October 25, 2007
GMU Fraternity Sues School After Being Shut Down
It's hard out there for a frat guy. That, at least, is what pro-Greek commenters over at George Mason University's Broadside newspaper would have you believe. The student publication has a story up about a law suit filed by the school's banned chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity, which is suing GMU for violating their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Sigma Chi was kicked off the campus after being found guilty of a series of charter violations that included hazing, providing alcohol to minors and hosting two separate parties that "resulted in sexual assault on a female guest."
The Broadside story chronicles the fraternity's troubles with the University in detail, and the Associated Press follows up today with more from the court filing, to which GMU has responded by filing a motion to dismiss, accusing Sigma Chi of attempting to escape the sanction of the student panel which stripped the chapter of its status for ten years.
A few outraged Greeks are now popping up in the comments of the original Broadside story, claiming it's not the fraternity members' fault they were banned from campus, but rather another, more sinister force: liberals!
Jason: Freedom of speech, its in the constitution. Now if you don't want to hear all these fibs, lies, and or stories, blame the liberals for changing are laws to fluctuate on that. don't blame the school blame the liberals!
Ray:An unfortunate situation. However, this goes on to say that one or two idiot brothers, or members of an organization can literally screw a whole group's image, as well as their overall reputation as a whole. Broadside writers, just like any other liberal news organization, will report the news as they see fit. The only thing greek organizations can do is repair, regroup, and continue working to prevent idiot members into their organizations and continue doing what we are best at, which is accumulate higher average GPA's than the average student, continue doing more community service, fundraising, and awareness events than any other organizations on campus, and continue being proud of belonging to their respective organizatons by representing proudly, with dignity, and with a clean slate. Any small snafu will quickly, as you see above, explode into scandal. Mason administrators seem bent on prosecuting us on the slightest errors, so remember our learned Greek ethos, our creed, and continue cleaning our image so tarnished by those who wish to oust us. Peace and love. GO GREEKS!
We're sure the women who were assaulted are glad to know those incidents were just a "small snafu."
Photo by bjh
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While there were fraternities and sororities at my school, I never had anything to do with them. So now I'm wondering, are most greeks a bunch of young Republicans?
Sommer, point taken. However as a fraternity member at my former school, the administration was indeed hell bent of inflating the most minor incidents in an attempt to eventually get rid of every single fraternity on campus. It started with just the most outrageous violations and activities, and then the bar kept getting lower. Then housing decisions were made to constrain fraternities' ability to rush new members, and limit the kinds of advertising they could do. Then even internal 'parties' had to be registered with the administration. It was nothing short of a systematic attempt to eliminate greek life on campus. So while folks need to be held accountable for their crimes and illicit behavior, colleges are far too eager to kick entire groups off campus as the easy solution, rather than deal with the societal problems head on. To stay out of the negative spotlight, national fraternity organizations then also 'disband' local chapters at the slightest hint of trouble. It's out of control, and this is the latest example I've seen. There needs to be a middle ground between enforcing the laws and rules of a college, and wiping entire social organizations off the face of the earth.
HCE, the answer is no, but the liberal leaders of academia hate the concept of a social club that controls its own membership and has autonomy of housing and finances. That's why at my school they favored what were known as 'selective houses', because the process was much more open and more frequently based on academic interests and achievement rather than who is friends with who. But the big problem is that they manipulate housing decisions to achieve the student dynamic they want, which is where the liberal bias argument comes in. The theory being that if you can socially engineer the student population and break up the bad apples from out of the 'evil fraternities', then all the problems will disappear. In other words, more control and regulation equals peace and harmony.
In such a crazy, mixed-up world, it's kinda comforting to see that Smegma Chi is still the biggest buncha whiny, priveleged douchebags this side of the Hamptons.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to return to the adult film classic "Greek Deke Week" starring Nina Hartley as the Sorority Sister with a Difference, and Peter North in a propeller beanie.
Rape is a constitutionally-protected right? I guess it is to your average fratbro.
I'm with Krisa on this one. I was (briefly) in the Greek system and found there to be a roughly even split politically among members, but that liberal administrators (and nerdy student newspaper writers) were on a crusade to get rid of the the Greek system for various lofty but misguided reasons. Although sometimes they just wanted to do a land grab - they'd shut down a house for some trumped-up reason and reallocate the land to whatever the university wanted at the time.
As with any groups, there are good ones and bad ones. It's a good thing when systematically bad ones get shut down. I have no idea if this chapter of Sigma Chi is a good one or a bad one.
