Tau Epsilon Phi Members Sue Nationals/Possible Dissolution of Fraternity
 

Members of Tau Epsilon Phi have sued their national officers. In "Broughty vs. Hassenberg", members of TEP allege the following issues:

- elections for national officers have not occured since 1999, despite a 2 year office term requirement

- current national officers have used TEP funds for own benefit and have refused requests for financial disclosures

There are several other issues. The judge hearing the case is scheduled to make a ruling on Oct. 21, 2010. One of the options that has been brought up by the platiffs is the dissolution of Tau Epsilon Phi, since they feel that there is no financial stability and that many chapters/members cannot agree on the future of the fraternity.

I am trying to link some articles and the lawsuit.

This has been building for a few years. I remember a couple of years ago there was concern about where the money was going.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...5060816&ref=ts

FB page with a little information.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?ui...29&topic=15908

More information.

Wow, that is hard core.

I wish the brothers the best.

Question is, what is the best? The national organization might be at a lost so far, especially since they were fairly small as of a couple of years ago.

Hmmm....they have really important alumni. Jonas Salk! Wow. What a shame. Interesting aside for me, one of their founders shares a last name with me.

I hope they get what they want, whatever is best for them.

In the 1970's, Jewish men became more welcome in the non-Jewish fraternities. A side effect of this was that the Jewish fraternities lost a lot of men who traditionally would have joined a Jewish house, but now had more options. This caused a lot of pressure on the Jewish Nationals and a lot of chapters folded.

The sororities were changing as well. One year we had a Kappa Kappa Gamma Sweetheart, who was Jewish.

It's a tough thing. Most of us welcome diversity, but what about the houses that catered to those who were previously excluded? In a recent thread, someone commented upon Sigma Delta Tau thriving in Informal Rush with a different vib and suggesting that Theta Phi Alpha might benefit from that plan.

Phi Epsilon Pi was a healthy Jewish National which was absorbed by Zeta Beta Tau. Maybe absorbsion is an option for TEP too.

I had friends in TEP and hope to see one this Homecoming.

"TEPS on Top"

I would be sad to see Tep go. I hope they can get things resolved.

That's the fraternity of one of the mayoral candidates here in DC. That's sad.

Lafayette79:Phi Epsilon Pi was a healthy Jewish National which was absorbed by Zeta Beta Tau.

Phi Epsilon Pi was more of a non-sectarian Fraternity in nature when it was founded in 1904 and Phi Sigma Delta started as a Jewish Fraternity in 1909, but went non-sectarian in 1947. Both were healthy Nationals to a point, however, they too had financial problems within their Fraternities in the late 1960's. This was why both Fratenities agreed to be absorbed by ZBT National in order to salvage both brotherhoods (morally and financially) and still remain involve with the NIC & Greek Community. That is why today, ZBT is more of a balanced brotherhood of Jewish and non-Jewish brothers.

This sad to hear this news regarding TEP. I know a few TEP brothers from UPenn. I hope they can find some resolution to their issues.

ZBT:"Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present & Impacting the Future."

It's very sad to see things come to this for a fraternity. Apparently, they haven't had a Grand Chapter in over a decade. According to the complaint, three of the plaintiffs are members of the Grand Council/Board of Dirctors; they have sued other Council members/directors, saying that they have acted to prevent a Grand Chapter being held and have misused fraternity funds. There are at least 45 brothers who are plaintiffs.

Anyone can read the complaint here. The full docket can be accessed by clicking here and, if necessary, entering the characters as indicated.

Does anyone have any idea how many actives they have? The complaint says there are 24 chapters.

My grandfather was a TEP at Penn way back in the day and maintained lifelong friendships with many of his brothers. Very sad to hear this news.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...n_Phi_chapters

Here's the Wikipedia link to their chapters. I know Wikipedia isn't always the best source of info, but... The chapter at University of Florida had been pretty big 100+, and recently returned with a large amount of members.

The following is my opinion only: What would be better? Dissolution, absorbed by another organization, or each chapter choosing to go local or being separately absorbed by other organizations?

I think if the chapters are strong enough on their campus and with a good alum base, and the school permits it, they'll probably stay local.

Because heck, it sounds like they've basically been functioning without national support for a while now. I'd guess they wouldn't be all "OMG, if we have no national we will die in 3 seconds."

I totally understand the 2nd paragraph. These guys have been getting the royal screw by their national officers IMO. However, due to RMF, we now have campuses that say no local groups period.

I've tried to wonder which group would be a good fit, if they are absorbed by another organization. Most of the "originally Jewish, but sectarian" groups also have chapters where TEP has chapters. Would they want to absorb chapters in that case?

The last big merger was Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Epsilon in the early '80s. I'm not sure if there were any chapters of both on campuses where the brothers had to come together. Of course, this is all academic and probably of no interest to anyone else, but I think its going to get interesting in the next month.

LaneSig:The last big merger was Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Sigma Epsilon in the early '80s. I'm not sure if there were any chapters of both on campuses where the brothers had to come together. Of course, this is all academic and probably of no interest to anyone else, but I think its going to get interesting in the next month

I remember reading somewhere that some of the former Phi Sigma Epsilon chapters that refused to merge with Phi Sigma Kappa, formed a new National Fraternity called Phi Sigma Phi in 1988. Can anyone verify if this is true?

ZBT:"Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present & Impacting the Future."

Wow, I know 2 TEPs very well...one happens to be my boss and is a UF TEP....I will ask his opinion on this....he will not be happy about this...

