A guilty confession from GeekyPenguin:

I have thrown up over stress/nerves many a time...it has gotten much better and I haven't done it since high school, but it happens. :(

I am LMAO at the shots of the missing pledges. I also expected to see sassquatch in the background. It is a mystery tho.

Now, I am sure I am gonna stir the pot with this one.... but here goes.

Do you think the pledges seem to be cannabalizing each other is because the brothers run such a borderline sketchy program, that blurrs the line on hazing?

My theory is this; members dotn exist in a vacuum. If there is a "corporate culture" of disrespect (which seems to be the case here) where memebrs arent allowed to carry on withtheir lives at soem level for an ext4ended period, and newbies seem to be disrespected, doesnt it seem logical that this runs downhill, and the newbies will bear the brunt of the stress (after all, it is directed at them) and take it out on each other?

Meaning, if your chapter exists in a culture of mutual respect, newbies wont be actign the way these kids seem to. Our undergraduate chapter was run on mutual respect, and we never had members, new or otherwise act liek these newbies and actives are to each other. I can understand, in theory, the "you have to proove to me" philosophy, but what, you treat soemone liek a dog, put them in situations where they are going to lie and then youre cool with them after a ceremony? Not a brotherhood I'd wanna be a part of.

I have always looked at it like we must be ready to accept our non-initiated members as brothers at any moment, because they were chosen to be members based on their values as individuals and what they had to offer the org, and what they could gain from it, not as a 'proving time.' Our ritual is amazing and moving, yes, but its a ceremony. I like to think our non-initiated members were chosen because they know and live our ritual, yet they havent even seen it. Its not a major revealing. Its something that men who are of character, posess.

Sigma Chi Omega has been suspended by UB for hazing violations.

It doesn't sound like anybody at U Buffalo was actually watching the show, so it sounds like they must have gotten A LOT of emails and letters. I guess they finally had to pay attention.

HEL-FREAKING-LO - they haven't shown their initiation yet, if they mean "pledging practices" why don't they say so?? :mad: This is why people think initiation is a creepy scary thing when it's not.

Sorry to pick nits, but it really grinds my gears when people write articles on Greeks and keep screwing up the terminology and don't bother to try and get it right. Maybe they are not Greek, but I don't think that excuse sits when a journalist writes about any other subject (I don't think the novice sports reporter would get away with saying the football team got a home run).

Ya gotta wonder which fraternity will want MTV to help them lose their charter/recognition next season.

I can't imagine that Sigma Chi Omega didn't KNOW this was going to happen. I mean, they were openly disobeying their university hazing policy on national television. I don't think they thought that they were just going to "get away with it." Therefore, they must not care too much that they will probably lose their charter. They must see some advantage to not being recognized to the university . . . therefore it's probably not a huge loss to them.

If you look at the U Buffalo Greek Life web page, under something like "Message for Parents" or something like that, it lists a good half dozen or so chapters that are not recognized and they basically discourage membership in those chapters. Most are NIC/NPC. So it probably isn't too big a deal to them since they will be joining so many other organizations.

...
 

Blah in my opinion nothing ive seen so far is hazing, its all just pretty random, liked the vince lambardi line, line ups arent that bad, pushups (if actives are doing them too, which they were) cant be considered hazing, and umm thats about it so far, oh and the Rush interviews i think is a pretty neat idea cause it gives you a chance to give them a lil taste of pledging and hopefully get to the root of why they want to do it. Plus it cant be that intimidating its a light in a dark room, ohhh scarey..

As far as alumnai Ron, this is really similar to my local , every pledging process we have at least 15-30 alums show up to every night, because THEY CARE abou the program, about the actives, and about seeing other alums who show up. In my opinion its just strong alumnai support, and considering that Sigman Chi Omega is like 4 years old having strng alum support is definently needed. More power to alums who show up and hang out with the actives thats how it should be. At our house we have alums stopping by at all different days and times of day, just cause they were in the neighbor hood and wanted to say hi and such. Theres nothing wrong with having good relationships with your Alums and having a good Alumnai Support.

http://www.mtv.com/onair/fraternity_...ages/alex1.jpg

Alex Alex Alex*smh*

where do I begin? I have to say that I am glad we all finally got to meet the infamous Lindsey. She is cute, but I can tell that she loves drama and loves how he chases after her.

I can't believe that the frat brothers approved of him going out on a date with her. I think as a pledge, you need to have focus, and dang it if you can't focus for a few weeks during a pledge process to BOND with your brothers and learn your future fraternity history, then there is a problem IMO.

But I have to say that I was VERY proud of him for breaking up with Lindsey, that is the type of person that will bring you down in life, have you get an ulcer at an early age, he needed to cut her off and show that she can't walk all over him. My favorite part was

"I need to talk to you"
"So talk!"
"Not with the cameras"
"Well I can't get RID of them"

LOL.

Wait a second, you saw the episode last night??? All I got was MTV News coverage of Iraq.

I know! I figured they would just show it next week. Details please...from anyone who saw it.

