2nd Fraternity Flyer Is Criticized : CSUN: Members are invited to ‘rape’ and ‘pillage.’ Chapter and campus officials react with strong disapproval.

Administrators of Cal State Northridge, a campus that was torn by months of dissension last year over a fraternity party invitation that was criticized as racist, Wednesday condemned another fraternity party flyer, decorated with a drawing of a voluptuous woman accompanied by an invitation to “rape, pillage and burn.”

The latest flyer was reported to university officials by the national office of the fraternity itself. The national office immediately disavowed the flyer and promised to apologize to all who received it.

The flyer was sent to student members and alumni of the CSUN chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha by an alumnus, who is in his 30s, without the knowledge of fraternity officials, said the fraternity’s national office in Indianapolis.

“The flyer is against everything the fraternity stands for, and its ideals,” said Walter Jenkins, spokesman for the fraternity’s national office.

“Lambda Chi promotes gentlemanly conduct among its members. Anything that promotes this kind of attitude goes against everything we stand for as gentlemen and as members of our community and on campus.”

Sent by an alumnus who had been asked to organize the party, the invitation prompted complaints from fraternity members as soon as it arrived in mailboxes Tuesday, Jenkins said.

The flyer, an invitation to Aug. 29 mock war games with paintball guns, depicts a curvaceous woman from behind, in skintight pants and wearing boots and a pistol holster. Beside the illustration are the words: “Wouldn’t it be great to rape, pillage and burn with your brothers . . . again?”

The word rape was handwritten above another word that had been obliterated.

Ron Kopita, CSUN vice president of student affairs, said school administrators were “offended and horrified” by the flyer.

“It depicts a woman in a demeaning way and suggests violence as appropriate behavior,” he said.

However, because it was the work of a non-student, the university’s authority to act is limited, Kopita said.

“The only thing we can do, really, is talk to the local chapter,” he said.

Lambda Chi Alpha is the third-largest general fraternity in the country, with 223 chapters nationwide, Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the fraternity’s leadership has rebuked the flyer’s author, whom he declined to identify. “I don’t think he wants to defend it,” he said. “He sees now how it could be misconstrued. He regrets the decision.”

Jenkins said he did not know how many flyers were mailed, but said that everyone on the mailing list would receive a letter condemning the flyer and explaining that it was issued without the knowledge of the CSUN chapter’s leaders.

The fraternity house board was scheduled to meet Wednesday night to discuss the incident, and it may cancel the war games party as a gesture of apology, Jenkins added.

Last year, the CSUN chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity distributed invitations to a party that made reference to a “Lupe,” which Latino student groups said was a reference to a name used in a bawdy fraternity song about “a Mexican whore.”

After demonstrations by campus activist groups and protests by the student government, administrators suspended the fraternity chapter for 14 months.

The fraternity brought suit, contending that the suspension violated its constitutional guarantee of free speech. CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson lifted the suspension--generating more protests--after school attorneys advised her that, judging by court rulings in similar cases at other universities, the fraternity would win the suit.