On Jan. 21, a solemn letter was sent to all Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) members at Ashland University detailing the official closure of the Pi Alpha chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) on campus.

Tau Kappa Epsilon was chartered at AU in 1978, the last of the four fraternities to be added to campus.
The decision to close the fraternity was made due to declining membership over the past decade.

Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Dustin Hargis, cites a few reasons for the trend.

“It’s a tough thing to pinpoint directly, but you kind of have to look internally and try to see what may have been going on with the membership,” he said. “The alumni support that the chapter may be getting is a factor, the support they’re getting from their international headquarters is a factor, and what we noticed was that there was a complacency in recruitment setup sometimes.”

This fall, the fraternity boasted five total members. Now, there are only two TKE members on Ashland’s campus.

The students, although not involved with TKE on campus, are granted alumni status to the fraternity and are still recognized nationally.

Except for this fall due to the Coronavirus, Hargis said, the other fraternities on campus (Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Delta Theta and Kappa Sigma) have maintained numbers and slowly grown over the past four years.

“It’s really sad that they’re leaving but there is a new opportunity for growth now,” Hargis said.

The former TKE house is currently being used for COVID-19 isolation housing, but in the future, ther Interfraternity Council will likely call together an expansion committee to weigh different options for growth and development.

After the pandemic ends, Hargis said, the current plan is for the TKE house to be used by veteran services for veteran students.

The Committee, composed of Hargis, the Interfraternity President Kavasea Garrett, representatives from each Fraternity chapter, and a representative from the student senate, would send letters to international fraternity offices offering up AU’s campus as a possibility for expansion.

The committee would review materials and pitches sent by the offices and decide on a few possible fraternities that would be able to send a representative to AU for a formal presentation. Then the committee would decide on which options would be best for the campus.

“For more than 40 years, this chapter has contributed significantly to the personal and professional development of Ashland University students,” Hargis said in his letter to the FSL community. “The Pi Alpha chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon will be greatly missed.”