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Dragged through the mud...
This WAS an isolated incident by one member who is not even an active member of the fraternity.
But our name as a whole has been dragged through the mud this week with all the media based on a unfactual police report. We have been hounded on our front door by reporters and photographers and even hounded while walking to class. And the worst isnt over. It is Tuesday now, and the Future, Channel 2 and others are seen across campus interviewing Lake Claire residents and snapping pictures of our house for who knows what. Maybe a follow-up.
One UCF Future reporter even spit on our lion in front of the house as he rode off on his bike after being asked to stay off property.
We look horrible right now, in the eyes of parents, students, teachers, alumni, ZTA (our homecoming partner that we can't participate with), and our own national office. Even our own brothers.
For what? One stupid mistake by one individual not affiliated with the school or the fraternity...
But why put us in the media? What about the Kappa Sig pledge who was duct taped to the ADPi lion 2 days earlier. What about the fraternity brawl on Sunday night. What about the girls in the hospital getting their stomaches pumped. Why us?
We are constantly in the spot light and we don't even want to be. We are a high profile fraternity, I guess. Producing leaders that have occupied a president or vice president position in SGA the last 14 or 15 in 30 some odd years. Having more open-house parties and alcohol violations than every other fraternity combined. Maybe we sometimes put ourselves in the spotlight. Who knows?
A pledge in the hospital with severe injuries, and the Future publishes the most apprehensible illustration I have ever seen. Show some compassion. The rest of us were right at his bedside after this incident.
What happened was a tragic accident, caused by an individual. And the rest of us are suffering for it. Morale and zeal at an all time low. Questions and curiousity from the active brothers while the leaders go through meeting after conference call after interview to deal with the situation.
The chapter itself did not do anything wrong. We can't speak for our bad apples. When I was a pledge, I did not do anything that I would not tell my own mother about. Compare that to other fraternities that make them eat straight spaghetti and tobasco sauce and scrub tile floor with their knuckles and bleach. People need to quit judging us as a whole for the mentality and habits of a few.
Thank you to all who have supported us in this rough time, especially ZTA and TKE thank you for your card.
Phi Alpha to all fellow brothers.
Like our Phoenix, our Fraternity will rise again from it's ashes, only to be born again even stronger.
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