Looking for an alternative
 

My fraternity just got kicked off campus for three years. We come back when I am a senior. These years are supposed to be some of the best years of my life. I have heard of people going "underground". What are our options as far as being able to rush and stuff like that. I have heard of people becoming service organizations and non-profit organizations. If anyone has advice or info that i can use without getting into any legal disputes please help me out.. THANKS!

This isn't PCU and you aren't B&S. I suggest you get yourself involved in campus activities beyond Greek life. It's a chance to enjoy and discover new hobbies and make new friends.

Remember that if you do go "Underground", your HQ may be hesitant to give you a charter if you do so, as you're basically thumbing your nose at their disciplinary system.

Canadian

Ya im not too concerned about gettin our charter back. they already leased our house as apartments and I dont think they will give it back anyways. so thats not my number one priority. I just want to be together as a fraternity again and want to rush and be as close to a real on-campus fraternity as we can.

It's not underground if you talk about it on the internet.

And if you can't figure it out, you probably can't pull it off.

Don't go "underground."

If you want a fraternity experience, but your fraternity is no longer allowed to be on campus, you do have an option: Start a local fraternity that has no resemblance to the national that has been kicked off. Create your own name, rituals, symbols, etc.

I never said that is all i wanna do and its not like you know what school i go to or anything... I am just looking for something else my fraternity can do... underground was just one of the options.. I was just asking if i could get in legal trouble for using the old name or if there are any other alternatives.

I'm sure you can get in trouble for using your old name. There are major legal issues there.

Also...it's really not that hard for someone to figure out what school you go to. SigPiF2k7 means you're a Sigma Pi initiated in Fall 2007. It wouldn't be that hard to figure out which school recently put a Sigma Pi chapter on suspension (or whatever you're on) for 3 years.

do you know what you just got yourself into?

LOL. I was up till 3 AM and this dork isn't worth it.

But all I said was the truth.

I think your priorities are out of line. It usually takes a major problem/incident for a group to be kicked off campus for 3 years, lose their charter and have their house leased out. Addressing that problem before it came to that extreme would have been my number one priority.

Definately you could get in legal trouble for holding yourself out as a chapter of Sigma Pi if you are not.

ya sorry to clarify i would not use the old name, the problem is people just consider us old sigma pi's i guess. so i dont really know what to do.. i would really like to do something these next three years and what i would really love to do is keep close with my brothers and be able to do what every other fraternity is doing. and that is expanding.... I could never imagine myself being around a better group of guys and would never of considered a different fraternity even knowing the outcome.. to clarify they accused us of hazing and underage drinkin and our nationals pulled our charter. just imagine your sorority or fraternity getting kicked off campus your freshman year and understand that its a hard thing to got through.In the past two years 2 fraternities and 1 sorority have been kicked off campus. we really just want to stay together, expand, and meet even more people. ANY ADVICE WILL HELP. criticism will not help. THANKS AGAIN

Yeah, you get an off campus house as your base, give yourself a club name, work as an unofficial club off campus. You'll have to recruit mainly guys that are already friends with brothers and kind of let them know that when you come back on campus they will all be initiated with your first pledge class. It's sketchy and you're going to get in even more trouble if you get caught, but that's the easiest way to do it. And you schedule parties with sororities, but absolutely do not represent yourself at all as underground Sigma Pi or hell will rain down on you for violating your sanctions.

But since you couldn't figure that out, I'm going to go ahead and echo the recommendation that you shouldn't do it.

First off, don't "use" a service fraternity or other group to stay together. It is extremely disrespectful.

Schools usually follow what the national does, so if your national saw fit to pull your charter, it's unlikely the school will back you in becoming a local or finding another group. Once in a while the 2 disagree, but not often.

And what I said about going underground still stands. If you have to ask how to do it then you probably shouldn't attempt it. GC is not as anonymous as you may think.

tallgreekalum
 

The key question here is whether your school took action as well. If they did not, then you should be able to set up a local fraternity (using different name, ritual etc.) although some schools require NIC membership. After a number of years (ie, when any present Sigma Pis graduate), you would be free to affiliate with any NIC fraternity, if you so wished. Feel free to PM me if you want more advise)

I saw that when sigma nu got kicked of some of the members started a chapter of the nu society which has some members from sigma nu in it but also has new members. they let them do it because they were not using the same ideals as sigma nu and they did not encounter the same problems because of it. I wanted to do something like that. I was not planing on doing the stuff that got us in trouble but wanted to rule out the people that started the problem. Which i think could be achievable. and i didnt want to "use" the service fraternity. I was planing on actually embracing it and being able to do something positive with the brothers that i had before. I dont see anything wrong with that.

Well here's the thing, if you would start a chapter of APO, all new chapters have to be co-ed. I didn't think you'd be down with that.

Try a search for threads with the word "underground" in the thread title. You'll find a lot of discussion on underground chapters.

Sounds like the University of Houston.

Couple of your points need clarification. You initially stated that your fraternity had been kicked off campus. Later there were questions about your charter. OK, Did your National pull your charter, or did your school suspend your chapter for 3 years, or both. Consider what caused this situation. Consider your options.
1. Did your National pull the charter? If not, what is their policy about off campus chapters? Some Nationals will allow this considering the circumstances and some will not. You need to clarify this for yourself.
2. Did your school suspend your chapter unilaterally or in conjunction with your National. If the action was unilateral you need to talk with your National and see what options (if any) are open.
3. If your charter was pulled by National in conjunction with school sanctions then You have almost no options to continue actively as a chapter of your National until the sanctions are lifted and National is satisfied.
4. If this is the case you could reorganize as a local as has been suggested. 5. An extreme option would be to resign from your National, get clearance from HQ to withdraw and dissolve, and then form an interest group for affiliation with another National. This would depend of course on the willingness of another National to consider your petition once you are totally free and clear of your current affiliation. This option would be difficult considering you all were initiated members who had made a binding committment. Here is where circumstances come into play. What was the reason for your sanctions and what did your National do or fail to do that would justify such action on your part.
You don't need to answer these questions and thoughts on the board. You do need to think all of this through and do some serious research on procedures and acceptable justifications for such action. If there is a compelling reason you might be able to do this. If not you need to consider what National would feel comfortable granting a charter to your group.

My suggestion would be to explore your possible options and then discuss with someone who has a lot of experience in Greek matters who can advise you as to the practicalities of pulling off your possible options.

LOL.

Of course, there is what happened at Washington and Lee a few years back.

The bigger question you should be pondering is why your charter was pulled and what are ways to fix it. Going underground is the least of your worries.

Great catch. If the same "problem members" are involved in this new endeavor, it's inevitably going to cause more problems.