Caitlin Doherty ’26
News Editor
Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management Joe DiChristina announced a three-year suspension of the Epsilon Chapter of St. Anthony Hall, a co-educational fraternity on campus, known among Trinity students as “the Hall,” on Aug. 17. A college investigation revealed that the chapter had engaged in hazing practices against potential and new members. In line with a Connecticut statute that outlaws hazing practices, Trinity’s Student Handbook explicitly prohibits hazing within any student organization. The suspension began on July 13, 2023, and will be in place until June 30, 2026. This timeline ensures that any Trinity student who was a member of St. Anthony Hall will graduate before the chapter is allowed to reactivate in 2026. All students who were associated with St. Anthony Hall during the 2022-2023 school year are banned from taking part in any Greek Life activities, whether official events or off-campus parties, for the duration of the suspension.
The fraternity occupied two buildings: Ogilby Hall, a dormitory on Trinity’s campus reserved specifically for members of the chapter, and the St. Anthony Hall Epsilon Chapter Building, a chapel-like structure built between 1877 and 1878, which has been included on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. The Chapter Building, located on the northwest corner of Trinity’s campus, is owned and managed by the St. Anthony Trust of Hartford. According to Dean DiChristina’s email, “St. Anthony Hall National and the fraternity’s local alumni board, St. Anthony Trust of Hartford (SATH), following their own disciplinary investigations, have imposed their own sanctions against the Epsilon Chapter, which support the College’s sanctions, including banning the undergraduate members from acting in connection with or under any aegis of St. Anthony Hall.” The Chapter Building will be closed to all members throughout the three-year suspension. Hall members who planned to live in Ogilby Hall for the 2023-2024 school year have been placed in alternate housing.
Although it was not mentioned in Dean DiChristina’s email, news of the suspension comes less than a year after three swastikas were found carved into a student’s door in Ogilby Hall, the dormitory reserved for members of St. Anthony’s Hall. The outside investigator hired by Trinity’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion was unable to find the person responsible; “However, the College did take appropriate action to address other issues brought forth as part of this investigation,” according to an email sent on March 1, 2023 from Anita Davis, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Dean DiChristina. Any other actions by the College that were taken at that time have not been shared with the student body.
The most recent long-term suspension of a fraternity was in January of 2020. After a physical altercation in November of 2019 between a group of students from Alpha Delta Phi and St. Anthony’s Hall, the Hall was censured for one semester, and beginning 2020, Alpha Delta Phi was allegedly suspended for four semesters. However, it is still unclear how this suspension was carried out and whether it was enforced for the entire time period through January 2022.
Twenty years earlier, in 2002, the Hartford Courant reported that Trinity had decided to shut down Alpha Delta Phi for two years following a hazing incident in which a student was treated for severe leg burns, calling the suspension “the school›s most serious disciplinary action against a fraternity in more than 20 years.” Based on these past incidents, the current three-year suspension of the Hall seems to be the most severe in recent college history.
In his message to the community, Dean DiChristina urged any students who experience or witness hazing to be in contact with the Office of Student and Community Life. “The College is committed to protecting students from any activity that intentionally endangers a student’s health and welfare, and it will take decisive action against other students engaged in such activities, as clearly articulated in the Student Handbook.”
