Twenty-three students at the Tuck School of Business have been placed in quarantine after Dartmouth Safety and Security officers were called in to stop a social gathering on Sept. 4. Meanwhile, Phi Delta Alpha fraternity has been temporarily suspended following possible health violations in an incident at its house on Sept. 5.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, College spokesperson Diana Lawrence wrote that the gathering of Tuck students at Whittemore Hall was in violation of Dartmouth and Hanover limits on the size of gatherings. However, she also wrote that the students had already completed their initial 14-day quarantine and testing on campus and that the students’ actions will be “reviewed” by the College and Tuck to determine whether disciplinary action is necessary. They were placed in quarantine “out of an abundance of caution,” she wrote.
“Tuck leadership has been working closely with Safety and Security to identify all individuals at this event,” Lawrence wrote. “All students who attended will be tested again and will quarantine for an additional 14 days.”
Tuck dean Matthew Slaughter described the incident as a “significant” violation of Dartmouth and Hanover public health requirements. He added that the ongoing investigation into the incident will be “thorough” and “expeditious.”
“[Friday] night’s event was a serious offense and threat to the well-being of our community,” Slaughter wrote in an email to Tuck students.
Regarding the incident at Phi Delt, Lawrence wrote that three College alumni and two current undergraduates were involved in the incident.
Lawrence and the Phi Delt undergraduate officers declined to provide further details pertaining to the incident.
The two undergraduates involved in the incident have been sent home and lost on-campus enrollment privileges for the year, according to Lawrence.
Students affiliated with Phi Delt who had planned to live in the fraternity house, and who were uninvolved in the incident, will be accommodated in College residence halls.
“Dartmouth has been clear in its communications that violations of College policy that may compromise those efforts will be taken very seriously,” Lawrence wrote. “Individual accountability for those involved is currently being addressed.”
Phi Delt house advisor George Faux ’84 wrote in an email to The Dartmouth that the three alumni who were present at the fraternity house were attempting to “retrieve items from storage” before leaving the house.
Faux declined to comment further on the nature of the allegations or the investigations due to the “ongoing Community Standards and Accountability process,” but wrote that Phi Delt has shared “demonstrable evidence” that “certain aspects” of the allegations against the students were “unfounded.”
“Phi Delt has been working hard to prepare for members to return to campus, and we will adhere to the spirit and letter of College health initiatives,” he added.
Safety and Security director Keysi Montas declined to comment on both incidents, citing the ongoing investigations by the College.
