The Diary of Samantha Spady's death at U Colorado
 

Partying turns deadly as college student drinks herself to death
________
By Angie Wagner
ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:37 a.m. November 27, 2004

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – By the time the rainy night stretched into early morning, Samantha Spady had been drinking and partying for hours. Earlier it was beer and shots of tequila. Now, inside a fraternity house, she was swilling vanilla vodka straight from the bottle.

The binge had gone on for 11 hours. When it was over, the Colorado State student's blood-alcohol level was more than five times the legal driving limit in Colorado. She was stumbling, unable to even stand on her own.

Two students wrapped the 19-year-old's limp arms around their necks and walked her to a forgotten fraternity room full of extra furniture, old beer bottles and the glow of a black light.

They laid her on a couch, and a few minutes later, Sam blinked her eyes and nodded as the last person left the room.

She just needs to sleep it off, her friends thought.

__

Sam grew up in Beatrice, Neb., a small town in the southeast corner of the state about 35 miles from Lincoln. There, her father owned a car dealership and everyone knew her.

It was hard not to. Senior class president. Head cheerleader. Honor student. Homecoming queen.

Almost perfect.

On weekends, she and her friends would head to the country to hang out and sometimes drink beer. But Sam never drank to get drunk, said her best friend from high school, Kelleigh Doyle.

More than anything, she wanted to escape her rural life. Fort Collins, with its 127,000 people, was just big enough. She loved this college town, its quaint downtown shops and tree-lined neighborhoods. In the fall, streets fill with amber and chestnut leaves that crackle when students stroll to class in the Colorado chill.

The sophomore business major hadn't really known anyone here, but quickly made new friends. Her mother had always admired that about her, the way people were drawn to her.

Sam had pledged Chi Omega sorority as a freshman, but it took up a lot of time. There were functions to attend and it was hard to balance with schoolwork. She longed for home-cooked meals and her bed at home and by her second semester, had dropped out of Chi Omega.

In her health class journal, she talked about her struggles with the sorority and how she missed her family.

Mirna Guerra hadn't known Sam that long when the two decided to get together Sept. 4, the Saturday before Labor Day and the evening of the big Colorado State-Colorado football game.

Sam picked up Mirna, a freshman, just before 6 p.m. and they went to a house to watch the game. Sam drank a beer, downed two shots of tequila, ate a hot dog and munched on chips and dip. They left two hours later.

They watched the rest of the game at another house, where Sam drank a few beers from a supersize cup. They left around 10:30 p.m.

Friends told police Sam had been out partying the past three nights. It wasn't unusual for her to drink three or four times a week. Sometimes, Sam vomited and later passed out.

"It's what everyone does," said Sam's roommate, Sara Gibson. "Some people party every night."

It's college. Away from parents, often for the first time for any extended period, college students can come and go as they please and are free to experiment with alcohol. Drinking becomes part of the culture.

Parties come on the fly, and there's never a shortage of kegs to tap. In pubs and bars near campus, drinks are cheap, and women often get them free. All-you-can-drink nights for $5 a pop are common. All of it is an invitation for binge drinking, said Henry Wechsler, director of the College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health. And there is no one to tell them "no."

"They're without parental supervision. They're at a period of life when they explore and experiment," he said.

Nationally, 44 percent of college students report binge drinking – five drinks in a row for men, four for women – at least once in the previous two weeks. Half of those students do it more than once a week.

While the percentage of binge drinkers has stayed about the same over the past 11 years, the amount they drink at one sitting has increased, Wechsler said. Members of fraternities and sororities tend to drink more than other students.

Nationally, there are more than 1,400 alcohol-related deaths each year among college students, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Most are the result of automobile accidents.

__

It was raining hard and Sam was having a hard time seeing through her windshield because of the storm. She hit the median and ended up flattening two tires. Mirna didn't think Sam was drunk.

Upset and unsure of what to do, Sam called her parents. No answer.

It didn't spoil the evening. Sam and Mirna still wanted to find a good party. They soon found one.

For about two hours, they drank and danced to Michael Jackson. Sam downed four or five cups of beer. She may have played drinking games.

"By then, we had started drinking pretty fast," Mirna said.

Still, Sam seemed fine. She and Mirna were having a good time, talking about music they liked and possibly rooming together next year.

Around 2:30 a.m., Sam and Mirna were at the Sigma Pi house, a place she felt comfortable. Sam had lots of friends in the fraternity and had dated a few members. Some considered her a little sister.

"She always made people smile," Sigma Pi President Darren Pettapiece said.

About 25 people were at the fraternity house, hanging out in the hallway or drinking and talking in rooms.

"You could kind of tell she was drunk, but you couldn't tell how drunk," said Matthew Kilby, a student at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely who was at the Sigma Pi house that night.

Gibson, 19, and another one of Sam's roommates were also there, but they left about an hour later. They knew Sam was drunk, but they had seen her worse.

"I was like, come back with me," she said. "She looked me in the face, saying I want to stay."

Another beer later, and Sam and Mirna were hanging out in one of the bedrooms, listening to the rock band Dispatch with other students. By then just a few people were still awake at the Sigma Pi house. Around 4 a.m., Sam and Mirna were doing swigs of Sam's favorite drink – vanilla vodka. They put the bottles to their lips and tilted their heads back, as the room echoed: "Go, go, go!"

__

Minutes later, Sam was sitting on the front stoop, resting her head on her elbows.

She was unable to stand and fell back. Her head hung down and she didn't respond when friends spoke to her.

"When did you get so drunk?" Mirna asked.

