SAE @ Winthrop

[DeltaZeeSC]

I go to school at Winthrop University, so I thought I would post...no comments, though.

I received this e-mail through someone who works for the university. It also made the six o'clock news in Charlotte...::sighs::

*********************************************

Office of Development

Winthrop University


ROCK HILL, SC –Winthrop University has terminated registration and recognition of the Rock Hill chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity until at least 2008 after a campus inquiry determined the organization engaged in hazing during the fall 2004 semester. Sigma Alpha Epsilon International Fraternity’s Board of Directors is expected to take similar action later this month, university officials said.

"The university has zero tolerance for hazing, and we're particularly concerned with activities that may put students at risk, both physically and academically," said Dr. Frank Ardaiolo, vice president for Student Life, in explaining the action. “The parent SAE organization continues to be fully supportive of this action, and we appreciate the sense of shared commitment to high standards with which the international organization has approached these matters.”

State law defines “hazing” to include treatment “of a tyrannical, abusive, shameful, insulting, or humiliating nature,” as well as physical assaults leading to injury. Ardaiolo said the infractions leading to the chapter termination involved physical endurance tests, prolonged sleep deprivation and similar requirements being directed toward undergraduate fraternity pledges to an extent that interfered with their potential for academic success. While no student was injured during the activities, Ardaiolo noted the point of anti-hazing policies is to pre-empt harm to students, and that is why Winthrop is treating the chapter’s violations with its most serious organizational penalty. The inquiry first came about after university officials noted an unusually large number of chapter pledges were dropping out of the induction process during Fall semester.

A letter of termination was issued to local chapter officers on Dec. 21. Members who had been living in the chapter house at 718 Charlotte Avenue have been offered university housing for spring semester, which begins at Winthrop on Jan. 10.

Chapter members are banned from conducting any activities under the SAE name, wearing fraternity letters or socializing under fraternity auspices. The termination order will remain in effect until January 2008, when SAE International will be eligible to petition to register a chapter again at Winthrop University. The university may attach special conditions and restrictions to the registration at that time if it so chooses.

Ardaiolo said that the inquiry will continue once students return to campus, with members found to be responsible for violations of the university’s conduct code and/or state law subject to possible individual sanctions. That inquiry will be conducted internally by Dean of Students Bethany Marlowe and Winthrop Police Chief Frank Zebedis.

[WCUgirl]

Let's clarify. This was the TOP story on the news. It also ran again at 10 and 10:30, on at least one station.

Charlotte is such a bustling metropolis!

[Tom Earp]

Yep, happened to Same Fraternity at UM KC and were booted!

Local Main News TV ran it as top news for 8-10 minutes. Got out of bed and emailed them for so promoting it like it was the biggest thing on the News. Beat Homicides, 2.

If you are Grreekk Damn You are worse than a Killer!


Now, the ipmortant question, is when will the kids learn, it anint fun, it is a time bomb and when it goes off, OOPS!

[hoosier]

We all hate hazing and hazers, but we're still Americans and we have rights.

Hopefully, SAE has lawyers.

The news story implies the decision has been made, SAE is defunct, and we'll investigate this mess in January.

No one has been hurt, and if SAE was violating some rule, tell them to stop.

Hopefully SAE has good lawyers. How can a public university ban SAE insignia on clothing? How can a public univ. shut down a private house?

I wish they would investigate, find out who were the hazers, get rid of them (the chapter officers, if necessary), put the chapter on some type of probation, and see what happens.

[Tom Earp]

hoosier, maybe that is what makes us more logical, not A"ss"ademians!

I would love to be a Greek Affairs Advisor, I would be a Benevolent Despot!

My Way or The Highway! Play Nice or be gone damn spot!

[WCUgirl]

The inquiry first came about after university officials noted an unusually large number of chapter pledges were dropping out of the induction process during Fall semester.

They said on the news that the entire pledge class quit. Of course, there were only 5, but I think Winthrop is on deferred recruitment, and that's still a 100% droput rate.

Chapter members are banned from...wearing fraternity letters...

Does anyone know if that includes t-shirts, such as rush and mixer shirts? That would suck. In college, that's all I wore, were letters and/or Alpha Xi shirts.

[Erik P Conard]

if SAE gets such shabby treatment, what on earth would the rest
of us get? As a retired college administrator, I tire of dipshit ones
who ignore the great contributions made by the greeks.
Granted, we need to clean up our act some places; we need to have an active board and advisor. Work with us, not agin us!
But Sigma Alpha Epsilon? Come on...Winthrop and others, you
cannot get any better than SAE.
Maybe I have misunderstood the post.
But SAE is pure class...duh...and will be around long after Winthrop and their ilk are long gone. duh

[HPU PIKE]

But Sigma Alpha Epsilon? Come on...Winthrop and others, you cannot get any better than SAE.
Maybe I have misunderstood the post.
But SAE is pure class...duh...and will be around long after Winthrop and their ilk are long gone. duh

so it's the University's fault for giving the SAE fraternity, one that apparently has a great deal of "class", the boot for hazing their pledges? maybe i'm just not following...

