A fraternity suspended at the University Tennessee for giving alcohol enemas to partygoers has led to the university refocusing its alcohol education efforts.
The incident was at a party early Saturday where 12 students were cited for underage drinking, CNN.com reported . The fraternity suspended is Pi Kappa Alpha, a university spokesperson said.
“Shock would not be an (overstatement),” Tim Rogers, vice chancellor of student life, told reporters this week about the alcohol enema incident. “I myself had never heard of what has been alleged.”
Knoxville police were tipped off to the alcohol enema situation when a student was taken to the UT Medical Center in critical condition with a blood alcohol level of 0.40, five times over the legal limit.
The person who took the student to the hospital told police that the members at the suspended fraternity were pouring alcohol through rubber tubing into their rectums, The Associated Press reported . Police found three men passed out when they went to the Pi Kappa Alpha house.
The person who took Broughton to the hospital told police that their fraternity was pouring alcohol through rubber tubing into their rectums, WTVR reported. When police investigated the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, they found three men passed out.
Knoxville Police spokesman Darrell DeBusk detailed what was happening in the fraternity suspended by the university:
“Upon extensive questioning, it is believed that members of the fraternity were using rubber tubing inserted into their rectums as a conduit for alcohol as the abundance of capillaries and blood vessels present greatly heightens the level and speed of the alcohol entering the bloodstream as it bypasses the filtering by the liver.”
Despite conflicting reports of whether alcohol enemas were used and one student retracted a claim, Knoxville police said they tubing and materials used for the alcohol enemas at the scene.
The fraternity suspended by UT will undergo further investigation from both police and university officials. The Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity also said it was investigating the incident:
“The recent allegations against these individuals have come as a complete shock to The Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity, its 15,000 undergraduate members and over 200,000 living alumni, family and friends,” the statement said. “Pi Kappa Alpha’s mission is to develop men of integrity, intellect and high moral character and to foster a truly lifelong fraternal experience. These alleged activities are clearly not consistent with that mission, nor are they representative of what the fraternity would expect from any of its members.”
The fraternity suspended will be under a 30-day review process, after which university officials can decide what further action to take.