Unresponsive. Incoherent. She should have been taken to a hospital then, said Dr. Charles Lieber, an expert in alcohol metabolism at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. But she wasn't.

Around 5 a.m. Sigma Pi member Baylor Ferrier and a friend helped Sam upstairs and put her on a couch in an unused social room they called "Le Boom Boom." Ferrier had dated Sam the previous semester and says he had seen her worse; he thought she just wanted to sleep.

"It didn't seem like a big deal at all," he said.

Mirna stayed with Sam for a half hour, urging her to walk back to her dorm room with her. She tried to help Sam stand, but Sam swayed and then fell over, so Mirna put her on another couch.

"She was going in and out of it. I would wake her up and clap," Mirna said.

Sam opened her eyes, but couldn't speak well. She nodded her head. She just wants to sleep, Mirna thought. She'll be fine.

But the homecoming queen with the megawatt smile was dying.

She was likely in a coma, Lieber said. Her brain cells asleep, her respiration slowed. If she had gotten medical help, he said, even that late she might have lived. But there was no help in the Sigma Pi storeroom.

Soon after Mirna left, Samantha Spady took her last breath.

As Sunday dawned and the glint of orange crept through the mountains, Sam's cell phone started ringing.

"Sam Bam, you were so drunk last night," Mirna's message began.

Her mother, Patty Spady, called, then waited. She called again. Still no Sam. She tried not to worry, but it was so unlike Sam not to call back.

Sam's roommates tried too, calling Sigma Pi members, asking if anyone had seen her.

At Sam's house near campus, Gibson had a bad feeling.

__

Almost 13 hours after Sam had been left to sleep off the drunken night, a fraternity member was giving his mother a tour of the house. Beer bottles and cans littered the house. Panties and bras hung from the entryway chandelier; a stripper pole was in one room.

When he opened the door to the social room that had been stuffed with extra couches, he saw Sam's alcohol-poisoned body, clad in jeans and a yellow T-shirt. Her long blonde hair was pulled back. Her knees were on the floor, her face resting on a foam cushion. Her arms were outstretched to each side, almost like she was crawling.

It looked like she was sleeping.

"Hello?" he asked. "Hello?"

He touched her leg. It was cold and stiff.

She had a blood alcohol level of 0.436 percent. The coroner said it probably was higher when she was left there; her body would have continued to metabolize alcohol while she was unconscious.

Since Sam's death, the parties continue, the booze still flows.

But the Sigma Pi house has been shut down. Fraternities have banned alcohol, and alcohol sales are banned inside the football stadium. Nineteen people were cited for alcohol-related offenses as part of the investigation into Sam's death.

"It's not so much that we have a problem," Sigma Pi member Matthew Dunn said. "It's more that we have a few people who make the wrong decision. Sometimes young people don't know how to handle alcohol."

On Colorado campuses alone this fall, there have been four other alcohol-related deaths. Three students at colleges in Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico died after drinking with their fraternity brothers recently.

"It's not just the students on that campus. It's not just the faculty. It's not just the bar owners. Everybody in the community has a responsibility for some changes to take place," Patty Spady said.

Mirna Guerra and other friends Sam was with that night still party. But they also remember Sam, and they wonder how she could have drank so much – enough to die – and they didn't know it.

"I was thinking, why didn't I stay with her?" Mirna said. "Why didn't I know something was wrong?"

__

On the Net:

College Alcohol Study: www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/

Memorial foundation: www.samspadyfoundation.org

Colorado State: welcome.colostate.edu/

__

EDITOR'S NOTE – Angie Wagner is the AP's Western regional writer, based in Las Vegas. This story is based on the Fort Collins police report, the Larimer County coroner's report, and interviews with Patty Spady, Mirna Guerra, Sara Gibson, Baylor Ferrier, Matthew Kilby and Sigma Pi fraternity members.

wow..that really makes you think twice about how much you drink in one night. I know my sisters always go across the street to the Phi Sigma Kappa house and party and we drink a lot. Now I know what to look out for and all that with my sisters. But damn...this hits you hard

Re: The Diary of Samantha Spady's death at U Colorado
 

I don't see how the faculty figures into this at all. If she means administration and student life, well, I can see that. But, faculty involvement with a student--especially at a large school like CSU--usually ends when class is over.

it's another example of how and why you need to look out for each other and the sadness that can happen when you don't.

Re: Re: The Diary of Samantha Spady's death at U Colorado
 

There was another very long article in the Denver Post this morning in which one of her professors noted that she was missing more classes, coming in hung over and showing other symptoms of substance abuse.

I'm not clear whether he/she reported it.

If she/he had, it might be possible that Sam might have received some help.

Or, maybe not.

Here's a link to the Post Article -- which is very long...

It's called Wasted Lessons. And it sounds like they may be...

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,...561135,00.html

I don't get it, whats the lesson here? ITs tragic when anyone dies.

Samantha was a veteran drinker that drank herself to death in a day long binge.

She's not Greek.

I think the only lesson might be to make sure you send drunk girls home to their dorms to die, so that yu don't incur the liability of trying to take care of them.

I think the lesson is -- whether anyone listens to it or not -- that heaving drinking can kill you in more ways than a traffic accident.

I think it also is that you can't take situations for granted.

Or, on a less callous note, that calling 911 (or a campus equivalent) when a friend shows signs of severe intoxication like she apparently did.

Both my undergrad and my current school have similar systems in place. The campus health service evaluates students---THEY make the call whether or not the student needs to "sleep it off," not some frat boy. About 20% of the cases require hospitalization.

