The University of Wisconsin's Interfraternity Council voted by a 10 to eight margin to uphold the decision to revoke Sigma Alpha Epsilon's fraternity status during a special meeting Friday.

"Basically, people felt that the Judicial Board was correct in its earlier decision that SAE was in violation [of our by-laws]," IFC President Brian Burke said.

SAE will now be suspended from campus for five semesters, at which point the house can decide if it wants to re-colonize or not.

"We felt that the punishment fit the crime," Burke said.

An official complaint was filed with UW against SAE in December following a Halloween party raided by the Madison Police Department. Fines from the party exceeded $94,000, and 266 citations were handed out.

Last month SAE was revoked as a student organization, reinstated on appeal and then finally revoked on yet another appeal, which is where the house's status now stands.

Friday's meeting was SAE's last chance to stay a sanctioned fraternity on campus.

The four-hour, 15-minute meeting consisted of multiple witnesses testifying and being questioned by the IFC executive board and representatives from SAE.

The 10-8 vote came from members of the IFC, which includes all fraternities on campus.

"I feel that by upholding the judicial boards' decision, the Greek system is trying to better their image on campus," IFC representative Dave Lincoln said after the meeting.

Specifics of the decision were not disclosed because of confidentiality agreements that all IFC members signed at the beginning of the meeting.

Burke said some of the information was not available to the public even though it may have been pertinent to the case.

With IFC's decision, SAE now faces a number of decisions to make in the near future.

"We're very disappointed in the decision," Adam Ostrum, president of SAE at UW, said. "We've been on campus for 103 years, and now we've lost our charter."

SAE has a meeting with members from its national headquarters Monday to decide what is next for the group at UW.

"Our nationals are coming up from Evanston, Ill., on Monday to help us decide what to do," Ostrum said.

Ostrum went on to say that no final decision had been made as to SAE's house or campus presence as of the time the IFC decision was handed down.

Burke expected SAE to be back on campus once its expulsion was up, calling re-colonization a good option.