Fraternity Life

[Kevin]

The Buffalo News
March 20, 2003

Fraternity featured on MTV suspected in hazing

By STEPHEN WATSON
News Staff Reporter

Sigma Chi Omega, a University at Buffalo fraternity, is receiving a lot of
national exposure as the star of a weekly reality-TV program on MTV.

Now that exposure is coming back to bite the fraternity. The university has
suspended it because officials say some of the activities caught on film
might be hazing.

UB acted after watching the first episodes of MTV's "Fraternity Life"
series and receiving complaints from viewers, said Dennis R. Black, UB's
vice president for student affairs.

The show, which began airing Feb. 26, is based on footage the network shot
in Buffalo in fall as MTV cameras followed a group of Sigma Chi pledges -
students trying to win fraternity membership.

"Everybody who watches expresses concern about the forced calisthenics or
some of the apparent treatment, which could constitute embarrassment,
harassment or ridicule," said Dennis R. Black, UB's vice president for
student affairs.

He was referring to scenes that showed Sigma Chi brothers interrogating
students under the glare of bright lights and, later, requiring pledges to
do push-ups as punishment.

Colin Healy, Sigma Chi's president, said fraternity members don't think
they've done anything wrong and want to work with UB officials to get the
suspension overturned.

"In the grand scheme of things, we definitely don't think that what we did
was hazing, but we need to find out what the school thought they saw,"
Healy said. The network doesn't want to get involved.

"This is really between the fraternity and the university," said Eileen
Quast, an MTV spokeswoman.

"Fraternity Life" and a companion MTV series, "Sorority Life 2," have
brought national attention to UB and Buffalo, portraying the area's
waterfront, architecture and other features in an attractive light.

The MTV Web site, in promoting the fraternity series, plays up the alleged
excessive drinking of Sigma Chi members. But none of the "Fraternity Life"
episodes has shown pledges enduring the type of severe hazing - such as
forced consumption of alcohol - that led to the deaths of students at other
colleges.

Delta Xi Omega, the UB sorority featured on "Sorority Life 2," has not been
disciplined.

UB defines hazing as "any action that produces mental or physical
discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, ridicule or impairment of academic
efforts," according to a statement on the Student Affairs Web site.

Black said none of the students featured on "Fraternity Life" had
complained about their treatment on the show, but the school's policy is to
immediately suspend any organization suspected of hazing, to protect
students from potential harm.

A different set of students is trying to join Sigma Chi this semester, and
the temporary ban on official fraternity activities applies to pledging
activities, Black said.

The decision to suspend the fraternity was made last week, while students
were on spring break, but fraternity members weren't notified until early
this week.

Fraternity members remain in good standing, pending the investigation by
university police and officials from UB's Greek Affairs and Judicial
Affairs offices.

(c) 2003 The Buffalo News.