Neither school has had a death related to alcohol poisoning.

Coincidence?

both right
 

James and The Delt are both right. But drinking in the house,
period, is dumb...
Even though the words come from an old codger, I can assure
you-all I had plenty to drink but NEVER, EVER in the house. I
sit in on the Board of Advisors for my Fraternity and I yet wonder
if today's youth get the picture. What does it take?
Risk management is costly, housemothers and advisors are a necessity, and if you cannot grasp it all, then be gone. Or we
will. But if we (the old timers, advisors) leave, I feel the Greeks
will eventually go down the tubes. We do not want that, do we?
Yep, James and The Delt are right.
Drinking scholars, fine...but not in the house. NEVER.
And some of the "dry" sororities are of no help to us, either, as
they will often use our place to get blotto. We need to work together. The rewards are many, sacrifices are few. We can
indeed change the world, and the Greek experience is here for
the taking.

I agree
 

Altho I can't say I've never had a drink in the house (and the wonderful bar in the Drexel house stands out) as Eric claims, I strongly agree with him that the combination of youth, alcohol, and fraternity is leading us down the tubes quickly.
And breaking us financially thru liability law suits.

I think we'll save our youth, and our chapters, by banning alcohol.

I do note, though, that at least three GLO members died in traffic crashes, going home for Thanksgiving this week, as posted in Greek Life.

Re: I agree
 

Its the 21 year old drinking age that is killing us. In most cases of liability and law suits, the fact that the person is between 18-20 is the key factor.

Since the person is under the legal age of drinking the people around automatically incurr liability.

If you eliminated all cases where the major factor was "underage" drinking, there would be very few.

Re: I agree
 

I honestly agree.

While there are a lot of alcohol-related incidents hurting GLOs, I don't think it all has to do with the 21+ drinking age. Regardless if the age is 19, 20, or 25, if people are still not responsible enough to know their own limits, incidents like this will always happen, and whether or not the fraternity or sorority was directly involved somehow they will get some of the blame for it. For example, the Sigma Pi house was shut down. Was it because they helped contribute alcohol to her even though she was underage? What about the other contributors that she had been partying with before she went to the Sigma Pi house... I wonder if they were ever held responsible.

Re: I agree
 

Well, since there will only be 2.5 people in each chapter, that might actually work. :rolleyes:

What do you mean? Banning alcohol from the house? Banning it from rush? Banning any member of any GLO from drinking anytime anywhere? The first two have already been tried and obviously don't work. The third would lead to worse recruitment problems than we already have.

James is right, the 21 year old drinking age is as ridiculous a social experiment as Prohibition and should be eliminated.

Re: Re: I agree
 

Is alcohol banned from all houses (i.e. not just some IFCs and all NPCs)? To my knowledge, only some IFC fraternities & all NPC sororities ban alcohol from houses, and I believe the same goes for the rush activities.

Re: Re: Re: I agree
 

No, it's not, but it seems that a lot of the fraternities that have gone "dry" still are ending up in the headlines an awful lot for alcohol issues.

Re: Re: I agree
 

Truth is that many fraternity chapters who have gone "dry" have actually grown in size. Some haven't. I suppose it depends on how pre-disposed the members are to drinking.

I do believe this, though. If chapters don't go dry, the cost of Risk Management, including insurance, will price us right out of existance.

That is, if the terrible publicity of alcohol abuse, deaths and hazing don't do it first.

I have long been an advocate of lowering the beer drinking age to 18 again, but that doesn't change the dynamics of dry housing. It has to happen, and it will if the fraternity system is to survive.

Now, since a large number of the insurance claims for fraternities are caused by sorority and other women, I wonder if any have wondered what the effect of no fraternities could have on our Greek sisters.

Food for thought, anyway.

There is an evolution element to greek life that has ensured not only its existance but its growth since its birth in 1776 (and earlier if you consider elder non-greek orgs). This is just another step in that process that makes us stronger. If we would like to pass this legacy on to our children, grandchildren, and even further down the line we must evolve and realize that the focus on alcohol in the greek system is killing ALL of us.
It doesn't matter if you are from a chapter who is currently dry, or has never had a single inccident involving alcohol...the outside world groups all GLO's together. When one chapter, be it local, a national, or an international, makes a mistake we all pay. Through rush, retention, and respect on our campuses, the media, and the world at large. All things that do not evolve eventually go extinct.

If you look at the founding of your respective fraternities and sororities you will find many noble values, principles, and causes that inspired your great organizations. I'm sure that no ritual or ceremony written by your founders, who dreamed that the group they worked so hard to create would continue long after they're gone, seeks to pass down the less noble elements that seem to plague our chapters today. Look back at the real stories and legends of your GLO, the one's where the true meanings of your houses are reflected...where are those stories today? They are replaced by stories of drunkeness, distruction, disrespect, and death. Those great things that we all STILL do: philanthropy, academic excellence, involvement, brotherhood, sisterhood, the list goes on...they are all overshadowed and will be until we remove the root of the problem. We need to get back to our foundings.

Do not suppose to disguise alcohol as a vital element of brotherhood or sisterhood. It only taints and poisens the real positive influence that a fraternity or sorority can have on the men and women who find the deeper meaning of being a member.

