On Friday, the university wrapped up the almost four month investigation following a video of a sexually explicit song that was posted to social media.
Ohio University’s chapter of Acacia fraternity is no longer under investigation by the university and the chapter can resume normal operations, according to a university spokesperson.
On Friday, the university wrapped up the nearly four month investigation following a video of a sexually explicit song that was posted to social media by The Post's copy chief.
The university’s investigation began Oct. 30 after a video on Twitter surfaced in which members of the Acacia fraternity appear to sing "Send nudes, don't let me down. Take my soft dick and make it harder,” to the tune of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles to members of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority on Oct. 28.
When the investigation began, members of the fraternity were “given an administrative directive to cease and desist all chapter operations” during the investigation, according to a previous Post report.
“After investigation into the matter, it was determined that the conduct, while not in alignment with the values of Ohio University, in and of itself does not rise to a level of violating the University’s sexual misconduct policy,” OU Spokeswoman Katie Quaranta said in an email.
Also, there was no evidence of hazing found during the investigation, Quaranta said.
“There was initially concern that the chapter may have provided false information to a University official related to this incident, the investigation resulted in the determination that the individual who provided the information did so on their own and without any consultation or knowledge from the rest of the chapter,” Quaranta said in an email. “That has been resolved as an individual student conduct matter.”
Acacia President David Haddad declined to comment on fraternity matters.
Acacia’s national chapter also launched an investigation and it was unclear as of press time whether it is still investigating OU’s chapter.
OU’s chapter can resume operations and there are no pending conduct matters, Quaranta said.
Ellenore Holbrook, a junior studying political science and a member of the student group F--kRapeCulture, said she is not surprised that Acacia was not found in violation.
“Rape culture is perpetuated in a lot of different ways and the university doesn’t want that bad PR,” Holbrook said.
She added that she is surprised that the university didn’t release a statement publicly.
"I’m wondering how the university is going to go forward with this even though they found them not in violation because I have had administrators agree with me that rape culture is an issue on this campus and they still don’t seem to be doing anything about it,” Holbrook said.
Editor's Note: The original publication date of this article was Feb. 16, 2016, not Oct. 1, 2019.
