Fraternity members indicted in student death

[EE-BO]

As L.O.C.K. has stated, this chapter is STILL active with the national organization. I checked the website myself and there is no word of any action having been taken.

What I did not know, and thank you L.O.C.K. for providing this information, is that a third of LPE chapters are not recognized by their respective colleges and that there have been 3 deaths in two years- none of them appearing to be accidents from the news reports I read.

You are right that established GLOs do stupid things too, and get themselves in the paper and make us all look bad. I never denied that.

What I am saying is that it is my personal observation that underground GLOs tend to have a disproportionate number of very serious incidents for a variety of reasons. And I was upset that behavior of these underground groups brings disrepute on us all.

There are plenty of new GLOs out there which are a viable part of an ever-diversifying Greek Community that will strengthen our presence on campuses and ensure our survival.

But from the evidence shown here, LPE is not such an organization- and not just at Texas but on a national level as well.

To be fair, it appears the national leadership bears a lot of the blame. I am not prepared to condemn every chapter and undergraduate member over incidents at a few chapters- so please don't think I am disparaging the whole operation.

A national leadership that does not take action against chapters where hazing deaths occur and, if what L.O.C.K. suggested might be true is in fact the case, if national leadership has not been able to secure basic insurance- then all undergraduate chapters have the potential to get out of control, as Texas did, and then have individual members and their parents face huge financial responsibilities whenever anything goes wrong.

It is important to note that much of the continued news coverage of this story centers around the fact the chapter has continued to operate the same as before with no adult intervention. That is what makes this particular story all the more damaging when it comes to the image of the Greek community and our ability to recruit new members.

[Tom Earp]

I do not think that there or were that many disparaging remarks against smaller GLOs.

The fact is some of the truely old line GLOs of the NIC have small chapter numbers. That then would be no point of discussion.

While I cannot say that all GLOs have had some form of R M problems, very many have in one form or another. What has also been stated by many, when a group using greek letters, anything that happens reflects on all greek orgaizations no matter what.

When one thinks about it, people only see greek letters when they see or read something in the news media.

[keeshdawg]

I do remember the media backlash created when Jack's death occurred. As a member of UT's brother fraternity to LphiE, I can tell you that those guys are real brothers in and out of thier fraternity. We will continue to support LFE, because they always have our back. We do understand that LFE is in a lot of mess not with just the accident last year but some events that occurred earlier in the fall semester. Im sure LFE will pull through and learn from thier mistakes.

[AlexMack]

So...the article states that LFE is not recognized by UT, but it's suspended until 2011. However according to this thread the chapter is still active. I'm confused...who's doing the suspension, or what the hell is going on?

[Tom Earp]

Interesting question isn't it?

[keeshdawg]

Originally Posted by centaur532

So...the article states that LFE is not recognized by UT, but it's suspended until 2011. However according to this thread the chapter is still active. I'm confused...who's doing the suspension, or what the hell is going on?

well from what I understand, the chapter is obviously suspended by UT till 2011...meaning they cant rush on campus, use the facilities...under the name LFE...but they are still a fraternity that has an active house...as far as nationals and everything goes, i have no clue

[PeppyGPhiB]

This made the front page of MSNBC.com today...

Gay slurs scrawled on frat pledge’s body

HOUSTON - The body of an 18-year-old fraternity pledge who died of alcohol poisoning was defaced with numerous anti-gay epithets and obscene drawings, according to a medical examiner's report.

Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath, a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin, died after ingesting large amounts of alcohol at a pledge party at Lambda Phi Epsilon house in December 2005, authorities said. Phoummarrath's body was found the day after.

A grand jury indicted three members of the fraternity last month on hazing charges following a yearlong investigation into Phoummarath's death.

The Travis County medical examiner's office reported that partygoers used green and black markers to write "FAG," "I'm gay" and "I AM FAT" on Phoummarath's head, face, torso, legs and feet. Someone also added drawings depicting naked men and women and blackened his toenails.

You can read the rest of the article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16563358/

[cheerfulgreek]

I never heard of this organization until this morning.