I'm not going to kid myself, I drank, and I still drink. I'm not anti alcohol. It has a time and place in society. But the fraternities and sororities are not where it should consistantly be found as the root of so many problems. Removing alcohol from the house is a step in the right direction. I can tell you that my house went from "damp" to dry while I was an undergrad and while there was some resistance in the beginning the benefits in the end made the short struggle worth it. But it takes more than just an exercise in chapter house prohibition...our collective attitudes about alcohol and the role it plays in our fraternities and sororities needs to change. These attitudes took over a couple hundred years to form and will take years to change but we need to start somewhere now. We may not have a few more hundred years left to evolve again. It can be done.

Education, not prohibition, is the key. All the original prohibition did was make criminals of many law abiding citizens - which is exactly what the prohibition for ages 18-20 is doing now. And banning alcohol from a house does nothing for the safety of the members. It is only for the safety of the organization.

Think about it. Are the majority of the people you know who drink or drank underage bad people? Do they lie, cheat, steal or do other unlawful things? Have any of them ever been in trouble with the law?

Banning alcohol from fraternities wouldn't have kept this girl alive. She wanted to drink and it sounds like she wouldn't have stopped until she found somewhere to do so.

The more fraternities and sororities ban alcohol instead of educate its members on how to handle it, the more we support this unjust law.

p.s. Did anyone else read this "diary" and think "Laura Palmer"?

You know . . . even the hobbits from the lord of the rings liked to tie one on . .. and they still managed to defeat the dark lord and destroy the one ring . . oh they smoked also.

Winston Churchill was a heavy drinker. Likewise was General Grant during the civil War.

When some of Lincoln's teetotaler advisors brought it up, Lincoln's reply was, It must be a good brand of whiskey . . .

But wait, Adolph Hitler was against alcohol and didn't drink . . .

The effects of alcohol on the human body are well known, and have been well known for probably 100 years. It does not take a genius to figure out that if you drink yourself into a stupor, you could seriously injure yourself, or someone else. Yes, alcohol education programs are important, and we need to have them. Perhaps we can all squeeze one in before the next formal, or weekend kegger?

Education only gets us so far, especially in a culture where people are encouraged to make bad choices. The problem with many greeks is that we support and enable this culture. No, the problem did not begin with us, and will not end with us either, but we are clearly part of the problem, and we are destroying ourselves.

At a minimum, alcohol needs to be removed from chapter houses and chapter sponsored events. Fair or not, the drinking age is 21, and most of our members cannot drink legally. But mostly, the greeks need to change their culture around alcohol, and their view that it is a necessity for their existence. If all we feel we can offer incoming freshman is access to illegal alcohol, and that's all we think they are interested in, we are all in deep sh-t.

Re: Re: Re: I agree
 

Nice try of transferring the blame to the women.

Over a hundred years ago the women said "we're not going to use chapter funds for alcohol & we're not going to allow alcohol in our houses."

The men's groups said, "Okay, we'll have the parties at our houses."

I agree that the women are just as much a part of this problem as the men are -- we attend the parties, but both sexes need to be a part of the solution.

I also think that the drinking age should be 18.

It's funny. I grew up with people whose parents were Italian, Austrian, French, etc. Their parents gave them a small glass of wine with dinner on special occasions. They learned that alcohol was something to enhance a meal not something to abuse. Making alcohol forbidden makes it much more attractive and tempting.

I think that binge drinking might be a way for people to self-medicate or blow off steam. Teens and young adults are under tremendous stress, and some really don't have coping skills so they drink. I also think that education can help, and education begins at home. Children learn by example from their parents.

I totally agree. I was allowed to drink in high school. By allowing me to do so, my parents showed me that within reason, alcohol is fine. My friends whose parents wouldn't allow them to drink went crazy when they hit college, just because alcohol was forbidden and desirable.

Re: Re: Re: Re: I agree
 

No question about it. I'm not attempting to "blame" women at all -- just stating a fact that any Risk Management expert will tell you. No transference here.

We're the idiots for realizing the problem, and still allowing it to go on.

But, my question was, should the Fraternity System (Men) collapse, what effect would that have on sororities?

This isn't a "he said, she said," topic.

Condescending comments that lump all your fellow Greeks into one mass show you to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I agree
 

No doubt about it -- it's a package deal. I know of no co-ed campus that has a Panhellenic system without fraternities. Seems like when Colby College (Maine) banned the fraternities...sororities went too.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I agree
 

They'd be gone.

I've heard some sorority women say that we should "remove" ourselves from whatever troubles the men may be having. I find this asinine. We have only contributed to the problem by not taking part of the burden on ourselves and setting the men up as our "suppliers." It makes for a lot of social inequality, resentment, and dangerous situations.

I agree wholeheartedly. Very well-said, mcellpe.

Lets reframe the question so that we can test our rationality.

When it comes to drinking does Greek Life, as a sample, reflect the tendencies of mainstream college students?

For example: Do mainstream college students not drink and greeks do drink?

Do greeks drink so much more than mainstream college students that they constitute a social fringe?

Because if Greeks are representive samples of college students, then there is no genuine problem . . . just a series of PC labels.

If that were true, the only real problem is that Greeks are singled out and punished for what everyone else is also doing.

In which case, as Greeks, why do we have our panties in a bunch about this?

We are becoming much like an abused person that believes they merit their abuse.

I wonder at you Greeks that have jumped on the self-abuse bandwagon . . . why would you believe your organizations and members merit abuse for engaging in behaviors that are generally considered by our society to be acceptable and are engaged in frequently by our peers?

Those of you that have subscrribed to this viewpoint are major contributors to Greeks being socially defensive.

Your Chamberlain like passive acceptance of anything college administrators are willing to dish out in the name of alcohol control has resulted in you hanging your brothers and sisters out to dry.

