Photo by Emma Sylvester for The Lafayette

The inciting incident behind the suspension to Fraternity and Sorority Life social events took place in Colton Chapel at an educational wellness presentation.

Lafayette College fraternity and sorority social activities were paused indefinitely on Monday, following the use of antisemitic and sexist language at a November wellness event where roughly 600 fraternity and sorority members were present, according to an email sent to members of the organizations.

The pause will end for each chapter individually once its members complete an anti-bias training developed by the college, which has yet to be distributed. Director of Institutional Equity Karen Salvemini, who reviewed the reported language and notified organizations of the decision, wrote in an email to The Lafayette that the specifics of the college’s response were confidential.

The pause does not apply to philanthropy events or previously approved social events, allowing many programs scheduled for the fall semester to take place.

“No additional events will be approved for the fall semester or for the spring semester until the full membership of the chapter has completed the educational requirement,” Salvemini wrote in an email sent to fraternity and sorority members. “More information about the educational requirement, including scheduling sessions, will be forthcoming at the beginning of 2026.”

Associate Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life Jake Bates declined to discuss the specifics or impact of the decision, saying he was “not comfortable sharing any more context” beyond Salvemini’s email.

The incident that the college investigated was a Wellness 101 event held in Colton Chapel on Nov. 12. Part of the presentation — hosted by Director of Wellness Initiatives Vanessa Freeman — prompted audience members to anonymously answer a series of questions through their phones. Their responses then appeared on the main screen.

“If you’re doing a presentation on wellness, you shouldn’t ask people to put it in front of everyone,” said one member of a Greek life organization, who requested anonymity, citing a fear of reprisal from Bates. “I think that doing it entirely in anonymous submissions was a bit misguided.”

“It’s just live-action Yik Yak,” the member continued. “And we’ve all seen what happens on Yik Yak.”

Students were asked questions about individual and organizational wellness. Hanna Ganchi ‘27, a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, said the comments began as “harmless” jokes that Freeman initially went along with, until she appeared to get “very, very upset” about one comment in particular.

“It was like, ‘What’s keeping you from better organizing or maintaining your finances?’” Ganchi said. “And someone just said ‘Jews.’”

“I honestly just felt really uncomfortable,” said Brooke Suzman ‘27, a Jewish student and member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. “I kind of just wanted to leave, but I didn’t want to be disrespectful to my chapter.”

Ganchi said the responses then continued to escalate, including comments targeting specific fraternity and sorority members in attendance, sexual comments about Bates and comments pressing Freeman to end the presentation as it approached 50 minutes in length.

“At a certain point, I almost hoped that they stopped doing those free-response things because obviously, the group was not mature enough to take it seriously,” Suzman said.

In her email, Salvemini said that the response had a “significant” impact on Freeman and some audience members. Freeman did not respond to questions in time for publication.

“I am concerned that students in the space did not speak up to identify the perpetrators or to otherwise attempt to stop the behavior,” Salvemini wrote.

College President Nicole Hurd addressed the incident in a campus-wide email on Nov. 21 — 10 days before Salvemini’s email — noting that it was under investigation by the college’s Office of Institutional Equity.

“There was a substantial number of members of the community that were exposed to that,” Hurd said, calling the incident something she felt she “needed to address.”

Several fraternity and sorority members expressed understanding about the suspension.

“I feel like this was the only way to go about doing it in a fair manner that held people accountable,” said William Gutiérrez ‘27, the president of the Interfraternity Council and a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.

Despite the intended suspension, the anonymous Greek life member noted that they were not concerned about future events being affected.

Ganchi said that all members of Delta Gamma wrote an apology to Freeman.

“We made a document, where every single girl in the sorority wrote a letter to her personally, and we sent it to her,” Ganchi said. “I know for a fact that we would love to have her back.”

Several fraternity and sorority presidents declined to comment, with one citing their fear of retribution from Bates.

Clara Witmer ‘27 contributed reporting.

Disclaimer: Managing Editor Selma O’Malley ‘26, News Editor Andreas Pelekis ‘26 and Sports Editor Dan Sullivan ‘27 are members of sorority and fraternity organizations. They did not contribute writing or reporting.