The Machine at Alabama
 

Hi there - I have a question for everyone about something I have been hearing about for a long time. I have an idea of what the Machine is at Alabama - it is a tight knit cluster of fraternities and sororities that vote together for things like student body offices, homecoming, etc - they kind of do things in waves.

Now my question is - who all is involved with the machine - what fraternities and what sororities?

Also - are these all the old row groups - and if not what are the old row groups? Please enlighten. Thanks!

alabama has a very sharp line between greek and non greek, if there is any such split in campus election i imagine it would just be greek vs. independent.

That is true, the line between greek & independent is the major split. However, there is also a split between machine-affiliated houses and non-machine-affiliated houses. I'm not really at liberty to say which houses are or are not machine-affiliated as it is an underground organization.

Guess this just furthers the Idea of Elitism of Greeks!

Granted it is an Old Southern School Steeped in E- litism, but maybe it is carried a bit to far?:confused:

Hell maybe they are right as it seems the that the % is higher Greek in the South than any other part of the Country!:)

Just a Question and only a question:confused:

The Machine was an alias to the underground society Theta Nu Epsilon. TNE has been active on and off in many universities, rumor has it they are still around but nobody has ever seen this. The reason why you could have heard it's a collection of fraternities is because members of the society are also members of social fraternities, i.e. dual membership. Some nationals has restrictions in their by-laws and constitution from allowing members to join another fraternity, some even go far as to state membership in TNE is forbidden.

Or maybe i'm off, there could be another type of organization in alabama claiming to be The Machine, but this is what it is from what I know.


RUgreek

What then are the "old row" fraternities and sororities?

"Old Row" and "New Row" distinctions have nothing to do with the machine.

well....
 

...what does? I am immensely intrigued by this machine thing -- never heard of it before...why is it so secretive? If no one will state the groups that make up the machine, is there anyone out there with a fairly educated guess????:confused:

THANK YOU JERZEEBOY26!
 

But the article still does not reveal the GLOs that comprise this so-called Machine -- c'mon someone...tell us!!!!!

It is not the whole GLO, rather members of several GLOs'.

I sincerely doubt that anyone will come to this board and post a list of organizations who are involved with the Machine.

Sorry.


:rolleyes:

TNE is part of the University of Nebraska greek culture. However not in the same sense as it is at Alabama. They basically seem to be more geared towards the party attitude of greek life than anything else.

They also print off a newsletter each semester that makes fun of all the houses. It's fun to read but it basically plays on stereotypes of the houses, although it is interesting to see who they single out in each house...but other than that it's mindless gossip and tabloid like sensationalism.

It was a major coup for us b/c we caught two of them trying to break into our house last semester. They tried to put their newsletter into our chapter room, however our chapter room has locks and a door code so it makes it impossible to get in unless you belong there.

TNE competes with Secret Scrollers Society (SSS) which is a similar group. There is also a group called Rho Delta that is all female but they haven't made their appearence this year.

However none of the groups are very important.

Re: well....
 

Membership in TNE is available to anyone in any GLO. There really is no secret to becoming a member.

More info in the TNE Thread.

I think that all of the GLOs had members who were part of it.

BAMA_ALUMNA is correct...
 

No one will come on this board and post the names of the houses that comprise the Machine. However, if you were to visit the campus and spend a week, and determine for yourself who's who in the greek system, it would become very clear who the principals are. At Alabama, the Machine goes back to the 1920s. The University of Virginia has similar secret organizations that steer the politics of the campus. One, I believe, is IMP. At Florida is it Blue Key - not secret but approximately the same. At FSU it is Burning Spear.

I used to live in Tuscaloosa and my brother was a Sigma Nu pledge, never initiated due to grade problems. I have a pretty good idea whose in, start with Mother Mu the founding chapter of SAE( there house was a frigging palace) and the DKE's (very old, very strong ,very secret), add all the other old line southern chapters IE KA, PIKE, Sigma Nu( BEAR BRYANT'S CHAPTER), ATO FIJI would also probably make the list, all of these chapters are on old row, least they were in 1983 when I last visited. I doubt Sig Ep, Beta Delta Chi or TKE were in machine as they were smaller when I moved. I don't know abot some of the others like Chi PHi or Lamdda Chi, Theta Chi was pretty good.
I have no clue with regards to Sororities. My brothers girlfriend was an AXO they were good also DG had died 3-4 years earlier.
Remeber all of this is kind of a guess based on what my brother told me.