But hey, and here sarcasm is intended, some of you would kick out your members for shacking, or being sexually expressive. :p

JAMES YOU ROCK SO SO MUCH.

Although for a minute, I thought you were referring to Richard Chamberlain, not Neville Chamberlain. ;)

Emailed to Me by one of My LXA Brothers!


Read and think!


FYI - Article out of this weeks Chronicle of Higher Education
>>>>>
>>>>> Four Rules for Saving a Fraternity
>>>>> At Linfield College, one house's president brought his chapter back from
>>>>> the brink
>>>>>
>>>>> ELIZABETH F. FARRELL
>>>>> McMinnville, Ore.
>>>>>
>>>>> After taking over as president of the Theta Chi fraternity at Linfield
>>>>> College last fall, Justin Samples lost 15 pounds and the ability to sleep
>>>>> through the night. That is what the constant stress of trying to rein in
>>>>> an out-of-control fraternity will do to a 20-year-old.
>>>>> So it was a surprise that last year on Halloween, a night known for pranks
>>>>> and mayhem, he dozed off at 10 p.m.
>>>>> His slumber, however, was brief. At 2 a.m., Jubari Sykes, another Theta
>>>>> Chi member, called to tell him that the fraternity's vice president, Peter
>>>>> Munro, had just been caught stealing a digital camera and a laptop from
>>>>> the neighboring Delta Psi Delta fraternity house. Mr. Munro, who was drunk
>>>>> at the time of the incident, had brought along a pledging member to assist
>>>>> in his prank.
>>>>> Mr. Samples learned that the pledge was missing, the police were
>>>>> everywhere, and Mr. Munro was behind bars. Mr. Samples says that as he
>>>>> walked over to meet Mr. Sykes early that morning, he felt "betrayed and
>>>>> ticked off" by Mr. Munro. He realized Theta Chi had "hit rock bottom." He
>>>>> also knew what needed to be done.
>>>>> He pulled Mr. Sykes aside and said, "Pete's out, and we should go alcohol
>>>>> free." Mr. Samples recalls that Mr. Sykes "just kind of stepped back and
>>>>> said, 'What?'"
>>>>> Following a spate of alcohol-related deaths at fraternities across the
>>>>> country this fall, many fraternity leaders are in a predicament similar to
>>>>> the one Mr. Samples faced last year. Their members have reputations for
>>>>> being drunken troublemakers, and they have squandered the good will of
>>>>> administrators and local police. Many of their chapters are on the brink
>>>>> of extinction.
>>>>> Some have already folded. This month, for instance, Sigma Nu closed its
>>>>> chapter at the University of Oregon despite the recent efforts of some
>>>>> members to overcome the house's persistent problems, which included
>>>>> alcohol violations and legal battles with the university. This fall, two
>>>>> fraternities at universities in Colorado have been closed indefinitely
>>>>> following alcohol-related deaths at their houses, and many other chapters
>>>>> across the country are under pressure from police and administrators to
>>>>> shape up or shut down.
>>>>> According to experts on Greek life, most fraternities in such a
>>>>> predicament fail to make the improvements necessary to survive. "Complete
>>>>> cultural change is quite difficult," says Dan Bureau, president of the
>>>>> Association of Fraternity Advisors, a group that provides guidance on
>>>>> handling Greek-life issues to its membership of more than 1,300 college
>>>>> professionals. "For a fraternity to succeed in going from one end of the
>>>>> spectrum to another, they usually have to close down and then reopen after
>>>>> some time."
>>>>> McMinnville police had already declared Theta Chi a "public nuisance"
>>>>> before the Halloween incident and were ready to board up the fraternity's
>>>>> house, which is located off the campus. Administrators at this
>>>>> 2,500-student liberal-arts college had put the chapter on probation,
>>>>> forbidding the then-40-member fraternity from holding any social functions
>>>>> until it could prove that it had cleaned up its act.
>>>>> Saddled with that baggage, Mr. Samples defied expectations. Over the next
>>>>> four months, he and other house leaders kicked out six members, put an end
>>>>> to Theta Chi's epic beer bashes, and doubled their recruitment. In July,
>>>>> McMinnville's police chief awarded Mr. Samples --_who had stepped down as
>>>>> the fraternity's president in June --_the citizen's police medal for his
>>>>> efforts.
>>>>> Barry Tucker, director of multicultural programs at Linfield, admits that
>>>>> he thought the Theta Chi brothers were too irresponsible to save their
>>>>> fraternity. "They proved me wrong," Mr. Tucker says. "Justin was very
>>>>> persistent. He doesn't back down for anybody."
>>>>> Theta Chi's self-styled makeover is the type of swift turnaround that many
>>>>> colleges would love to inspire in their own Greek systems. At a time when
>>>>> many administrators are trying every rule and sanction imaginable to force
>>>>> troubled fraternities to improve, the story of one house's revival shows
>>>>> that sometimes the only way to save a fraternity is for the students to do
>>>>> it from within.
>>>>> #1: Be Persuasive, Not Preachy
>>>>> Banning alcohol was a tough sell to many members of Theta Chi who
>>>>> considered the fraternity their "drinking club," according to Mr. Sykes.
>>>>> Because so many of the upperclassmen were staunchly opposed to going dry,
>>>>> Mr. Samples took a low-key approach to promoting the ban. He also did some
>>>>> politicking among the younger members, telling them about his idea and
>>>>> then asking, "What do you think of it?"
>>>>> When all of Theta Chi's 40 members gathered to vote on the ban last
>>>>> November, Mr. Samples told them that every problem they had as a
