Again, if you don't know what you are talking about you should not make insulting and definitive statements. I would not say that Barbie is a so-and-so because of her habit of taking a single phrase from a news story out of context and giving a single campus newspaper write absolute credence. I would not say that ghostwriter is a name calling so-and-so. I don't know you and anything I read has to be understood in that context. And just out of dignity I will not stoop to name calling even if they insult my family.
I just want to give a personal description from my conversations of what a few brothers at the Cornell chapter feel. I'm not going to follow up on this since publicizing the disagreement really doesn't do any good.
There was already a lot of dissatisfaction with Kappa Sig. Whether fair or not there was the perception that Kappa Sig isn’t interested in being at peer schools. The only remaining Ivy is Penn and there is serious talk underway there too about leaving. This isn't only an issue with the fraternity's lack of chapters at Ivies but also in the region and at schools of a certain academic stature. There was a feeling that the organized alumni network of the Cornell chapter was the only real benefit of affiliation, and that the national fraternity was lacking relative to other fraternities.
Guys in the chapter were pretty vocal about their view that the fraternity puts chapters on various forms of probation arbitrarily, and that it has an expensive process to return. (The probation came about because certain folks from the regional office allegedly saw perfectly respectable pictures with a couple of individuals holding red cups.) The feeling was that regional coordinators had very little usefulness except in penalizing the fraternity and that the attitude was negative, disrespectful and domineering. Brothers at that chapter told me that there is a push for numbers and money and that the national office kicks out chapters or kills colonies more than any fraternity. Realistically every national office has to be concerned with with growth, money and insurance costs but apparently some felt this was excessive.
As you probably know, Kappa Sig left the NIFC and not everyone was happy with that. Some in the fraternity felt that the standards and culture of NIFC fraternities was lost when the national fraternity left the organization and that related to the above issues. Again, let me stress that I have no judgments on the matter.
Every fraternity has internal discord and for Kappa Sig this is not one chapter as I understand it. Another recent incident involved the mother chapter at University of Virginia just last week. The Virginia chapter threatened to cut off access to a historical Kappa Sigma site on campus where the fraternity was founded. Many of the issues at Virginia I understand from word of mouth are the same as Cornell's.
The students at the Cornell chapter were weighing their options when this recent incident occurred.
The situation was as I understand it, was not irresponsible drinking but a medical situation. The students were forthright in saying that said student was drinking moderately. (The concern was that the student who has health issues might have had some trouble with an adverse reaction.) The national office had banned all drinking in a highly contentious exchange. Some of the brothers at Cornell felt that it had more to do with politics and some historical matters in the last decade within the fraternity.
For the Cornell chapter of Kappa Sig this incident also was contentious for another reason. The Dean at Cornell, a Mr. Apgar, of notoriety for his "zero tolerance" anti-hazing and anti-drinking speeches, was under the gun because Ivy League and national blogs (Gawker, Huffington Post, etc.) were running stories about two other fraternities (PKA and ADPhi) and the apparent double standards at Cornell towards parties and hazing.
Sources related to the national and on Ivy blogs that Cornell's PKA and ADPhi were perhaps hazing. Upon hearing this story, PKA (with an outlandishly egregious history of bad behavior) had a hearing and was kicked off campus despite strong support their alumni and national office support. The very wealthy and very well-connected brothers in ADPhi were put on an apparently lenient probation. A year earlier, another extremely wealthy and well-connected fraternity Psi Upsilon was put on probation by its own alumni housing corporation because of a string of publicized incidents but the university maintained recognition and the school allowed the fraternity to continue to operate even then for fear of upsetting any well connected individuals.
The anger towards Apgar is not just because of the hypocrisy here but because he apparently broke one of the schools important policies governing these issues. A well known policy exists at Cornell where students are urged to err on the side of caution take any sick student to the hospital and to report any suspected or possible drinking. This is done under the provision that the student(s) who was possibly drinking or those who accompanied the student or called emergency services will have enjoy strict confidentiality regarding any and all outside parties. Apgar took it upon himself to break the school's policy and to attribute the situation not to the individual possibly drinking but to all those who took the young men in to the hospital and by implication. The individuals pointed out that there was not even a hearing, and while they admit that the young man was likely drinking (as Apgar reported) they were not allowed as a group to explain their circumstances nor did Apgar even have the courtesy to tell them that he was going to break Cornell policy and report the incident to an outside organization. The outside organization in this instance was not the campus paper or IFC but the national fraternity. One can only assume that Apgar took this measure because he knew that in the scheme of things it would take away attention from him and that he could get away with it because Kappa Sigma neither had the weight as a chapter with the school or the support from the national fraternity. That was rather sad because what the Cornell Kappa Sigma chapter could say of itself was that it was one of the oldest and was known for being low-key and studious and virtually never had problems with the IFC or judiciary.
The men of the chapter did not even have a chance then to make a final decision and plans. And frankly, the whole thing had to be a bit humiliating as it underscored Kappa Sigma's position relative to other fraternities. That's just my take but I did find that he guys were really torn up about the whole thing and at least one guy said it really was the worst timing with exams coming up.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kappa Sig at Cornell break off as a local or re-affiliate which is not an option for NIFC but Kappa Sig isn’t a NIFC fraternity. They are known as a smart, responsible and ambitious group of guys. It may be time to move on.
I am not saying that their views are valid and I will not get into an argument. They will figure something out. It just happens that I have relatives in the chapter and at another Kappa Sig, as well as several other fraternities. (Big family, lots of boys through the years, most of us in the military before college.) I've spend lots of time visiting and hearing their perspective. Regardless of anyone's perspective they will graduate from one of the best universities in the world and be successful and the chapter will figure out what's best for them. Far more than I meant to write.
Hybrid Mode