[CarolinaDG]

One of our sisters married an SAE from Winthrop, so I'm trying to find out the "inside scoop" from him, but I just think this is sad. It said on the news (at 5:00,5:30, 6:00, 11:00, and 7 this morning) that it was due to sleep deprevation. I'm sorry, but for all we know the sleep deprevation could've been because the guys took them to a party, or made them stay up all night studying. I dunno, I guess it's b/c I come from a huge school where I hear about (some) fraternities doing a lot worse, but I'd like to know the WHOLE story behind it. Maybe the guys were mad about something else that they went to the authorities and told on the brothers? Or maybe the brothers honestly thought there was nothing wrong with what they were doing?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think hazing's wrong (no matter what guys seem to think) but I'm just curious as to what BOTH sides of the story are.

[mmcat]

another sad story...
one can just imagine the amount of work it will take to bring it back

[CarolinaDG]

I'm sorry, it just came on the news again. It also said they forced them to take physical tests.

[Erik P Conard]

I am not condoning hazing...I realize SAE in Evanston abhors a
forfeiture. But, could not have Winthrop intervened, suggested
an advisor, counseled some, done SOMETHING other than give us
more bad press? What the hell are administrators for, anyway?
I think SAE is a fine outfit, and we all stumble from time to time.
But it is a two-way street. The colleges have no trouble taking our contributions, alumni $, and so on. Why can't they see it when we are in trouble...and give a helping hand rather than a
kick in the butt?
Maybe I do not understand and I am too damned old to change.

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by Erik P Conard
I am not condoning hazing...I realize SAE in Evanston abhors a
forfeiture. But, could not have Winthrop intervened, suggested
an advisor, counseled some, done SOMETHING other than give us
more bad press? What the hell are administrators for, anyway?
I think SAE is a fine outfit, and we all stumble from time to time.
But it is a two-way street. The colleges have no trouble taking our contributions, alumni $, and so on. Why can't they see it when we are in trouble...and give a helping hand rather than a
kick in the butt?
Maybe I do not understand and I am too damned old to change.

1) It is no secret to us (people in GLOs) what is considered hazing now-a-days. Whatever they did, they broke some rules. In grade school when we were bad, we were sometimes sent to time-out .. which is essentially what the administrators are doing here. It's not a new concept. This has been happening since kindergarten..we're just a little bit more "grown-up" now. (please notice I didn't say "mature")

2) The school didn't "give" SAE bad press. This chapter did that on their own when they chose to break some rules. When you do that, there are usually consequences. Regardless of "what kind" of hazing it was, SAE did this to themselves.

3) Most all universities love to take money as long as there are people willing to give it. Most universities also have many programs for students to take advantage of. However, it is not the duty of most universities to baby-sit all the organizations that are present on the said campus. If the SAEs needed baby-sitting, maybe they should turn to their HQs for that. HQs also have many resources for helping their own chapters. If the SAE chapter in question did feel they needed help, I'm sure their HQs would have been happy to provide for their chapter.

Sorry this sounds really rude, but I'm not going to feel bad for a chapter that broke hazing rules - regardless of what hazing it was. I don't care if they were forced to do 547 pushups a day or get drunk and wear cheerleading outfits out on the town. If the National HQ doesn't think what they did was major enough to yank the charter, then more power to them! The chapter can operate un-recognized by the university. If the HQ does have a problem with it, they need to work on what happened so it doesn't happen when the fraternity is allowed back on the campus.

[hoosier]

We go to college to learn.

Sometimes a failure is a great way to learn.

I often say that the No. 1 benefit of GLO membersip is "the opportunity to fail" and hopefully learn from it.

When the entire pledge class quit, surely SAE and the leaders learned that their pledge program failed - and I suspect they would change.

The campus' expulsion ends the learning for SAE and the members. Hopefully other GLOs will learn from this.

[texas*princess]

Originally posted by hoosier
We go to college to learn.

Sometimes a failure is a great way to learn.

I often say that the No. 1 benefit of GLO membersip is "the opportunity to fail" and hopefully learn from it.

When the entire pledge class quit, surely SAE and the leaders learned that their pledge program failed - and I suspect they would change.

The campus' expulsion ends the learning for SAE and the members. Hopefully other GLOs will learn from this.

hoosier - I agree with you.

=however= not every chapter chooses to see something like this (the pledges quitting) as something to learn from. I've found that most members of GC are the ones with positive outlooks on things, but believe it or not, some of our brothers and sisters out there don't feel the same way about it.

Let me explain: Sometimes when this happens (pledges quitting) some members of the chapter might feel that maybe the pledge program isn't working.. and maybe they could do something to improve it. There will almost always be others who think they are "weeding out" the ones that "can't take it". They have that "well I did this when I was a pledge and I'm fine! They should be able to do it too" attitude. And it doesn't even have to apply to anything super dangerous like drinking gallons of beer or water.

I don't know if you ever saw that show "Fraternity Life" - but in that show the active fraternity members made their pledges do like mandatory push-ups or something. Not necessarily harmless, but why should someone be "made" to do them? Anyway, these guys felt like since that was the way it was done to them (and that was how it's been.. forever), that was what they were going to do to their pledges.... some quit.. some stuck around. I know it's REALLY bad to use this show as an example, because I know not all chapters are like that, but some really are... not all of them make situations positive like GCers.

I'm not saying these SAEs were thinking that way, because I obviously don't know them, but unfortunately there are chapters like that out there.