Police bust 77 students at fraternity party

Officers from Indiana State Excise Police cited 77 underage students for minor consumption Saturday after busting a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.

The Terre Haute Indiana State Police post was alerted to the party around midnight by a person in the vicinity of the building, located at 6th & Poplar St., said Lt. Terry J. Bauer, district commander of the Indiana State Excise Police's Vincennes post.

When excise police arrived at the scene, the partygoers frantically fled, escaping through windows and "every other possible orifice" of the building, Bauer said.

Between 150 and 200 people were estimated to have been at the party, Bauer said. He pointed out that he was personally not at the scene.

A final report on the incident is not yet ready, Bauer said.

Until that report is issued, it would be premature to take action against the fraternity, said Adam Novotney, assistant director of Student Activities and Organizations.

"It's difficult to speculate right now on rumors and what's going on," Novotney said.

Excise police are routinely called in to deal with parties in which minors are suspected of drinking alcohol. ISU Public Safety Director Bill Mercier said campus police were not involved in citing the suspects.

According to its Web site, part of Phi Psi's vision is to "provide undergraduate members with the opportunity to get as much out of their campus experience as possible, while working within their chapters to effect change in their communities."

Its mission is to unite the "principals and traditions of our past with the resources and creativity of our present" to construct an environment encouraging the members' highest potentials, according to the Web site.

Two men at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pa founded the fraternity on Feb. 19, 1852 after being displeased with other options on campus, according to the Web site.

The men were also motivated to help students affected by an epidemic the winter before.