Kappa Sigma reinstated after suspension
Fraternity looks to boost recruiting after returning to campus
By Andrew Donovan
Staff Reporter

Kappa Sigma fraternity will return to campus this year following its suspension by the university and its national chapter for a hazing violation in 2002.

Brandon Lobell, president of the fraternity, said he couldn’t be more excited. He said the recent suspension made it difficult to run the fraternity.

“It was pretty tough,” Lobell said. “We had no official place to meet, so we would end up having weekly meetings at people’s houses or even apartments.”

The suspension went into effect following a Campus Life investigation in late spring of 2002. The investigation resulted when several allegations of hazing were made against Kappa Sigma.

Lobell said to regain the charter the members had to improve in many areas. He said not only did they raise their GPA to more than 3.0 overall, but the fraternity also increased its community service efforts.

“We haven’t been as active as this in the past,” Lobell said. “We’ve done a lot this last year to get on the right path of success.”

Lobell said many members have become leaders in groups around campus.

“In a sense we felt left out (last year) because we were doing so much, but we weren’t really on campus,” Lobell said.

Kappa Sig Rush Chairman Mason Abshire said the suspension made recruiting almost impossible because it did not allow the fraternity to have a pledge class or to participate in formal rush.

“Without a pledge class, you have no connections,” Abshire said. “With no connections, you have to dig a little deeper to find guys.”

They were able to pick up only a few recruits at the end of last year, he said, but he has high expectations for the upcoming fall rush.

“We just want to get a good class (this year) to build the fraternity back to the level it was,” Abshire said.

Brett Gall, vice president of the Interfraternity Council, said he welcomes the return of the Kappa Sigs to campus, and he said it will make Greek life at TCU better.

“I think it’s great what they’ve done this past year,” Gall said. “They did something truly amazing by going in there and totally turning their program around.”

Gall said he wasn’t sure if the fraternity would be put on any type of probation or if it would be on “heavy watch” this next year by the council. He said a majority of all the fraternities are always watched by the university.

Lobell said the national chapter has put them on a “trusteeship” program, meaning a national Kappa Sigma officer will periodically come in and assess the fraternity, Lobell said.

While the university won’t place them on a similar program, Lobell said, a lot of people around campus will be watching the fraternity this next year.

“I know we will have a lot of eyes on us this year,” Lobell said. “But hopefully it will be more for positive than negative.”

Andrew Donovan