By Howie Paul Hartnett Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) DAVIDSON, N.C. _ The Davidson College chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity has apologized for the recent beating death of a goose and promised to make amends with the community. “As members of an extended community, we stand in the bright glare of its judgment,” chapter President Benjamin Skurek said in a written statement Thursday. “Therefore, our chapter and its members _ whether we are suspended or not _ have committed to the town of Davidson to build trails in Beaver Dam Park and provide bird habitat information for the public at Roosevelt Wilson Park.” The chapter also will contribute to a wildlife preservation organization. One fraternity member and six pledges have been arrested and charged with felony cruelty to animals and conspiracy to commit a felony. The beating death occurred Feb. 7 at Roosevelt Wilson Park, police said. A town employee saw a group of men lure a goose away from a group of others with bread before one of the men hit it repeatedly with a golf club, police said. When the goose stopped moving, another man tossed it into the trunk of a car and they drove away. Police found the car a short time later, with the dead goose in the trunk. The fraternity chapter was suspended by its international governing board and by the college following the incident. The governing board’s action Wednesday means Davidson’s 64 Kappa Sigma members cannot meet socially or do anything in the name of the fraternity, said Mitchell Wilson, executive director of the fraternity’s 205 chapters in the U.S. and Canada. The fraternity’s Supreme Executive Committee will decide whether to revoke the chapter’s charter next month. “While we cannot change the isolated incident of last week, we do have the power to respond to our colleagues and this community in the tradition of our college, this fraternity, and our own sense of what is right and wrong,” Skurek wrote. ___ ‘copy 2003, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.). Visit The Charlotte Observer on the World Wide Web at http://www.charlotte.com/ Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.