Silver Turtle (I believe it was her) published a link a couple weeks ago to the fraternal news Yahoo group, here it is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fraternalnews/messages/1
I'm going to suggest John add this link to the page somewhere so anyone who wants to go to it and read can do so. You don't have to sign up for the group to read the messages.
OK, flame me....I think keeping a list of negative Greek incidents going on this page is a horrible idea.
DeltAlum, I know what you are trying to say and I applaud your passion so long after your college days, but I'm not sure the way you go about it isn't counterproductive. I also don't think it's very cool of you to intimate that we are "sticking our heads in the sand" if we'd rather talk about thong sandals (
newbie) or other aspects of Greek life rather than wringing our hands over hazing and alcohol abuse 24/7.
I don't think there's any regular on this board who isn't aware of hazing and alcohol problems - I've never seen a post called "my fraternity/sorority would never do that!" Not to mention some of the other problems we face like unfriendly schools, eating disorders, scummy landlords.....I could go on and on. I think I speak for all of us when I say I wish I could rip the paddles and/or bottles out of some of these idiots' hands.....but unfortunately, I'm not a genie. I can't blink my eyes and be there. I can (and everyone can) educate the people in my orbit with positive reinforcement and showing them better ways to do things, not constantly telling horror stories and threatening "this could happen to you!" Would you listen to that when you were 19? I doubt it.
Plus, this board serves as a good PR tool for the Greek system in general. Rushees come on here and see people from across the system and across the country interacting with what, it's easy to see, have become close bonds. I'd hate to have someone thinking about Greek life come on this site and see a list of hazing incidents (with no follow-up of what was done to remedy them) and chapter closings and get turned off to the whole system. "Just as I thought....all they do is haze and drink."
Plus that other thread that fancyface started asking for experiences/advice about chapter closure...was it really necessary to bring up the LSU SAE incident from FOUR YEARS AGO? (Hey, in other hot news, I hear Ford's going to pardon Nixon.) The alums of that chapter have had to hang their heads over that for 4 years now (I mean the old alums, not the ones that were there when it happened), why keep twisting the knife? She was asking about personal experiences - didn't you say that one of the chapters you advised was closed? Why not talk about that, instead of dragging 2 other fraternities through the mud? Pike4Life did, very well.
I just hate the idea of reprinting stories that we know nothing or next to nothing about. I would say unless you were in it, or very close to it, you don't know what the hell happened. I saw some very dear friends of mine have their fraternity ripped from them - the supposed reason, "risk management issues" but that was NOT the reason, I assure you. I'm not saying all the news stories are trumped up charges, but I've seen enough crap go down to know that I wouldn't believe anything unless I dug into it.
I think what I am trying to say with this rather lengthy post is that negativity very rarely smashes negativity.