>>>>> fraternity stemmed from alcohol. He urged them to vote in favor of banning
>>>>> booze in the house. Although the law in Oregon, like all states, forbids
>>>>> anyone under 21 from drinking alcoholic beverages, drinking behind closed
>>>>> doors is hard to prevent at many institutions.
>>>>> "You can't sell it as 'Hey! This is awesome!'" says Mr. Samples. "So I
>>>>> tried to go for shock value, saying, 'Just think how far the chief's jaw
>>>>> will drop when I tell him we're going dry.'"
>>>>> Theta Chi bylaws require a two-thirds majority to pass any rule, and when
>>>>> the members first voted, the measure failed. Fraternity bylaws forbid a
>>>>> second vote in the same meeting, so Mr. Samples adjourned the gathering.
>>>>> Mr. Samples says he was "livid," but he kept his cool, calmly expressing
>>>>> his disappointment. He asked members to reconsider. He commenced a new
>>>>> meeting five minutes later. This time, the measure passed by one vote.
>>>>> Despite the stress of the ordeal, the challenge of changing his brothers'
>>>>> minds intrigued him. "Something about seeing what makes people tick
>>>>> fascinates me," says Mr. Samples, a senior majoring in business. "I really
>>>>> like to rally people together and see what I can do to get the best out of
>>>>> them."
>>>>> With a trim, muscular build and well-defined jaw, Mr. Samples looks the
>>>>> part of a lifelong athlete, and says sports have given him leadership
>>>>> opportunities since his grade-school days as captain of the flag- football
>>>>> team.
>>>>> Ryan Monagle, now a junior in charge of rush recruitment, says he and
>>>>> other members were motivated by Mr. Samples's determination, and his
>>>>> willingness to do everything possible to improve Theta Chi, including
>>>>> quitting the football team at the beginning of that semester to devote
>>>>> more time to the fraternity. "It's really hard to not help out and back
>>>>> him up when you see him there on his hands and knees scrubbing floors,"
>>>>> says Mr. Monagle.
>>>>> #2: Redefine Loyalty
>>>>> As difficult as it was to persuade members to approve the alcohol ban, the
>>>>> real hurdle was enforcing it. Not surprisingly, the Theta Chi members who
>>>>> had opposed the ban were the same ones who were getting into the
>>>>> alcohol-related trouble. They refused to change their behavior.
>>>>> "Things ended up escalating in the house," says Mr. Samples. "There was a
>>>>> certain faction of brothers who said 'screw this' and were basically
>>>>> giving the finger to the police."
>>>>> Kicking out the disruptive members was not an easy decision for any
>>>>> member. Ultimately, Mr. Monagle says, they had no choice but to remove the
>>>>> disruptive members, whom he refers to as a "cancer." Still, he says he
>>>>> felt "kind of like I was stabbing them in the back."
>>>>> The principles of loyalty and brotherhood are a double-edged sword: They
>>>>> can either inspire a fraternity to improve or precipitate its downfall.
>>>>> The problem with organizations that foment such strong bonds among members
>>>>> is that they sometimes defend one another even when it contradicts the
>>>>> best interest of the group.
>>>>> "They're young kids and maybe it's the first time they've felt like a part
>>>>> of something," says Carl Swanson, the Greek adviser to Linfield's four
>>>>> fraternities and four sororities. "A lot of them want to belong and don't
>>>>> want to be the first to say something, even if they think what others in
>>>>> the group are doing is wrong."
>>>>> The tide of peer pressure, however, is reversible. In Theta Chi's case,
>>>>> Mr. Samples and members of the fraternity's executive council held
>>>>> separate votes on each problematic member, six in all. "With the first
>>>>> person we suspended, the vote was a lot closer than it should have been,"
>>>>> says Mr. Samples. "But then, with each subsequent member, it got
>>>>> cumulatively less close."
>>>>> Amid what members describe as a "civil war," they trusted Mr. Samples's
>>>>> leadership. Mr. Monagle, who is still good friends with some of the former
>>>>> members, says they were "not bad people, just good guys who made some bad
>>>>> decisions."
>>>>> One of the students they voted out was Mr. Munro, who had stolen the
>>>>> electronics equipment on Halloween night. Although he insists that he left
>>>>> voluntarily, and remains on good terms with many of his friends in Theta
>>>>> Chi, he still faults members of the fraternity for their lack of loyalty.
>>>>> "With brotherhood, the bottom line is you don't sell out your brothers, no
>>>>> matter the cost," says Mr. Munro. He calls the theft "a prank that got out
>>>>> of control." Theta Chi members, he says, "made me look like I was a
>>>>> horrible person, and made me the scapegoat for all the house's problems."
>>>>> A month after getting arrested, Mr. Munro says he withdrew from Linfield
>>>>> in an effort to stop drinking. (He says he now does so only occasionally.)
>>>>> And some members took his move as a wake-up call. Without the convenience
>>>>> of free-flowing beer in the house, they did not imbibe nearly as often.
>>>>> #3: Make Friends With the Police
>>>>> One of Linfield's top administrators says Greek students on the campus
>>>>> often think everyone is out to get them. Local police officers complain
>>>>> that students "act like they're their own lawyers," arguing about their
>>>>> legal rights instead of taking responsibility for their actions, says
>>>>> Wayne McFarlin, McMinnville's chief of police.
>>>>> Yet Mr. Samples sought to build an alliance with the authority figures
>>>>> many students considered their enemies.
>>>>> He admits that the specter of sanctions from the police and college