She's in Cali...that's why she saw it. For her Bush was speaking at 7:15 not 10:15. And MTV hasn't yet mastered the fact of different time zones apparently :rolleyes:. Don't worry, it'll be on approximately 500 times this weekend.

See Both Tonight!!
 

For those of us who live in the Eastern time zone the new Sorority Life epsiode is SUPPOSED to air at 5:30 PM while the new Fraternity Life episode is supposed to air at 6:30 PM. This of course depends on whether or not MTV is going to have war coverage.

You'd be surprised how many "intellegent" people believe MTV is portraying a real image of fraternity and sorority life.

Last fall when I was trying to get girls to come out and rush, one of the girls in my class noticed I was wearing my letters and I asked her to come out to the info night to hear more about us, and she asked me if we were life sorority life. I had to try to explain that we were nothing like that, and she still wasn't convinced. We're at college people, MTV is trash.
So, supposedly intellegent people do believe MTV.

Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing
 

The Buffalo News
March 20, 2003

Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing

By STEPHEN WATSON
News Staff Reporter

Sigma Chi Omega, a University at Buffalo fraternity, is receiving a lot of
national exposure as the star of a weekly reality-TV program on MTV.

Now that exposure is coming back to bite the fraternity. The university has
suspended it because officials say some of the activities caught on film
might be hazing.

UB acted after watching the first episodes of MTV's "Fraternity Life"
series and receiving complaints from viewers, said Dennis R. Black, UB's
vice president for student affairs.

The show, which began airing Feb. 26, is based on footage the network shot
in Buffalo in fall as MTV cameras followed a group of Sigma Chi pledges -
students trying to win fraternity membership.

"Everybody who watches expresses concern about the forced calisthenics or
some of the apparent treatment, which could constitute embarrassment,
harassment or ridicule," said Dennis R. Black, UB's vice president for
student affairs.

He was referring to scenes that showed Sigma Chi brothers interrogating
students under the glare of bright lights and, later, requiring pledges to
do push-ups as punishment.

Colin Healy, Sigma Chi's president, said fraternity members don't think
they've done anything wrong and want to work with UB officials to get the
suspension overturned.

"In the grand scheme of things, we definitely don't think that what we did
was hazing, but we need to find out what the school thought they saw,"
Healy said. The network doesn't want to get involved.

"This is really between the fraternity and the university," said Eileen
Quast, an MTV spokeswoman.

"Fraternity Life" and a companion MTV series, "Sorority Life 2," have
brought national attention to UB and Buffalo, portraying the area's
waterfront, architecture and other features in an attractive light.

The MTV Web site, in promoting the fraternity series, plays up the alleged
excessive drinking of Sigma Chi members. But none of the "Fraternity Life"
episodes has shown pledges enduring the type of severe hazing - such as
forced consumption of alcohol - that led to the deaths of students at other
colleges.

Delta Xi Omega, the UB sorority featured on "Sorority Life 2," has not been
disciplined.

UB defines hazing as "any action that produces mental or physical
discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, ridicule or impairment of academic
efforts," according to a statement on the Student Affairs Web site.

Black said none of the students featured on "Fraternity Life" had
complained about their treatment on the show, but the school's policy is to
immediately suspend any organization suspected of hazing, to protect
students from potential harm.

A different set of students is trying to join Sigma Chi this semester, and
the temporary ban on official fraternity activities applies to pledging
activities, Black said.

The decision to suspend the fraternity was made last week, while students
were on spring break, but fraternity members weren't notified until early
this week.

Fraternity members remain in good standing, pending the investigation by
university police and officials from UB's Greek Affairs and Judicial
Affairs offices.

(c) 2003 The Buffalo News.

The funniest part of the episode was when all the pledges were acting out a typical phone conversation between Alex and his girlfriend intercut with Alex on the phone. It was hilarious! They were dead on! "Baby, I love you. You say it..." :p

dang you guys didn't see it? I saw both sorority and fraternity life, no wonder no one posted, lol




QTE

OMG, greeklawboy and I were ROLLING on the floor laughing during that little montage! :D

I'm so glad we caught both episodes last night, because they added some levity to an otherwise somber evening!

My thoughts exactly. I was wondering why nobody had posted anything about the episodes. I always come online and read the comments posted after watching the show, but last night I didn't see any.

Well, Alex is now single! Yay! He's too cute to be with somebody who isn't supportive of him. I wonder if they're still broken up???

Okay, they are supposed to be replaying it right now, but it is STILL not on.:confused:

*stomps foot--*hehe** I didn't get to see it, mtv switched over to their Iraq War coverage just as it was about to start...and I haven't seen the rerun of it today yet...it was supposed to be but not yet. If he's single---GOOD! The boy got some balls...

i know this is a thread about fraternity life, but i have to comment on the article. are you kidding me?!! DZO didn't haze?!!! that's a crock of shit! they so hazed those girls and should also be suspended if SXO is being suspended.

okay, i'm done. i'm hoping to catch the reruns sometime this week.

shelley j
sigma k

Re: Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing
 

Nice policy UB, guilty until proven innocent. Suspend them, permanently scar their reputation on campus, and forbid them from pledging when they haven't done anything wrong. And if you ask me, that policy seems to have a connection with academic efforts. Unless they can show it has impaired the academic efforts of the allegedly hazed, then they may be off the hook. But of course, we all know how this one will turn out...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by DELTAQTE
[B]Um...did anyone peep the next episode? "If you're early, you're on time...?"