Couldn't you get a good idea by looking at the supposed Machine candidates and the houses they are a part of? I would think that would, particularly looking at the early years would show you who the major players were/are/continue to be.

My sister is currently at Alabama and I grew up here...the machine is not like TNE. It's not a separate society that anyone can be a member of.

And for the record, I was a member of the Greek System at FSU and I would say that we do not have ANYTHING comparable to the machine at UA, as someone mentioned. Burning Spear does not have pull over anything as far as the entire Greek System goes. The Greeks tend to vote together but there is no controlling/reigning party. In fact, things fluctuate so much there, the parties actually change names and alliances every couple of years :rolleyes:

Man,

I can't imagine going to a school where the Greeks basically run the campus.

Is there someone i can talk to about bringing the Machine or TNE or whatever does it to A&M? LOL

We have a similar issue with the Corps of Cadets on our campus and specifically Yell Leader elections. For the non-Aggies out there, A&M doesn't have cheerleaders, we have 5 male Yell Leaders. This tradition started in the old days when A&M was an all male military school and some of the seniors told 5 "fish" or freshman to put on janitors uniforms and entertain their dates on the sidelines.

Anyhow, nowadays Yell Leaders are consider ambassadors of the University and are present at all football games and most other sporting events at home. They are elected by the student body. For years, the Corps would get together and select it's candidates for each year's elections. Then, every member of the Corps would vote for the 5 Corps Candidates, an action that's called the "Corps Bloc". Non-Corps members have been elected, but they are ususally in close races or run-offs.

Every year the non-Corps candidates moan about Corps Bloc, but nothing really can be done.

Now only if we could get a Greek Bloc going.....

Kitso
KS 361

It's really sad that at some schools it is basically the Greeks vs. Everyone Else :(

at my school greeks are pretty apathetic. campus politics here is a joke. with 22 fraternities, 12 sororities (40% of all students wearing greek letters of some sort), we have pull when necessary. for example, ifc sticks together pretty tight and the school has trouble removing chapters because of the tight bloc and the tremendous alumni influence that the older chapters have. there are 3 or 4 secret societies but nobody really knows anything about them. rumor is they are pretty influential with the administration

Greeks here tend to run the SGA and senate. It's not so much "the machine" but more because chapter will vote for a sister or brother who is running. Also, since the greeks on our campus all know each other, we vote for one another in elections.
I was walking to class yesterday when I overheard a girl (obviously an independent) start whining to her friend, "The SGA is all greeks because the people in fraternities and sororities have all the people on Greek Park vote for them although they probably won't do any good in their position." :rolleyes: I happen to think that UCF's SGA has done a spectacular job for all the years I've been here.

The April 1992 edition of Esquire contained a rather extensive story on The Machine. Unfortunately, I can't find it online, but you might be able to find a copy in a library somewhere.

I want to start a secret society. Well, not secret. Well, we'd have secrets. More about this later, in a more appropriate enviornment.

If you can find it, I think the Esquire article about the Machine/Theta Nu Epsilon was published in April, 1992.

In the good old days
 

You could start looking for the Machine around the DKE house.

Now, HOOSIER, Will you cut that out!
( In my best Jack Benny Voice)!

JHawkAlum, where are you? KC Area? If so, get a hold of me! PM works!

Heck on most campuses, Greeks do so much and get so little recognition for it! Greeks do not Run Campuses, they in many parts are just part of it and held in reign!

Of course one wonders why, DA!:(

Sounds Like Left Wing Hooey!
 

I don't believe any of it. One article was written in England, and the other two sound like anectodal 'testimonies' from agenda-driven Greek-hating leftists. The Machine is powerful, but they don't get involved in racial aspects of any kind, especially regarding Alabama sororities. Sorry. I'm not buying any of it. Seen too many times where the 'anti' crowd deliberately creates an incident and tries to blame it on their adversaries.

