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Appeal Denied to ATO; Fraternity Is Expelled From House and MIT

The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity lost its appeal and has been expelled from MIT, the Interfraternity Council announced yesterday.

ATO is no longer a recognized fraternity at MIT and will shutter its chapter house on Memorial Drive. The brothers living in the house will work with the administration to find room in dorms or off-campus, ATO President DeRon M. Brown ’10 said in an e-mail.

The MIT chapter is still recognized by its national organization, Brown said.

All of ATO’s finances will be turned over to its alumni group, which still owns the house. It is unclear what the house will be now be used for.

For the past two weeks, ATO had been in limbo. On August 27, the IFC Judicial Committee ruled to expel ATO after finding it had committed too many violations of IFC rules. The violations included those from a May 9 incident during which the fraternity alledgedly provided alcohol to a minor and failed to request medical assistance when necessary.

ATO appealed on Sept. 4 to the Office of Student Citizenship, on “question of fact” and “question of procedure” according to IFC President David J. Hutchings ’10.

Yesterday, David Kennedy of the Office of Student Citizenship ruled that there were insufficient grounds for an appeal, and that the expulsion stands.

Since August 2008, ATO had been on a “One-and-Done” point system: The fraternity would be expelled from MIT after the point values of its violations over a year reached one “point.”