Alpha Chapter Woes

[EE-BO]

As long as details are being posted on the internet by the actives in question, I guess there is no harm in addressing them- and perhaps it will do some good.

It is my opinion that our General Fraternity's Risk Management Policy is a very fair one that allows chapters plenty of opportunity to self-govern while maintaining some important boundaries. Compared with the approach of several other fraternities to RM, I think we have struck an ideal balance.

Beyond that, chapters and alumni Housing Corporations may go a step further if they wish- for example a dry house. And that is their right.

The alumni who guarantee chapter house leases and/or purchase and maintain chapter houses are putting forth extraordinary amounts of money and/or putting significant personal assets at financial risks. $100s of thousands of dollars is not uncommon.

One stupid incident can bring all that crashing down. And when a chapter loses a charter and a house already paid for is sold, then it takes time and money to again get a new house years later (especially now with property values around campuses on the rise as many colleges expand.)

The "other house" was clearly a Beta house in all but legal name. A catastrophic event in that property would clearly have a major impact on the entire chapter, and thus also the real Beta House.

And by the admission of the young man who did the facebook post, the entire thing was set up to circumvent the policies in place for the chapter.

That is not initative and self-governance, that is a flagrant disregard for the guidance and wishes of those alumni and advisors who are making the financial and personal investments imperative for a chapter's success. If you don't like the rules, pledge somewhere else! It's real simple.

If enough alumni not currently involved don't like the dry house approach, then let them step up and pay the bills and do it their way. Again- real simple.

It doesn't matter if the keg was full or empty.

It doesn't matter if the people playing drinking games on the front porch were underage.

What matters is that Beta was being publicly displayed for all the world to see as a place to get drunk.

How hard is it to have social events indoors (or offsite in a dry house)? How hard is it to BYO and not have community alcohol?

Even more interesting, the person writing that facebook post said that this incident was the only charge- but then also openly states that this kind of thing goes on all the time.

Who is going to defend that? What alumni and brothers from other chapters are going to even try to defend this guy's position?

This is what I expected by the way- that as facts were revealed, it would become clear that the member review was not exactly unjustified.

Furmanbeta, your comments are well-taken and on the mark. There is clearly something not working- but when even the accused and removed members are admitting to incredibly inappropriate behavior and acting like it is no big deal, then it is hard to question these member reviews and suspensions.

More and more I wonder if this is perhaps a college culture issue? Greek Life in a dry house and under MPI standards just won't play at some schools. And I am not sure how we address that in the long term.

[Bob Dole]

We should all allow a couple of months to pass so enough information is released to where we can make valid assumptions. The members who were forced to alumni status by the general fraternity are accomplishing their goal of rallying support and sympathy. I of course regret when any ill happens to any member of our great fraternity, but for the moment I am withholding any emotions towards this instance. So far we have only heard one side of the story.

As an undergrad in the south, I have a love / hate relationship with nationals. Every southern fraternity feels the same way as my chapter (unless recently colonized; therefore they are biased). I could not imagine having big brother literally next door to me.

Playing drinking games with a keg next to the General Fraternity is like having a meth lab set up next to a police station. Not smart. If the house was occupied by Beta's, but not an official house, I don't see a problem. Does the GF say that members who are MOP are not allowed to consume alcohol as long as they are an undergraduate member?

No alcohol; what image are we trying to send out? I have a few peers who don't drink, but not many. Drinking alcohol goes hand in hand with social events. I understand the problem with underage drinking; it's against the law and should not happen. If to the public we send an image of Beta where its members do not consume alcohol, we would be lying.

Anyway; Lets give it some time. The Alpha chapter, unfortunately, is the testing ground for nationals. In the grand scheme of a bigger and better Beta, somebody is going to get fucked.


I hope everybody is having a good weekend

[EE-BO]

MPI (MOP as you call it- same thing) does not require a dry house or a commitment by the member to not drink. The dry house bit is the option of the chapter or the alumni who are paying for/managing the property.

I am not saying no alcohol- in fact I don't even like the idea of a dry house. College is not a time for babysitting. I did not like advisors trying to babysit me when I was an undergrad, and I have no intentions of doing it now.

What I am saying, and I think your post implies agreement, is that so foolish and open a display suggests that there is a general level of complete disregard for certain common sense boundaries which still allow young men to self-govern, but with some general guidance from above that can, and will, prevent a lot of potential risk management incidents.

In other words, you can see the keg and the drinking games in plain view. So what is it that you are not seeing that might be going on that indicates a wholly reckless attitude? Maybe nothing serious at all- but that is a pretty big chance to take given the stakes.

