BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity revoked the charter and closed its Indiana University chapter Thursday after a video was leaked showing a chapter member performing a sex act on a woman in front of other fraternity members.
The university had announced late Wednesday that it was suspending the chapter, pending a full investigation into allegations of hazing that had arisen from the video.
According to a statement from the national fraternity, an initiated member of Alpha Tau Omega — not a pledge — performed the sexual act shown in the video, and about half of the chapter's members were present.
"The video is highly offensive and is antithetical to the values of Alpha Tau Omega," Wynn Smiley, chief executive officer for Alpha Tau Omega's national office, said in the statement.
Indiana University issued a statement praising the national office's action.
The fraternity's decision to revoke the chapter's charter is a startling end to ATO's troubled history on the IU campus.
In 1992, a pledge was hospitalized in a coma after suffering alcohol poisoning at an initiation party.
In 2010, 100 ATO members were kicked out for hazing and serving alcohol to minors. The remaining 20 — almost all freshmen — were forced by their housing board to move out of their house.
VIDEO: IU fraternity suspended
Earlier this year, as part of ongoing coverage into the culture of sexual assault on college campuses, the student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, profiled ATO and its young president, Tommy Paslaski.
The fraternity had just completed four semesters of probation and seven ethics cases with the university. These disciplinary actions were mostly alcohol-related. They also resulted from a notorious but discontinued "Ménage à Tau" party, an annual party at which female guests drank expensive alcohol and wore lingerie. It was there, in 2014, that a student said she was raped.
By the beginning of the spring semester of 2015, the chapter was no longer on social probation, and its president was trying desperately to change the fraternity's reputation and keep its record clean.
His goal was to make it to the 100th anniversary of the chapter house in December. But as of Thursday, the fraternity no longer exists on the IU campus.
When asked for comment on Thursday, Paslaski said, "I would love to keep you updated, but I've been instructed not to talk directly to any media. So I'm going to politely decline discussing this with you."
Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.