancellor for Student Affairs at MU, said in the press release. “There was agreement with IFC on the decision to stop all fraternity activities, and we will be completing a thorough review of the methods put in place to ensure safety at fraternity events. As part of the investigations, we will hold anyone accountable who is found to have willfully ignored or violated university regulations. Those individuals could also face criminal charges.”
Students protested outside the Fiji fraternity house Wednesday night, including one student who said the university needs to do more to try to prevent misconduct on campus.
"Every time something like this happens, they just put them on probation for two weeks instead of doing more," Lauren Draney told KOMU, the NBC affiliate in Columbia.
Police and university officials have not released an updated status on the student rushed to the hospital.