Yeah, I saw that. It lists 25 chapters, while the complaint says 24 chapters.

Meanwhile, The Wiki has this somewhat odd and enigmatic statement:

Quote:

In the 90's TEP and the Fraternity system in general went into decline. Some chapters were financially unable to survive however they survive online today thanks to the internet. [source needed]

I think it's interesting both because of the suggestion of chapters surviving on the internet and because, while I would have said the 60s and 70s were tough on the Greek system, I wouldn't say that about the 90s.

The Wiki list says Florida is the largest chapter. Just glancing at a few chapter websites, MIT's chapter claims 22 members, Georgia's 70+, UNC's 39, Maryland's 29, Pitt's 37, Cornell's 76 . . . .

Yes, that's right. Phi Kappa Phi's website.

The seven chapters were those at Eastern Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-Stout, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Northland College (Wisconsin), West Virginia Wesleyan College, Concord College, (West Virginia) and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

MysticCat: Yes, that's right. Phi Kappa Phi's website.
The seven chapters were those at Eastern Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-Stout, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Northland College (Wisconsin), West Virginia Wesleyan College, Concord College, (West Virginia) and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

MysticCat, THANK YOU for the update!!!!!!:D

ZBT:"Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Present & Impacting the Future."

I did some research and an absorption into another larger fraternity looks highly unlikely simply because there are so many duplications. If they choose to go with one of the formerly predominately Jewish groups, the only one without several duplications is tiny Tau Delta Phi (which is ironic because when that group nearly became extinct in the 70s, some of them merged with TEP chapters). Some of the smaller nationals have few duplications but it is doubtful they would be interested in some of the TEP locations and likely the TEP chapters at some of the larger schools would not be interested in a small national. The medium sized fraternities with the fewest duplications are Beta, DU, PKSigma, PKTau. PSKappa & Theta Xi. If nothing can be resolved and the organization cannot continue as a national I suspect most of the healthy chapters (and they are at some very sought-after locations) will shop for another strong national connection, and the smaller chapters at lesser known schools will either fold or join up with one of the smaller nationals. This is all very sad to see. They had a longtime executive director who was very popular amongst fraternity leaders, who loved and devoted his life to TEP.

Are there ant TEPs on this discussion?

No.

The chapters at schools like Penn and Cornell undoubtedly have enough $$ and alum support that they'll appeal to the school to let them continue as a local group - and considering this is something beyond their control the school most likely will.

The chapters at "lesser known schools" :rolleyes: will probably do the same thing Phi Sigma Phi did - band together. If they merged with any of the groups you mentioned, there would be tons of overlap. Then again, that didn't bother you when you proposed the ASA/AST merger. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Or maybe those chapters will group together as a continuation of TEP? I guess it may depend on how strong a bond those chapters (and their alums) feel to the organization beyond their own chapters.

I'm thinking of Beta Sigma Beta at Penn State.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Sigma_Beta

Of course, what would be best would be if all the chapters would unite, throw out the guys responsible for the cluster@#$% and take over administration of the fraternity nationally so it could continue as a national. I don't know quite how you would go about that however.

A little further information on TEP's Florida chapter. In this article, it mentions that TEP national officers removed Florida's chapter. The Florida chapter is now a local called Tau Alpha. Unfortunately, they are now facing other issues.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/2...9831?p=1&tc=pg

There is a very good article about this in today's (11/22) NT Times. The members suing have won the first round. The judge has ordered a new election. Likely, however, it is too late. It sounds as though TEP is probably insolvent. One revelation is that the exec. director in 2008 earned $175,000, 40% of the fraternity's income. Given this story, and the problems at a couple NPHC sororities, it is very sad how much damage one person can cause an organization. This must make many TEPs very sad.

But it's usually not just one person. Usually there are a table full of enablers who won't stand in the way of a rogue president or even executive director because they don't want to be seen as dissenters, or worse yet, because they are waiting for their piece of the pie.

From my experience with non-profits and particularly fraternities, only the folks we refer to in this part of the country as the 'good 'ol boys' have much chance at advancement, even if there are completely legitimate mechanisms in place for the elections, there are often devices, such as nominating committees or slates which prevent dark horse candidates from having much say.

Tau Delta Phi (previously Phi Delta Theta then Phi Society) here at PSU absorbed our TEP chapter recently

When did they join Tau Delta Phi???? Were the alums down with that, against it or was it a "find a national or get gone" thing?

And on this topic ditto to everything Kevin said.

Spring 09 they became a colony

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive..._with_tau.aspx

According to the Tau Delta Phi Facebook page, they were initiated in August 09

Not sure of the alums feelings. BFs sisters husband is a PSU Phi Delta Theta Alum & he seems to always be out of the loop of things. I'll do some digging because I'm pretty sure there were Collegian articles that discussed this.

The NY Times article oldu mentioned a couple of posts ago is at

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/ny...er=rss&emc=rss

Probably a little OT
 

Former conservative republican senator Rick Santorum was a TEP when I was at Penn State. Didn't know the guy at the time - never set foot in the TEP house.

Update Jan. 28, 2011: Bankruptcy Filing and Reactions to the Legal Implications

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...er=rss&emc=rss

What did that one comment mean "George from Sig Ep"? Are they saying this guy isn't even a TEPhi brother???

There is a Sig Ep chapter of TEP.

ahhh, that makes more sense.

Completely random trivia: There was once a Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter of Alpha Sigma Alpha. Why they chose that designation I don't know. :)