Ain't that the truth!! But seriously, why would you want to have your process shown on TV? :confused:

Re: Re: Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing
 

That's the way UB operates. They have a very anti-greek administration. They have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. Last year they suspended the entire Greek System for a week, because someone, who didn't even go to UB, might have been drinking at a rush event, and later a bar, and drove his car off a bridge into the Niagara River. The Key-Word being might. They ended up charging the fraternity that was supposedly responsible with a mess of charges, including a BS hazing charge. When they found him, toxicology reports proved that he was sober... and they quietly exonerated them, and put them on probation, a full four months after the fact, the whole thing cost them a semester, they were unable to take a Spring Class, and couldn't participate in the Annual IFC Pledge Football Tournament, which to win is a tremendous honor. Since the tournament is tommorrow morning, Sigma Chi Omega will not be participating, which cheapens the tournament even further.

It's UB Politics at it's finest.

Re: Re: Re: Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing
 

Perhaps, but do they really need to ask questions when the answers are all over national television?

Re: Re: Re: Re: Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing
 

Well, if you were being taped answering a question or responding to something that happened and then while the film crew was editing, put that response or answer to something else would you say it's true and would you want someone to question it? From where we sit they haze, and maybe they do I'm not saying they don't, but maybe during editing it's what it's supposed to look like.

So Sigma Chi Omega.... is a local Frat at both UB and USCB... except neither are affiliated with each other..

Hmm.. interesting.

My thoughts on tonight's episode:

* I thought it was just downright HILARIOUS when the Pledge Brothers were imitating a call between Alex & his gf :p

* IMHO, I thought it was extremely rude of the Sigma Chi Omega guys to intentionally interupt the Anniversary after Alex already got permission by picking him up....

* I actually felt really bad for Alex w/ his ordeal. He obviously felt pretty bad for awhile. And in defense of his girlfriend, I wouldn't want my boyfriend hanging out with a bunch guys who seem to have low IQ's (it actually took the guys awhile to figure out - 'hey, stealing a zoo animal probably isn't a good idea'), who curse at least 10 times in every sentence, who very noticably haze their pledges, and who want the guys entire life to consist of their fraternity & nothing else... but that's just my opinion...:D

Tim and Steve, especially, are dumbasses for attempting to paint a stolen chicken gold and stealing a zoo animal.

The Walkie-Talkie imitations that the pledges did of Alex and Lindsey were funny as hell.

Paul is a cutie.

Go Alex!
 

Alex definitely gets beaucoup cool points from me tonight.
I realize that it's probably pretty hard to have a girlfriend and pledge, but if his girlfriend really loved him, she should have realized that too and worked with him instead of insisting that he needed to be with her 24/7. I'm so glad he finally grew a backbone on tonight's episode. :)

These guys are so funny. I wish the fraternity boys at my school were this amusing. The house pet idea was great, who would try to steal a chicken and paint it gold as a house pet, only guys. The girls are not as interesting or creative. I watched sorority life and it was soo boring compared to fraternity life. All they do is bitch and fight with each other, that is true sisterhood right there, while the guys actually joke around and goof off and play pranks. Im so glad they came out with Fraternity life, the boys rock!!!! And man is that Tim a cutie..woohooo!! :eek: ;) :D

orange-red Alex broke up with Lyndsey!!! He is HOTT to me!!!:) :)

Is it just me or is Steve's voice annoying as hell? Everything he opens his mouth, it makes me cringe.

The whole imitation of the phone call was hilarious, especially Earl.

Kudos for Alex for breaking up with Lindsay.

I'm definately still amused by the phone call imitations....
I wonder if Lindsay feels like a complete and total psycho now that she's seeing on natl. television how she treated poor Alex. (He's not completely innocent either...but anyway.) And yeah....he's really hot. :)

I thought Fraternity Life was going to be boring as all-hell but it's QUITE amusing :)

I laughed my butt off when they started talking about the chicken, because the Sigma Chis* at my school used to have to put a chicken on a leash and walk it around campus. (Clarionites, there are pics in the old yearbooks if you want to look.)

I would love to know what their majors are and what Lindsey would do if Alex had to put in hours in med school/law school, or better yet, how she would act if SHE was the one in a demanding program.

Oh, and can Tim look any more like Timmy from the one season of Road Rules??!?



*Sigma Chi Omega is not affiliated in any way with Sigma Chi. Yes I know. Don't yell at me.

Go Alex!!!
 

I'm glad he broke up with ole girl...she was draining. Really happy about that.

Steve, you annoy me. Don't talk anymore after this week.

I'm sorry but these guys don't seem to be playing with a full deck of cards. Why would they do this stupid and illegal stuff if they were fully aware that it was being taped. I am so glad they couldn't get a chicken because if they had painted a live animal gold they would probably be sitting in jail right now.

Finally, Alex found his backbone! Kudos to him. :cool: