UNT Sigma Nu member paralyzed
 

Very sad... Sigma Nu member severely injured & paralyzed at the Delta Sigma Phi house at University of North Texas. The incident happened during Rush Week.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/208755...aternity-house

How terrible. :( Poor guy.

Hard to believe, but the guy's father claims that his fraternity brothers have not even been to visit him in the hospital. Something really seems off...

UNT is a colony. This probably doesn't bode well for them being rechartered.

Yeah, how about the fact that a Sigma Nu is partying at a Delta Sigma Phi rush party. I've known guys who get kicked out of their fraternities for that. Not saying they aren't visiting him because of that, but maybe his relationships with his brothers were bad to begin with.

Why? It wasn't at their house. While what happened to him is horrible, it didn't have anything to do with the colony.

Don't know enough to say whether it will, just that it could. All I know is what I've read in the papers.

It's a shame. I remember that chapter was at one time a really good chapter and from all accounts is headed that direction again. A couple of guys who were active around the same time I was did okay in the music business, you may have heard of them--the Eli Young Band.

Sad news to hear. I feel bad for this young man and his family.
I remember Sigma Nu's being a strong chapter back in my days.

UNT has issued a blanket ban on alcohol at any Greek event or gathering, including events held off campus or members over 21.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/02...at-events.html

^ That always works.

Bullshit.

In what sense?

Trying hard not to turn this into an "us vs them" situation, but...

I used to help advise our chapter at UNT. A lot of the "cultural" Greeks will use socials as fundraisers for the chapters, and there are already a ton of hoops that we have to jump through to get these off the ground (I can't speak for other groups, but ours are planned well in advance, with insurance/deposits/approvals/marketing completed before the semester begins). So, not only does that chapter lose money by not being able to host the socials they want, they also lose the opportunity to recoup the money they've already spent. The type of function that this individual was at is not the same as the events that we host, so issuing the blanket ban seems like a knee-jerk reaction.

Also, knowing UNT's culture, this is just going to create a ton of underground parties or folks going to Dallas or Fort Worth, then driving back to Denton drunk.

This was my experience at UCO. Back circa 2000, we had an ATO pledge get his hip shattered after being run over while being passed out drunk in the middle of a dirt road. The University banned all alcohol at all functions. Did fraternities and sororities stop having alcohol at functions? Hell no. The rule was completely ignored and any semblance of control over Greek Life and alcohol was lost.

The school has sensibly back peddled from that and now we observe what are probably some similar rules to what you have at UNT. I think the current rules work fine and agree UNT's decision here was very knee jerk. Hopefully they reverse course and just start enforcing the rules they already had a little better.

This! Just this would improve so many things.

There's more to the alcohol ban than the young man's fall. That incident probably spawned discussion of the ban, but that incident wasn't the last straw. UNT has been concerned with underage drinking in particular for some time, but the accident at the Delta Sig house and some subsequent issues apparently constituted "the" last straw- partly due to drinking, and partly due to underage drinking at parties that weren't supposed to include alcohol in the first place.

And of course, the alcohol ban for Greek organizations worked just as well as WE knew it would. Unbelieveable that it was the SAME house (Delta Sigma Phi) that was caught violating it :eek:

http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/l...-sigma-phi.ece

Now the Delta Sigma Phi chapter has been suspended.

Surprise of the century.

I went back and reread the original article about the ban. It says that it doesn't apply to members who drink at their homes. I wonder how they plan to handle members who live in?

ETA: Also, I'm hoping that the powers that be realize that 2 incidents occurring at the same house in a relatively short period of time does not equal a problem with the entire Greek system.

If the original article is correct in its claim that alcohol is banned at fraternity and sorority functions, events, formals, parties, etc., then it doesn't seem as though the recent behavior violated that. I guess it depends on the wording of the original ban.

I'm trying to work some of this stuff out in my head. If these kids had not consumed this alcohol (yet... we know they were probably going to, but for the sake of hypothetical situations), a 21 year old had bought it, and they were just carrying it from the car to the house for the 21 year old, is that really a minor in possession? Like, if I buy beer while grocery shopping and my son carries it in the house for me, is that MIP? What about 18 year old bartenders and waitresses who pour and deliver alcohol all the time? Is simply holding a bottle truly being a minor in possession?

FYI, here in Texas, 18 year old servers are not permitted to pour or even just serve alcohol. No 18 year old bartenders either! They must be 21 to handle liquor in any way.

Wow. In Michigan and New York, you can do both at 18.

Some states go with the arbitrary age of 19, which is weird.

Some states used to have 19 as the drinking age. Maybe they didn't update their alcoholic beverage server laws when they changed the drinking laws?

Oh, that could be. In good ol' Champaign, the bar age is 19, though you have to be 21 to drink.

I made a mistake... looks like minors can serve alcohol in the course of their employment with a licensed establishment here in Texas. Don't know when that changed!

I'm terribly late with this news, but the alcohol ban was lifted: http://ntdaily.com/university-lifts-...e-alcohol-ban/

The alcohol issue did have something to do with Delta Sig's suspension, but again, there were a few additional issues. The alcohol- and in particular underage drinking- was just the last straw.

Don't kids get drunk and fall off balconies all the time - not necessarily in fraternity houses? Are they going to ban multistorey student housing next?