Washington State University Pi Beta Phi
 

Friend called this morning after hearing this on Spokane's local news and wondered if I had heard about it (I hadn't).

http://dnews.com/local/article_242d7...d52497e79.html

Yikes!

Didn't this same thing happen to them a couple of years ago?

Yes, back in 2009 for a similar reason. They were unrecognized for 18 months, so they must have just recently came back.

"...according to Dean of Students Melynda Huskey."

OK, slightly off topic. Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony of the WSU Dean of Students being named Melynda HUSKEY? It makes me wonder if there is someone with the last name "Cougar" working at UW...

^^^Hadn't thought about it when I read it, but yes, I guess there is an irony there although they spell it Husky. How the Cougars and the Ducks spell it is another story. :D.

As CougADPi mentioned, they were put on this same status in March 2009 for an apparent hazing incident that happened in fall of 2008. They went unrecognized and couldn't do formal recruitment in fall of 2009, but they did do informal recruitment after formal recruitment was complete. They have such a strong reputation on that campus that they did pretty well from what daughter understood with informal. She heard there were a fair amount of girls who either didn't go through recruitment hoping to get a bid from them or who dropped out if they didn't get chapters they wanted in order to informal with them. This was all in spite of the fact that freshman wouldn't be allowed to live in and they would be pretty limited in what they could do that year. That's just what she heard from friends on campus, don't know actual numbers.

The following year (2010) they were again recognized and able to do formal recruitment and did well (she knew someone from her HS who joined that year). I have no idea how things went this last fall - I would assume fine, but twice in 4 years might be a harder recovery.

I don't get the part in bold. They had a strong reputation despite the hazing? Geez.

So all this means is that WSU doesn't recognize them? Their HQ still allows the chapter the remain active?

I think it depends on what the hazing actually is, and who is calling it that. From what I found online, it seems that in 2009 the "Student Conduct Board" are the ones who found them guilty of hazing, not their national HQ. It appears their national HQ does not agree with the university's assessment and the chapter is still active, just not recognized. Methinks there's some politics going on here.

I'll defer to 33girl's judgement on the HQ/versus University and politics. I don't pretend to understand how all of that works, so ....

Always Alpha Gam-Let me clarify my strong reputation comment because I don't know what happened, but if they were hazing I don't want to come across like I'm saying, "Well, sure they hazed, but they're such a great group who cares."

I can't begin to explain the mind of an 18 year old girl or what they thought had happened or had heard happened, but yeah, I think there are some girls that if they know a certain chapter is popular on that campus and has always been pretty popular at that school then they either a) don't care if they were accused of hazing or b) don't think it was that big of a deal. I know what daughter heard happened the first time, but I don't know at all if any of it was true. People hear a lot of rumors and things get exaggerated, so who knows. Either way, they were willing to take that risk.

I will say - daughter had several close friends in that group the year she was there and loved them. They were also one of her favorite groups going through recruitment. This all came out after that, but I know it was sad for her to hear because the girls she knew in that chapter were fun, funny, smart girls and she couldn't imagine them doing what she heard was done.

Honestly, the rumors about that chapter have been around for over a decade. It was the only sorority at WSU I ever heard anything about, but they were just rumors as far as I know (we lived next door to each other, but really didn't interact much).

They have always been a strong presence on campus and are definitely a highly sought after bid, but what makes people think "oh they were accused of hazing but they are still so awesome"?

My cousin's best friend is in that house and will be having to move out this weekend. Friend is swearing that nothing bad happened and that this is all unfair. I hope that is true, because it would be sad for it to have happened again.

I'm hoping the chapter can recover from this.

What happens in that case when they have to move out? At this point leases are signed I would assume. Is there still dorm space available? Is WSU going to help them find places to live?

WSU will find them places to live. When I was an RA, we had to move the freshman from a fraternity was unrecognized and we spent a frantic two days finding housing for all of them. They will all have dorm rooms by the end of the week.