I see your point about waiting for the facts- my contention is that the facts and opinions do not belong on the internet. This is a matter for internal consideration by the chapter, alumni, and perhaps Convention if members of other chapters choose to get involved.

My comments are merely meant to address and analyze what is being disclosed publicly- and give a perspective on how that is going to be received by many, though surely not all.

This facebook post tells a lot. Just look at how it is worded. Note the following comment posted by a suspended member (excerpt from what aeBOT posted above),

"I'd sure love to know the rationale...but of course, they didn't enumerate the reasons, just gave us a ridiculously broad outline, which supposedly covers everyone. When I persisted in asking for the reason for my removal, I recieved another voicemail saying that I was removed for a number of reasons, but the "bulk" of it was my attitude and "problems with authority" as well as the incident occuring last semester at my house.

The incident was that there were reportedly some of our sophomores there playing drinking games on our porch and we had a keg out there too--which was actually empty, it was dated about 2 years old. The AO photographed it, though the photos were never released."

1. I see no understanding or willingness to accept that the "incident" was a very bad and inappropriate move. The fact it happened off the dry property is not really important. That other house was intended to be and is openly "advertised" as a "Beta House" (the Annex is the term I have heard most often). And the obvious goal of setting it up was to have all the benefits of being in a fraternity, but none of the responsibility that comes with it. Otherwise, why not live in the provided chapter house, or get a group of GDI friends together and do what you want?

The litmus test is simple. If there were to be a publicized risk management incident at that Annex house, how likely is it the press and the community would refer specifically to Beta Theta Pi? How likely is it that Beta Theta Pi GF and the chapter's advisors would face liability? I say the answer to both is "very likely", so regardless of the technicalities- that Annex is, in effect, a Beta House (my opinion anyway, certainly subject to debate.)

2. Why does this member seem to think it matters that GF has not "released" the photo or that the keg was empty? Are we a brotherhood or a sea of strangers who will settle disputes in court on legal technicalities?

Bob, when I was an undergrad I had a love/hate relationship with GF too. Goes with the territory, and it is healthy in a way. Now as an adult and advisor, I see it as a relationship that needs to be somewhat adversarial at times.

The goal, in my mind, is to let the actives in a chapter grow and develop in ways that GDIs never could. A chapter house is a mini-environment all to itself. A place where guys learn financial responsibility. A place where guys learn to manage their own lives and protect their home. A place where guys can learn to have a 2 hour fight in chapter over a critical internal issue and then put it all behind them and go have a beer and watch the game later.

Almost all advisors, alumni and GF people I have met don't want to interfere in that process. We benefitted from learning it on our own, and it would be selfish of us to try and take that away from the next generation.

But we do have to set some strict boundaries and enforce them. It is not easy and it is not fun. But it rarely needs to happen, and it only needs to happen to prevent or alleviate the kind of situation that no college student, no matter how smart or dedicated, has the life experience to understand and manage. And of course, how an advisor or GF goes about doing it makes all the difference in how it is received and dealt with.

The blog and the facebook posts claim the situation was handled poorly- which does happen sometimes. We are all human. However, the more that is said- the clearer it becomes to me that this was not the case. The more they say, the more they will unintentionally reveal- as the facebook post illustrates clearly.

And I see nothing brotherly about trying to drag other chapters (and any non-Beta who reads these public disclosures) into this mess with one-sided and emotional arguments that are not even logical at face value.

Time will tell...

[ECUJacob]

And I see nothing brotherly about trying to drag other chapters (and any non-Beta who reads these public disclosures) into this mess with one-sided and emotional arguments that are not even logical at face value.

I completely agree.

The more I see posted about this situation, the more that I feel like the membership review wasn't unmerited. If they were hosting a party that included underage drinking and the public display of drinking games, then you deserve whatever consequence(s) happen. I'm all for self-governance, but if/when you live so close to the AO, you should know better.

Alpha won some awards at Convention last year, with the most important being the Knox and Sisson Awards. These are the absolute highest honors that a chapter can receive throughout the course of a year. They are the supposed mark of chapter excellence. Are we to believe that in a period of about 6 months (4-5 of which were actual academic months) that this chapter has devolved to a point where the entirety of the membership needs to be reviewed? Something is rotten in Oxford.

I have do disagree slightly with that. You can make anything look great on paper, awards applications for example. But that doesn't mean your chapter won't have issues with brothers not representing our organization like they should. The problem with our current awards system is that they assume a chapter is doing well if they meet the awards requirements. There's more to being a good brother than earning a 2.8+ and performing community service.

