The Interfraternity Council has suspended Delta Kappa Epsilon for an undisclosed amount of time, causing the fraternity to lose its THON dancers. The fraternity is no longer listed on the clubs.psu.edu website and cannot hold official functions. Onward State could not confirm the reason behind the suspension, but IFC President Dan Combs shed some light on the fraternity’s situation.

“I can confirm that the members of Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity will not be permitted to dance in this year’s IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, as they are currently on suspension with the IFC,” Combs said. “The IFC and IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon organizations work closely with each other throughout the year, and the IFC respects the decisions made by the IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon organization, as they also respect our decisions.”

THON Public Relations Director Dana Giacobello also confirmed that the number of dancers will decrease as a result of the suspension.

“DKE lost its dancers as a result of being suspended by IFC,” Giacobello said. “According to university policy, when an organization is suspended it is no longer considered to be in good standing with Penn State, and therefore loses privileges as a student organization, such as having dancers in THON.”

Giacobello said DKE’s moralers were re-assigned to dancers from other organizations. There are usually more moralers than there are dancers, so some dancers have two moralers instead of one.

Although it was announced two weeks ago that 711 dancers will stand at THON 2014, the number has changed to 707.  In addition to DKE losing its dancers, Chi Omega sorority lost its dancers because its chapter closed at Penn State. As the sorority is no longer recognized, Chi Omega cannot participate in THON in any capacity this year.

Onward State will continue to update this story as we receive more information.