(As a side note - the Sigma Chi chapter at my undergraduate university was one where openly gay members were welcome)
Sommer,
Question for you, where in the gentlemans post did he refer to the rapes as the small snafus? Let me help you, he does no such thing! Just another liberal trying to keep the Greeks down. He does however maybe reference the two assualts by saying there were two idiots who tarnished an orginization he cares deeply for. While I believe rape is deplorable behavior which should result in the males castration you blatanly reference the assaults with no evidence that that is what he is talking about. Both assaults were investigated and proven to be false by the Fairfax county police department and backed by the school. Both members are no longer a part of the orginization.
Note: I am not a Sigma Chi, nor did I attend GMU. I am a Sigma Phi Epsilon who attended the fine ass school known as Salisbury University. And the liberals comment was a joke but the rest is serious.
Big L:
I think the line you're looking for is this one:
"Any small snafu will quickly, as you see above, explode into scandal."
It's that "as you see above" that makes me think he's referring to the Sigma Chi allegations as a "small snafu."
Just, y'know, sayin'.
What are fratholes and sorostitutes doing on this site anyways? Doesn't your ilk typically read more mainstream publications? Oh wait, we're talking about reading here - sorry, forgot.
Kins: We have no idea what he is refering to in the qoute "see above". That was on a comment board and he could be refering to anything and everything that people are commenting on not necessarily the assualts.
Saves: You see you are the typical dbag. Fratholes and sorostitutes is really original, you get that from Bob Hope. I like to read a wide array of information and keep abreast of all points of view. Something your pea brain probably couldnt comprehend. Did you shower today? Because the stink of your ignorance reeks.
I was a member of a very liberal Greek organization at a small, private liberal arts school. My brothers were Black, White, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Hispanic, gay, straight, rich, poor, and probably members of a dozen more demographically diverse groups. But neither our diversity nor hard work for charities was able to save us from trumped-up charges brought by a university administration hell-bent on eradicating Greek organizations.
We were the first to lose our charter, but about a club per year has been disbanded by my alma mater since my graduation. I think there's a quiet war on Greek organizations; they are seen as too much of a risk and/or liability in these litigious times. I think it's a real shame.
Just another liberal trying to keep the Greeks down
Are you talking about an ancient Roman?
As a former nerdy study newspaper editor, I'll say we only went after the Greeks when they deserved it, which actually wasn't that often while I was there (at UC Santa Barbara; though there was a huge ruckus about something we ran under a previous editor a few years earlier). Then again, our Greek system was fairly small and generally stayed out of trouble. I think the biggest thing while I was there was a fraternity illegally dug up a bunch of sand from a local beach to use for a party.
Just another liberal trying to keep the Greeks down
Are you talking about an ancient Roman?
Of Course I am.....
Ironsides - So you're basically saying Greeks have a PR problem? Because off campus, I never heard anything about charity work. I only hear about fraternities when members get busted for plagiarism or their pledges die of alcohol poisoning or when they slip freshmen roofies and pull trains on them.
Also, did your initiation rituals involve canings, mudsports, and "Tasmanian culture?" If so, I think we may be frat brothers.
Greeks always seem to think the school is out to get them. I have nothing against fraternities or sororities, but instead of complaining about your troubles, why don't you work harder to becoming role models you claim to be.
Auctioning off a Tri Delt to raise money for the homeless instead of volunteering at a soup kitchen isn't really going to get you bonus points with the administration.
And if you think you're not going to get caught providing alcohol to minors and underage drinking while at a school event (cause frats and sororities are school "clubs" of sorts, right?) then think again.
Perhaps University administration is "out to get" the Greeks, but I think they need to be a little more pro-active in becoming pillars of the community rather than great beer pong players.
Seriously. "Greeks".
The Tri-Smegma Brothers, Class of 2008:
Alex Diodorus
Theodore Jasper
Eugene Anastasio
Matthias Baptiste
Nestor Penelope
Jesse Katsopolis
Don Cornelius
Erasmus B. Dragon
GO TRI-SMEGS!
You can always count on the Greeks for:
throwing up chunks of pizza and bad beer on your front lawn as they stagger home Sunday morning
hosting a plethora of wet T-shirt contests (it's how we used to know spring had hit Syracuse, actually)
every other week, toilet papering all the houses on fraternity row
bringing in lots of lawyers to town after every alcohol poisoning or sexual assault scandal
harassing anyone who didn't look drunk and stupid by assuming they were infested with teh ghey (going as far as to make their own homophobic T-shirts that said "club faggots, not seals")
whining about how nobody understood them.
What the fuck ever, I say.
You can always count on the Greeks for
Also: shooting off fireworks at all hours of the night. Any night of the week. Endured that little perk of raucous Greek life when I lived in a low-rent dump behind a frat house a few years ago. There's something almost charming about Greeks playing the victim card. When they generally do everything they can to cultivate the arrogant, loud-mouthed, macho-bimbo stereotype.