[Oldest_Pledge]

This is an interesting chain of events.

While this is a sad moment in our Fraternity, maybe if the actualy facts are published, all members can learn from it and our Brotherhood can heal and grow from it.

Maybe one of our journalistic Brothers from NBC, ABC, CBS or FOX can interview both sides and create a POD cast for us.

[Coramoor]

Since when are drinking games illegal?

Why does it seem that the new Beta is trying to kill any and all aspects of being social?

There is nothing wrong with drinking! It can be a lot of fun done responsibily. Hell, it can even be a lot of fun staying up to 7 in the morning killing several bottles and getting fall down drunk with guys you haven't seen in several years!

[EE-BO]

Hi Coramoor,

I do not think drinking or drinking games are the issue. Forgive me posting over and over on this thread, but I hope it is worth being very precise about positions on a matter like this because it is being considered in the grander scheme of Beta's direction.

1. First off, let me please offer a real-life example with a hypothetical event that reflects how I see the drinking game/keg incident that one of the suspended brothers admits happened.

I started experimenting with drinking in high school, as most kids do. It was not legal for me to do so, but it was the reality of how life works.

My parents had their fun growing up and they knew I would do the same.

So they had a simple rule. I was not to drink and drive. If I did, the car was gone and I would have a curfew. I could call home at any time of night and get a safe ride home with no questions asked and no punishment. I had no curfew either. I only got fussed at once when I road-tripped to Austin one night with some friends on the spur of the moment and did not come home until noon the next day. The new rule was that if I was going to stay out overnight I needed to let them know in advance- or call early in the AM to say I was okay.

I was the most fortunate kid you could imagine. I had more freedom than almost anyone else I knew. But that ONE rule was there, and it was absolute for reasons even I at that age could understand.

Some of my friends got DWIs in high school and college. One friend of mine actually killed someone when he drove drunk. Most people I knew drove drunk a time or two. But I never did, and I never got in trouble.

My parents' approach worked because they treated me as an adult to the greatest extent possible without creating a risk for society at large or allowing me to put myself in a situation where my limited age and experience could not give me a reasonable chance to make the right decision.

GF's Risk Management Policy strikes this critical balance and gives young men a chance to prove themselves responsible and able to make these kinds of decisions without interfering with their ability to function and grow as young adults.

Chapters do not exist without alumni support- often reaching into the millions- to buy and manage homes, nor without GF support and guidance. This world of Greek Life does not exist without them. So like it or not, there are going to be rules. And most of the time, they will be put in place by men who remember the value of their fraternity experience and seek to protect these young men from harm while allowing them the vital step of maturation and self-governance that a fraternity can provide- an experience no other collegiate aspect of life can provide.

Let's go back to me in high school.

What do you think would have happened to my freedom if my parents had woken up on a Sunday morning, walked down the hall and seen 3 empty beer cans on the floor in front of my bedroom?

In strictly legal terms, all that proves is that someone drank 3 cans of beer- maybe me- and left the cans in the hall.

But in practical terms, what do you think that would have suggested to my parents to see such an openly indiscrete act?

The answer to that question is why this incident (that an Alpha member has disclosed as fact) is so very troubling.

Perception is reality, and in a world where parents or a General Fraternity place great trust in those who live under their financial and spiritual protection- so unthinking an act must naturally provoke a strong response.

2. Second, there are many other incidents besides this one that contributed to the current situation. The blog makes reference to at least two others.

3. Third, and also important, the blog- if you read very closely- infers in several places that this member review was requested from within. In other words, this looks to have started within the chapter.

I remember my life as an active Beta well. We stuck together. Even if we liked our advisors and GF representatives, we looked out for each other first. It is what makes a strong brotherhood, and it is the same kind of human reaction you will find in the business world with groups of people who work well together and are loyal to each other.

My chapter that I advise today is the same. And I would not have it any other way.

I can think of few things that would concern me more than if a group of actives from my chapter came to me seeking help in dealing with another group of actives within the chapter. It would be a pretty bad situation for that to have to happen.


In the big picture, I just hope this is not seeded in the minds of actives and alumni as a situation that reflects some large battle over Beta's future. It is being presented that way, hence my voluminous commentary, but I do not see this as a good example to reference. It is out there for discussion, courtesy of some indiscrete suspended members, but as more facts become known it is increasingly clear that this is not a battleground situation.

JMHO as always- with gratitude for the substantive discussion we have had here.

___ kai ___