Theta Chi at Duke Going Local

[exlurker]

The October 19 Duke Chronicle has an editorial supporting the option of local fraternities:

http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/s...echronicle.com

[Tom Earp]

Interesting read, but is there not already an ADPhi organization?

If they had no house, that could also be a problem for them.

Now, it seems they may have a bigger problem being a very small fish in the biggr pond.

If the Alumni do not back them, they better have deep pockets to pay for insurance. If they do not have insurance then the local members will be responsible for any R M problems.

A very deep decission to be and has been made!

Duke is not the only School with a good reputation are they?

Look around.

[TSteven]

Good article.

To be clear, I understand and support members of a chapter (even the whole chapter) that might disaffiliate from their inter/national fraternity because they no longer feel "connected" to it. Hell, Sigma Chi Fraternity was founded after six members of Delta Kappa Epsilon's Miami chapter resigned. I do want to add that Sigma Chi Fraternity was founded with the concept of being a national fraternity and not a "rouge" chapter of Deke at Miami. And no, I don't feel that any disaffiliated group needs to do that (i.e. be national).

However, just because a group does not want to abide by campus rules, they should not be given a free pass. They can work to change the campus culture. And if the campus decides to change their rules, then great. But if not, then the group needs to either adapt or stay off campus. By "off campus" I mean not recognized nor have any of the rights and privileges afforded recognized campus groups.


I am still curious what the situation is like where there is both a disaffiliated group and the chapter and both are recognized by the campus.

[g41965]

Epsilon Theta is a local fraternity at MIT, it was a Sigma Nu Chapter from 1922-1977, Sigma Nu recolonized at MIT in the late 1990's lets get KT Snake or some other active Sigma Nu poster's take on this, what say you on the situation at MIT does the former chapter hurt the new chapter

[greekalum]

Epsilon Theta is also now a co-ed organization that bears little to no resemblance to a traditional men's fraternity chapter. I don't think they impact each other at all- they draw from completely different pools of students.

(ETA- is the MIT Sigma Nu house the old Fiji house?)

[TarHeelGirl]

I have lots of friends at Duke, and I've had a bit of exposure to their Greek system through them. The impression that I get is that, in recent years, Theta Chi has really been struggling with numbers (they lost their section on campus a couple years ago because they repeatedly failed to fill it) and that, no matter which way the chapter is trying to paint their motivation, it's probably more of a "you can't fire me, I quit!" kind of move in regards to their national.

As far as Eta Prime and what used to be Delta Phi Alpha, they were chapters of Kappa Sigma and SAE that disaffiliated with their national after being threatened with sanctions - Kappa Sigma had a pledge hospitalized with alcohol poisoning and then an intoxicated brother fall from a window when they were supposed to be dry (link), and SAE, among other serious issues, had a 16 year old girl allege that she was raped while attending a party there (link). However, this does not seem to have remotely stunted their recruitment and socialization efforts, especially the latter. As you can see in the Chronicle article, every time either is mentioned, it is always "Eta Prime - formerly Kappa Sigma", etc. so they retain the informal recognition that way. The school has also made a practice of sending letters to the parents of freshmen warning them about these unaffiliated fraternities, which of course heightens the "forbidden fruit" factor. Yet, they never seem to have any problems recruiting or mixing with the well-regarded sororities on campus, however against the rules that might be, and Eta Prime even enjoyed some notoriety last year after several women were found baby oil wrestling in the basement of their off-campus house when police came to investigate a noise complaint. However, I do find it interesting that Delta Phi Alpha has decided to pursue affiliation with a national fraternity in spite of their insisting for years that they were getting along fine without one.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just wanted to shed some light on the "off-campus fraternity" situation at Duke since I know a little bit about it. It just seems to me that this is less of a rebellion but rather more of a desperation move on the part of this chapter, but that's just me speculating.