Iowa State SAEs claim "ultimate pledge prank"

[hoosier]

Nearly 200 Sigma Alpha Epsilon alumni in Ames this weekend to mark anniversary
In 1903, 12 students at Iowa State College formed a club they dubbed the "Dragon Society." Its missions were similar to those of a fraternity, but fraternities and sororities were no longer allowed on campus.
______Two years later, that ban was lifted and the men formed a chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
______Now, nearly 2,000 initiations and 1,200 living alumni later, ISU's longest continuous fraternity is celebrating its 100th birthday.
______"To succeed through two world wars, the great depression and the 1960s is quite an accomplishment in itself," said Steve Churchill, president of the Iowa Gamma Alumni Association and a 1985 ISU alum.
______In recognition of the milestone, nearly 200 alumni and their family members are meeting in Ames this weekend. This will be the largest gathering of the ISU chapter alumni, Churchill said.
______The weekend schedule is complete with a hot dog reunion dinner on the front lawn of the house Friday night, a golf outing Saturday morning and a dinner and reception in the Great Hall of the Iowa State University Memorial Union Saturday night.
______"I am very lucky to be a part of it at this time," said John Wilson, the current president of the ISU chapter. "We have had a great tradition for the last 100 years."
______Also planned for Saturday is the honorary initiation of Randy Lundstrom, an Ames contractor who has helped with jobs on the fraternity house located at 140 Lynn Ave.
______"It's been quite a while since some of the guys have gotten to see an initiation," Wilson said.
______In the 1990s, Sigma Alpha Epsilon was one of the first ISU Greek houses to become alcohol-free. The move was an attempt to reform the chapter following an alleged sexual assault that occurred in the house during the spring of 1998, said Jenny Barker Devine, an ISU graduate student who detailed the history of Sigma Alpha Epsilon in a 200-page book titled "A Century of Brotherhood."
______The man was found not guilty, but the incident left a mark.
______"One of the biggest things that they have always talked about isn't the fact that the sexual assault occurred, but the fact that they had created an atmosphere where that sort of thing could happen," she said. "That is what they were most concerned with changing."
______Over the past 100 years, keeping the fraternity afloat was not always a simple task.
______The negative attention created by the alleged sexual assault caused some members to leave the house, Barker Devine said. It was hard on many of the brothers because the incident was regarded as the SAE rape trial, she said.
______"For a lot of them, it was really hard to be associated with that," she said. "It was one guy out of 80 that was accused of doing this."
______More students also left after the house became alcohol-free, Barker Devine said. The house was struggling to stay open, but a core group of about 15 brothers stayed with the house, she said.
______Staying open during World War II proved to be one of the biggest challenges for the house as many fraternities were going inactive. During the war, the chapter dwindled down to one member, according to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Web site.
______Following the war, the chapter was threatened to be banned after what may have been the ultimate pledge class prank. During the fall of 1949, that year's pledge class electrocuted a horse, leaving the horse dead on the floor of the living room of the house. Luckily for the chapter, its advisor was able to convince ISU President Charles Friley, an alum of Sigma Alpha Epsilon himself, to place the fraternity on probation.
______And as for any pranks this weekend:
______"Nothing like that," Churchill said. "We will not be electrocuting any horses this weekend."
______Two horse head lamps donated to the house in 1953 still serve as a reminder of that prank.
______They both sit on one of only two original pieces of furniture in the house.