>>>>> "forced us to deal with problems in a very abrupt fashion, a lot faster
>>>>> than I would have liked."
>>>>> Instead of rebelling against authority, however, Mr. Samples set up weekly
>>>>> meetings with Linfield's student-life adviser, the Greek-life adviser, and
>>>>> his fraternity's faculty adviser. He asked many former Theta Chi leaders
>>>>> and alumni advisers for advice, and consulted with the executive director
>>>>> of Theta Chi's national office, David Westol, in a series of telephone
>>>>> conversations during the reorganization.
>>>>> He also met with Chief McFarlin at least once a month.
>>>>> He even followed Chief McFarlin's suggestion to erect a fence bordering
>>>>> Theta Chi's property, to keep inebriated students from wandering into the
>>>>> fraternity's yard. His openness to such ideas pleasantly surprised Chief
>>>>> McFarlin, and it played a large role in earning Mr. Samples the citizen's
>>>>> police medal.
>>>>> "His leadership was something I really wanted to capture," says Chief
>>>>> McFarlin. "He took a lot of personal risks. Nobody, not even police chiefs
>>>>> want to do something that makes people upset with them, but he understood
>>>>> that sometimes the mission takes precedence over personal feelings."
>>>>> #4: Change Your Image
>>>>> The most demoralizing effect of Theta Chi's problems was the treatment its
>>>>> members received on the campus and around town. Wearing Theta Chi letters,
>>>>> they say, was like having "Kick Me" signs on their backs. Mr. Samples
>>>>> recalls walking into a 7-Eleven in his Theta Chi shirt, which prompted the
>>>>> clerk to remark, "You guys are in a lot of trouble, huh?"
>>>>> Both the campus and local newspapers had reported all of the fraternity's
>>>>> misdeeds. So Mr. Samples started off his fraternity's image makeover by
>>>>> writing a letter to the student newspaper, The Linfield Review, in which
>>>>> he apologized for Theta Chi's behavior and explained what its members were
>>>>> doing to improve.
>>>>> Mr. Samples also helped pass a new rule that required every Theta Chi
>>>>> member to increase his community-service commitment from 4 hours to 10
>>>>> hours per semester. That paid off with some good press: Local newspapers
>>>>> published articles about Theta Chi members volunteering at local tutoring
>>>>> programs and co-sponsoring a Toys for Tots drive with the McMinnville Fire
>>>>> Department.
>>>>> Recognizing that a handful of bad apples can spoil an entire house's
>>>>> image, Mr. Samples and other members of the fraternity examined their
>>>>> recruitment practices and decided to become more selective. "We paid for
>>>>> the recruitment mistakes of other classes," says Mr. Samples, "because the
>>>>> emphasis was on getting large numbers of people instead of focusing on
>>>>> quality members."
>>>>> That approach is often a result of financial pressures --_without enough
>>>>> members, expenses, including hefty mortgages and party costs, can become
>>>>> prohibitive. Sometimes that means that house leaders do not carefully
>>>>> consider how dedicated each student will be to their organization.
>>>>> But instead of hurting its popularity, Theta Chi's new membership
>>>>> requirements, including a minimum 3.0 grade-point average for new members
>>>>> --_based on high-school grades for freshmen --_and demonstrated leadership
>>>>> skills, increased interest among prospective members, attracting the
>>>>> largest pledge class ever the following fall, with 22 members compared
>>>>> with an average of 6 for each of the previous four years.
>>>>> The image overhaul has changed perceptions of the house on the campus.
>>>>> "They used to be bad, but are getting better," says one Linfield student
>>>>> of the fraternity.
>>>>> Administrators at Linfield are impressed by Theta Chi's progress, though
>>>>> they qualify their praise by noting that the fraternity has plenty of room
>>>>> for improvement. Under Linfield's new Greek Standards Program,
>>>>> fraternities are assigned points in four categories: academic performance,
>>>>> financial responsibility, community service, and member education. Theta
>>>>> Chi, like all the college's fraternities, falls short of the minimum
>>>>> requirements, meaning it cannot hold more than two social events per
>>>>> semester. The Theta Chi house will also retain its status as a "public
>>>>> nuisance" unless no complaints are filed with the police until next
>>>>> August, according to Chief McFarlin.
>>>>> As of late November, Theta Chi had only one noise complaint for the whole
>>>>> semester.
>>>>> "They are doing a really nice job managing their property," says Chief
>>>>> McFarlin, who was so impressed by the improvement that he sent a letter to
>>>>> Linfield College's president in early November commending Theta Chi --_and
>>>>> other Linfield fraternities --_for their progress.
>>>>> Mr. Samples says he does not mind if his brothers drink --_as long as it's
>>>>> not in the house. Even though he is no longer Theta Chi's president, he
>>>>> still patrols the halls of the fraternity house at 2 or 3 a.m. on
>>>>> weekends, to make sure residents are following the rules.
>>>>> Despite his diligence, his brothers sometimes break the rules. On a recent
>>>>> Friday afternoon, for instance, a 24-pack of Busch beer and unopened
>>>>> bottle of Bacardi rum sit on top of the mini-fridge in one member's room.
>>>>> Upon hearing about it, Mr. Samples shakes his head. But he is not
>>>>> surprised.
>>>>> "It makes me mad," he says. "But going dry is an ongoing process, and we
>>>>> have to remind everyone each week that we are still an alcohol-free
>>>>> house."

