100 Students Arrested - which fraternity is involved?

[sdsuchelle]

The Union-Tribune posted an op-ed article today about the whole debacle that is pretty sensationalist/anti-Greek:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/n...c8jenkins.html

Greeks allegedly turned to greed

UNION-TRIBUNE

May 8, 2008

My word, times have a-changed at my old alma mater.

When I attended San Diego State University in the late '60s – and when I taught there in the '70s – the typical Greek male was a well-groomed, well-proportioned business major with his clear eye on a corporate future.

Pot? Diet pills? Maybe a few times as an “experiment.”

But the after-hours focus was on Bud, not sinsemilla buds. Acting out and throwing up, not freaking or munching out, was the normal outcome of weekend excess.

The avid midnight (and noontime) tokers of that absurd era were the long-haired non-Greek students, many of whom hitchhiked from the corner of Montezuma and Remington roads with hand-painted signs telegraphing their beach destination – OB, MB, PB – to passing VWs.

These were the hippie kids who listened to KPRI, San Diego's seminal FM “underground” rock station, and bought (and sold) drugs in a loosely organized black market.

By and large, fraternity men (and well-mannered sorority women) were the reassuring counterweights to the counter-cultured students who routinely risked going to jail either as a small-time trafficker or illegal drug user.

These were the opposite poles I observed every day on campus: The Greeks were, by definition, good, if not gods; the Freaks were, by definition, soft-hearted outlaws.

That old social order explains why this balding Boomer is having a hard time digesting the giant drug bust on Montezuma Mesa.

Mind you, I'm not at all shocked that drug use is rampant at State or any other college. The culture is besotted with drugs. I watch TV series like “Weeds.” I've seen movies like “Blow.”

No, what blows me into the weeds is that seven – seven – fraternities are alleged to have been involved in the campus criminal ring.

At State, the Big Men on Campus, it appears, have devolved from scholar-athletes and future captains of industry to below-life entrepreneurs whose infernal products killed a Poway girl a year ago.



Theta Chi, the fraternity investigators identified as a major hub of cocaine retailing on campus, prides itself on its lofty statement of purpose.

This sacred creed is repeated by members at chapter meetings.

For your inspiration, here is the Theta Chi creed:

I believe in Theta Chi, its traditions and its ideals. Born of sturdy manhood, nurtured by resolute men, ennobled by high and sacred purpose, it has taken its place among the educational institutions of America as a promoter of knowledge, an advancer of culture and a builder of character.

It inspires true friendship, teaches truth, temperance and tolerance, extols virtue, exacts harmony, and extends a helping hand to all who seek it.

I believe in the primacy of Alma Mater; in the usefulness of my Fraternity, in its influence and its accomplishments and I shall do all in my power to perpetuate its ideals, thereby serving my God, my country and my fellow man.

In light of recent events, I'm submitting an SDSU update of the flowery old mission statement:

I believe in Theta Chi, its criminal business ethic and its dedication to peak highs on campus. Reborn of brazen dope dealers, nurtured by Mexican cartel gangsters, enriched by technological enterprise, it has taken its place among the gun-toting drug merchants of America as a promoter of psychotic frenzy, an advancer of fatal overdoses and a builder of brotherly wealth.

It inspires sleazy capitalism, teaches Deceit, Intoxication and Exploitation, extols honor among thieves, exacts a fair cut from nearly pure Colombian cocaine, and extends a helping hand to all who seek a hit of dope via text message.

I believe in the primacy of the bong and the coke spoon; in the cover from narcs provided by my Fraternity; in its market penetration and I shall do all in my power to enlist more student marks, thereby serving my supplier, my brothers in crime and, last and definitely least, my dumb-as-dirt clients.



As charges are filed – and sentences handed down – young lives will be put on hold, their futures frozen behind bars.

The district attorney, stung by embarrassing reversals in court, will be only too happy to throw the hardback book at the campus dealers and their eager clients.

Justice, especially when it comes to drugs, is a sort of lottery. A relative few get caught. That's the take-the-money-and-run reality of the drug trade.

One of the dirty, but obviously undocumented, secrets is how much illicit money has funded legitimate businesses and real-estate purchases for now law-abiding citizens.

So the wonder isn't that students broke the law to feel like big shots and make easy money on a product whose black-market value is propped up by its illegality.

No, the wonder, at least to me, is that a network of fraternities, societies that draw upon religious and patriotic values, could appear to operate as virtual fronts for a drug ring.

If it were possible to go back to SDSU in the '60s or '70s and report that news flash from the future, long-haired students would have looked at you as if you were crazy and said, “C'mon, man. No way. But whatever it is you're smoking, can I have a hit?”