Sigma Pi Suspends East Stroudsburg chapter

[exlurker]

Sigma Pi HQ has “suspended” the chapter at East Stroudsburg U. in Pennsylvania. The Pocono Record has this article:

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbc...140325/-1/NEWS

A couple of other items published recently provide a few more details and background:

An editorial / opinion piece:
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbc...WS04/609130309

An article:
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbc...090337/-1/NEWS

It seems to me there are a couple of topics worth considering here. First, try to be considerate good neighbors with the people living near your house. Second, do your best to follow school, IFC, and your fraternity’s risk management rules, especially for crowd control and other party-related issues. Third, have a plan in place for responding to media inquiries, including what to say and what not to say. Like it or not, a comment such as this one, quoted by the paper, doesn’t help a GLO chapter responding to complaints:

"What's college without fun?" said Ian Hughes, 22, chapter president, on Friday.

[33girl]

Boo hoo. I would take the majority of this article with a grain of salt.

You live in a college town, there are college students there partying. You would have basically nothing in your town if it wasn't for the students being there.

Plus anyone who refers to an organization as "Sigma Pig" doesn't strike me as someone who is trying to be a good neighbor or give the guys a chance themselves. If they hate Greek housing being their neighbor so much, then designate an area of town where the Greeks can all live, because they can't live on campus.

This situation happens at all the little towns that have colleges here in PA, and the media coverage is rarely, if ever, fair. Because obviously, the newspaper writers are townspeople. What they fail to mention is a lot of the peeing on lawns and such gets done by HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS - i.e. THEIR KIDS - who try, and unfortunately sometimes succeed, to get into fraternity parties, or who just party on their own and then know they can blame it on the fraternity.

[EE-BO]

That makes sense 33girl,

The articles certainly suggest a Greek House out of control- but like you say, the source has to be considered carefully.

From a Risk Management perspective, this is why I think smart chapters with houses in residential areas (as was the case when I was in college) have their parties either,

1. Inside the house
2. In the backyard with a high fence
3. In the front yard only if a temporary or permanent fence is up.

People who choose to live in areas with Greek Houses should be prepared to deal with some noise. Houses near Greek chapters can actually be worth less due to the neighbors, so if you get a house for less in this way you have to live with the reasons you got a better price than you would for a comparable home in another area.

That said, no fraternity- or any organization or group of poeple- does itself any good by publicly displaying every little detail of what goes on at a party. Even if the gathering is fairly civilized, there will always be a few doing something that outsiders might object to if they have to watch or, or more especially if their kids have to see it.

I think the fraternity in this case would have a much stronger position in this debate if they were not being so careless in what they allowed others to see.

[Tom Earp]

EE-BO, the point should be well taken by all of us at this point.

Try to be good neighbors and respectful of them.

We at my Chapter with a new house have set ground rules to be enforced to the letter. If they are not, it will become a totally dry house period and no questions asked.

Also consider that it was just not the school, but also SPi National that was envolved and the Charter was pulled.

So, again, who loses?