Butler fraternity members react to IU video

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH)– Members of Butler University’s Delta Tau Delta fraternity spoke out Friday against the actions that got the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity removed from Indiana University.

“It’s disgusting,” Butler’s Delta Tau Delta president, Sam Thomas, said as he watched the video that made its way around the Web this week. “It’s something that’s entirely unacceptable to all that we stand for. Really, all that Greek Life stands for.”

The video, according to ATO’s national CEO, shows a member engaging in a sex act with a hired exotic dancer. Others can be seen watching and cheering.

Thomas said that video contributes to a negative idea some people have of fraternities.

“What we have to realize, as members of the fraternity, is that everything we do is important and is relevant and is judged or looked at in some manner in a sort of public perception,” Thomas said.

He said a fraternity is about much more than parties.

“Truth, courage, faith and power is what we try to live by,” Thomas sad.

Delta Tau Delta’s driveway was being turned into a small basketball court Friday. Members are hosting a tournament this weekend to raise money for ASL research. Those looking to donate can do so by clicking here.

Thomas said the frat also raised $30,000 last spring for Riley Children’s Hospital at IU Health.

He said the fraternity has been extremely successful over the last decade, but that the Delta chapter was once shut down. The fraternity closed for a few years in the 1990s and was reinstated in 1999, according to Thomas.

A former fraternity adviser said school officials didn’t like the direction in which the chapter was headed at the time. Thomas said the chapter has since turned things around.