That is a most impressive story. That guy will probably be President of General Motors or something some day.

It took a lot of guts on his part, but I really believe that a lot of questionable chapters need to take this kind of action.

Naaah, he is too PC to make a good business CEO, he will probbaly be a college administrator or teacher someday and bore his students with his one moral lesson.

It's great that Theta Chi HQ was supportive of their being more selective, and willing to take fewer members, in order to improve the chapter. Not all HQs are that supportive--at least, not in sororities.

On another note--it bothers me when people say that we, as Greeks, are punished for things that independents do all the time. We talk a great game about having "higher standards" than independents, with everything from GPA to campus involvement, but when we're actually held to those higher standards, the bellyaching begins.

James does rock.

But I think there are a couple of flaws in the argument.

First, I would argue that Greeks aren't considered to "reflect" the tendencies of mainstream college students, but rather be the leaders and inventers of those tendencies.

Second, if you believe the various studies, no matter what the methodology, they seem to agree that Greeks drink more as a group than other students.

Third, Greeks allegedly hold themselves (ourselves) to higher standards than the "pack." In other words, I argue in the first comment, we don't "reflect" tendencies, we "project" them on other students.

(With thanks to the late Lee Levenger, former FCC Commissioner's "Reflective/Projective" Theory -- shortly before he called television a "vast wasteland." Simply put, people see us do something, think it's the "cool" thing and project themselves into that coolness by copying the behavior.)

Finally, I think it's important to restate what others have said. Nobody I see here is suggesting alcohol abstinance -- just get it out of the chapter houses and put less public emphasis on it as a reason for being.

Arguing that something is PC has become a handy tool. What we have to realize is that sometimes PC is also reality.

"Higher standards" is one of those garbage phrases like "values based" that has no real meaning. Ask 25 people what it means, you'll get 25 answers. It's pointless.

There are just as many people out there who are student leaders in some way - be it the student senate prez, the team captain or just the person who knows everyone on campus - who are non-Greek as Greek. They're not necessarily anti-Greek, just Greek life isn't for everyone and it wasn't for them.

If you're at the sort of school where you have no social life if you're not Greek, like DePauw, maybe the "creating tendencies" argument holds water, but on many campuses it's no more reality than the Tooth Fairy.

I was thinking about a comment this afternoon, but this pretty well says it.

We can yell and scream about how unfair liquor laws are, and we can say (as I understand some posts above) that everything we've said about higher standards and our founders principles are apparantely a lot of BS. And I guess we shouldn't look for special people to pledge because we only want to compare ourselves to what "everybody" does.

Hey, what the hell, it's not really a problem, it's all the nasty old media's fault for reporting what, no matter what we think, are legimate news stories. They pick on us just because we've developed the reputation of being the hard partiers on campus.

Or, we can bury our heads in the sand and blame Political Correctness. But this problem existed before "PC" was invented.

This is nothing new -- but the realities of Risk Management, liability and lawsuits have forced it into the open.

Unfortunately, when you are an advisor or division/national officer, or even an administrator at a college, all of those things really don't excuse the fact that our members are breaking the law and some are even dying.

Here's your fiddle, Mr. Nero. Play on.

I'd love to know what my "apparent reasons" are, according to you. And if you're going to say that everyone on this board who joined a Greek org for reasons you don't deem worthy is a "part of the problem", well, umm, what do you say kids? Should we solve the problem by terminating ourselves alphabetically?

If you would have read more of my comments you would have seen that I joined a Greek org to make friends and widen my social circle beyond that of my boyfriend's. As far as philanthropy was concerned, I was already doing plenty of community/campus service with Alpha Phi Omega. If all I wanted to do was party, which seems to be what you're implying, I certainly wouldn't have joined the group that was known as the campus teetotalers.

I don't have an "agenda" although I'm amused because I got accused of that by another member of a nationally dry fraternity. I guess agenda = saying things you don't like to hear. James' post about the Greek system being like an abuse victim that acts like/thinks he/she deserves the abuse said it all.

Like I said, condescending to people - especially the 18-22 set - gets you nowhere. But if it works for you and you like for your fraternity to be associated with that attitude, hey, keep it up.

clarification
 

I don't mean the standards themselves that you hold are garbage - I mean the phrase itself has been so overused and abused that, as I said, every person you asked would give you a different answer as to what it means. (Some other words that are getting there are "family friendly" and "patriotism.") My point is - say what you mean. If you mean you ask men to have a higher GPA than the rest of the campus, say so. If you mean you require them to do community service when the majority of students do not, say so. Ambiguity does us no good - you can deny someone whose hair falls the wrong way a bid and say "well, they didn't live up to our higher standards."

Administrators and prospective members don't want to hear that we have "higher standards." They want to hear what those standards ARE. That's all I meant, sorry that you misinterpreted it.

I don't say you're "condescending" because you're talking about it - but to say "let's squeeze education in between keggers" - come on. If your campus experience was that all other chapters did was drink, I feel bad for you, but that certainly wasn't mine. To imply everyone who isn't dry is drinking 24/7 - sorry, that is condescension no matter how you look at it. I'll back off too, but just think about how you sound when you say things like that.

33girl is right.

You (generally) should demonstrate your critical thinking abilities by agreeing with her . . at least in principle.

When people use unqualified phrases such as "family values" or "higher standards" etc it conjures different meanings among an audience.

Its a vague statement and a corruption of the use of the English Language when used in debate settings because it leads to communication ambiguities.

At best its often the fall-back of someone being lazy because they know their audience will fill in the meaning for them, each according to his or her tendencies.

At worst its a manipulative technique in a dialogue to create a position thats difficult to assail but is based on a logical fatuity.

Please clarify how the higher standards of any GLO preclude drinking as an acceptable activity?