A 42-year tradition on Murray State University's campus ended Tuesday, Sept. 8 as the Lambda Eta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha was informed via email by university officials that they could not host their annual Watermelon Bust Mud Games Saturday.

Amidst the social media storm that quickly followed, it became difficult to determine what was fact and what was fiction. The overall reaction from brothers of Lambda Chi, sorority women from every chapter and even members of rival fraternities was one of anger and sadness over the decision.

"Bust Week" as it is commonly referred to, is Lambda Chi Alpha's weeklong fundraiser benefiting their national philanthropy, Feeding America. Feeding America and Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., partnered at the 2013 Stead Leadership Seminar with the common goal of ending hunger. Before partnering with this organization, Lambda Chi's previous philanthropic efforts with the same goal were referred to as the North American Food Drive.

Feeding America is a nonprofit organization consisting of a network of food banks that served 46.5 million people, sourced 3 billion meals and delivered 800 million pounds of produce throughout the U.S. during the 2015 fiscal year. Their partnership with Lambda Chi Alpha provides tools for individual chapters to aid in the collection of both money and non-perishable items during food drives.

During the 2014-15 school year, the Lambda Eta chapter was named the Best Philanthropic Chapter on Murray State's campus and was nationally recognized as a top Lambda Chi Alpha chapter in the nation for their food raising efforts.

The most important aspect of Lambda Chi Alpha's philanthropic efforts, however, is that every penny raised and every can collected is redistributed to individuals and families struggling in Calloway County. Murray Calloway County Need Line is the local food pantry that receives and distributes all of Lambda Chi Alpha's food and financial donations to community members in need. An average of 900 families visit Need Line monthly, and the Lambda Eta chapter donated 108,629 pounds of food to the nonprofit organization during the past year. Need Line's Director is out on medical leave and unable to comment on their partnership with the fraternity.

While Lambda Chi Alpha has continued their efforts to raise money through penny wars on campus Tuesday and Wednesday and a canned food drive Thursday at 6 p.m. at their annex, the summation of the weeklong competition will no longer include events such the watermelon crawl, watermelon over-under, tug-o-war and the watermelon toss. Each sorority participating in Bust Week has already made significant donations in order to enter and participate in the now-canceled events.

The cancelation of both the Mud Games and the fraternity's annual Friday night volleyball tournament is a new stipulation in their social probation turned social suspension as a result of an incident that occurred at an unregistered party in July. Under the current social suspension, organizations are also being withheld from participating in intramural sports. Five fraternities are reportedly on social suspension at this time.

According to Mike Young, the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, this probation would impact any organization on campus as a result of their failure to follow university policies related to social events. Evan Ditty, the University's first-year Coordinator of Greek Life & Student Leadership Programs, provided no comment on what he referred to as an ongoing and confidential situation, and Re'Nita Avery-Meriwether, the Director of Student Life & the Curris Center, was unavailable for comment.

Lambda Chi Alpha's Greek Standards Board hearing is scheduled for Thurs., Sept. 10 at 9 p.m. Updates and further details will be published as they become available.