Beta Theta Pi pledge dies at Penn State

[aephi alum]

This is alarmingly similar to the case of Scott Krueger.

Scott pledged Fiji at MIT back in 1997. One evening, he and his pledge brothers were allegedly placed in a room and told they couldn't leave until they'd consumed all the alcohol in the room. Scott passed out from alcohol poisoning. The brothers were apparently afraid to call 911 that night because they didn't want to get arrested for hazing and providing alcohol to minors (real brotherly behavior!), but did so the next morning when they found he was still unconscious. He was admitted to MGH with a 0.41 BAC -- AFTER he'd been out cold for several hours. He spent a couple of days in a coma before he died.

Now all freshmen must live in the dorms. Before this, freshmen who pledged fraternities or independent living groups moved in as soon as they signed. (At the time, three out of five NPC sorority chapters had houses, and those houses weren't big enough to house all the sisters, never mind new members.) The campus is still wet, but alcohol consumption, particularly underage drinking, is more strongly policed.

This incident happened nearly twenty years ago. When will we learn??

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

This incident happened nearly twenty years ago. When will we learn??

We won't so long as our membership is comprised primarily of 18-22 year olds. For the vast majority of us, nothing remotely approaching what happened in your example or with Penn State Beta ever happened and I think that is the key point to argue here.

The comments sections of so many of these articles about this PSU incident are pretty disturbing. So many people, despite in the U.S. not really having a legal leg to stand on, want to see the entire Greek system disbanded.

As much as we know about the good our groups are responsible for, we could probably do a much better job communicating that to the public because if we don't, we're going to start to see an impact in our recruiting, and if you want to look at the last 50 years in terms of participation in Greek Life, I'd say we've already felt a lot of that effect.

By refusing to do something substantial, we're making a choice to cater to and recruit the sorts of members who are responsible for a lot of the bad decision making which results in these problems.

[navane]

Originally Posted by Kevin

By refusing to do something substantial, we're making a choice to cater to and recruit the sorts of members who are responsible for a lot of the bad decision making which results in these problems.

I am interested in your thoughts on this. Can you expand on your statement?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by navane

I am interested in your thoughts on this. Can you expand on your statement?

Our organizations are structurally designed in such a way that allows these risky behaviors to continue. I understand our organizations have to remain financially feasible, but it seems like in this case and others, we have these chapters, which by most measures are amazing chapters with 200 men, outstanding facilities, alumni support, etc.

It's time to consider some redesign work.

What happened at PSU was some sort of hazing related to initiation in some way, right?

Where were the alumni? How come they continue to tolerate this risky behavior? Why did no alumni intervene at any point? How were they able to have forced consumption of liquor as part of their pledging process and the alums be none the wiser?

We can't afford to have paid advisers living in every chapter facility and HQ isn't going to put surveillance equipment in every house. The only reasonable solution is that national organizations need to do a better job at cultivating alumni volunteers and getting buy in when those volunteers inject themselves into all aspects of the chapter.

NPC organizations are much more on top of this from what I've seen, which is why we recently added a former AXiD president to our advisory board. Why reinvent the wheel?

[JonInKC]

Originally Posted by Kevin

The comments sections of so many of these articles about this PSU incident are pretty disturbing. So many people, despite in the U.S. not really having a legal leg to stand on, want to see the entire Greek system disbanded.

These commenters should be careful what they wish for. Here's the thing. You and I both know that "abolishing" Greek life would only make the chapters go underground. Once divorced from the University and off campus, the school would have zero control on anything that went on. Like you mentioned, freedom of association. By allowing use of campus facilities/property the school has some control of Greek life.

If they think it's bad now, imagine if every chapter went sub rosa and there were no rules.

I guess if we got rid of fraternities and sororities 18-21 year olds would quit doing stupid things, right?