LOS ANGELES : UCLA Lifts Suspension of Sigma Pi Fraternity

UCLA officials have lifted the recent suspension from campus activities of the Sigma Pi fraternity, which had a club songbook with lyrics offensive to minorities and women. In exchange, the fraternity must publicly apologize and sponsor seminars on such topics as “racism, sexism and homophobia, alcohol abuse and leadership,” according to a campus announcement.

UCLA partially restored to Theta Xi, another fraternity involved in a similar controversy over a manual, the right to participate in official campus events. Theta Xi may participate in fraternity sports and recruitment, but remains banned for a year from such activities as homecoming and Mardi Gras. Theta Xi must also apologize and hold the seminars.

Because Theta Xi’s manual was a product of the entire fraternity, that club’s punishment was harsher than that given to Sigma Pi, whose songbook was the work of an individual no longer active in the chapter, a UCLA spokeswoman said.