No Suspension From USD : Punishment Meted Out to Cross-Burning Fraternity

A series of punishments short of suspension have been meted out to the University of San Diego fraternity whose members burned a cross at Torrey Pines State Reserve the night of May 20, it was announced Thursday.

The 80-member Theta Lambda chapter was placed on three years’ probation, and its members will be required to perform 25 hours of community service, attend workshops on racial and cultural biases, and remind new members at initial meetings each semester of the incident and “how appalling and offensive the cross burning was to the university and the San Diego community.”

Thomas F. Burke, USD vice president and dean of students, said Thursday that he decided not to suspend the fraternity because “USD is a powerful institution and education is a powerful antidote to the kind of ignorance displayed last May.”

A dozen fraternity members and 17 pledges were caught by a state park ranger as they were planting and lighting a wooden cross on an isolated bluff as part of an initiation ritual. One student, Jeffrey Schizas, 21, is scheduled to appear in Municipal Court on Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of starting a fire in an area of the park where burning is prohibited. The area contains rare Torrey Pines trees.

Schizas signed a written statement on the night of the incident describing the ritual as based on a vision seen by the Roman emperor Constantine. The fraternity’s emblem incorporates a cross.

Members told police at the time that the initiates make a list of their faults, then burn the list in the fire of the cross as a symbolic way of cleansing themselves for membership. The fraternity later apologized for carelessness in starting a fire in the nature reserve, but said it did not mean to link the cross burning to racial or cult activities.

But Burke said the cross burning “violated the educational mission of the university and brought embarrassment, scorn and ridicule to all members of our community. . . .

“We asked the question, ‘How could committed young men participate in an activity so offensive to their fellow human beings?’ As a Catholic university that stands for the dignity of all, we were further appalled,” Burke said.

He said that, by keeping the fraternity members “here on campus, with their nose to the grindstone for the next three years, we will be able to expose them to sensitivity workshops and other educational vehicles that will combat such insensitive behavior.”

USD officials said Thursday that the discipline will stand regardless of the legal outcome against Schizas. They said the fraternity members have told them they will adhere to the sanctions.

During probation, “any violation of the student code or illegal activity will result in immediate suspension of the chapter,” Burke said.