Decadence: Thanks For A Thoughtful Response
 

I don't have any first-hand experience with the Machine, and my last visit to Tuscaloosa was decades ago. The real Machine was nothing at like what was described. I don't know if it still even exists.
No one should be terrorized for running for office, or for any reason. I'm truely sorry that young woman had such an experience.
Unfortunately, I am familiar with lexus/nexus and how agenda-driven radicals use it to promote their own causes. Journalists use lx/nx as a source, and if something ends up in the universe, then it likely will appear in a future story. For instance, just for example let's say that the story about a Machine operative threatening this young woman was not true. Let's say that the threat was made in order to dramatize her candidacy and make her appear to be a victim, or, that it was just some thug who acted on his own and assaulted a woman for his own perverted reasons.
Now, let's say that the Machine turns up again on campus and runs a legitimate candidate and does so honestly. The ln/nx story is still in the computer, and some journalist will dig it out and use it to trash the Machine candidate, whether the original story was true or not.
I'll give you two real examples. The man who started the homeless movement (Mitch someone, don't recall, he's deceased) admitted that he deliberately put forth the false number of 3 million homeless in the US because he felt that number would bring attention to his cause. The real number was and is closer to 10% of that: only 300,000 out of 300 million people in the US. Yet, just the other day I saw the 3 million number in a brand new story. Some lazy journalist churned up lx/nx and didn't see the later stories about the discovery of false numbers.
Second example is the story that NOW released (or if they didn't release it they propmoted it) about how there is a tremendous flood of emergency room patients on Super Bowl Sunday. They wanted to call attention to domestic abuse so they just made up a story about women being abused the day of the Super Bowl and released it to their friends in the media. It was proven to be a complete fabrication, and was reported as such later, but today if you search lx/nx you'll find the original story and some journaist will repeat it based on the original falsehood without checking further.
This may seem like a lot of talk for a little item, but people who hate Greeks use this kind of thing against us all the time. A charge will be made, later refuted, but the charge stays in the system.

You are invited to join the esteem secret brotherhood of the Stonecutter. All hail Homer Jay Simpson

The stuff about Minda Riley is greatly exaggerated. Emphasis on the word GREATLY. Some of it is completely fabricated.

Also, FYI... Minda's father, Bob Riley, was in a Machine-affiliated fraternity at the U of A, and he is now the governor of Alabama.

I think that journalists should not be lazy. Now back to watching TV.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm dying to know what fraternities and sororities are affliated with the Machine.

XOXO,
Annie.

I've heard the Minda Riley story, told almost the exactly same way, too many times in the past 9 years to think that it's false. Sure, there might be some overexaggerations, but there's too much stuff that's lining up. Completely fabricated stories tend to fall apart after a few tellings. Just because her father may or may not have been part of the Machine doesn't mean she was, or wanted anything to do with it. His involvement wasn't the issue.

Since when is "The Guardian" "left-wing hooey"? :confused: Some of the articles I've read in it sympathize with conservatives, others with liberals. This was simply a commentary on the peculiarities of something that is foreign to the overwhelming majority of the world--the Southern Greek System. I wasn't offended by it at all.

The problem doesn't lie solely with Lexis-Nexis, it's search engines of the sort all over the world. Lexis-Nexis is most often used in academic settings, and it's not a tool of radicalism. Like any source of information, it can be manipulated by people on both sides of the coin.

I have worked with the UA chapter of Gamma Phi for several years and I currently live in Alabama. I have also been told that the Minda Riley story, as it stands above, is untrue. I have heard this from people both inside and outside of Alabama's greek system.

Just my 2 cents...

I'm bumping this thread cause it's interesting....I had no idea that anything like this even existed!

Thanks, find this very interesting, from a historical stand point?

Are these The KKK of Greek Elitests?:(

KKK key on ebay right now??????:eek:

This sounds like a little woohy but one does not know! For sure that is.:(

HMMMMMMM interesting thought but depends on how far they want to take it?:confused:

Never heard of it in the mid-west, Ks that is or Mo, Ks, Ok, and not sure about Ne.

I guess I would have been to radical to join them!:)

Like why dont you Kiss My Butt!:D

Well, I know it doesn't exist at the University of Oklahoma. Our student body president is not Greek, and she is African American.

Arriving Late To This Post
 

I'm not sure what the issue is, but there seem to be questions about whether elements or extensions of The Machine exist elsewhere. No, it exists only at the University of Alabama. Organizations of that type, though not as secretive or quite as powerful, do exist: ie Blue Key at Florida, or Burning Spear at Florida State.