The Machine

[Jhawkalum]

Esquire magazine wrote a huge expose in 1984 or 1985 about Alabama's "Machine" and how it basically runs the student government.

Part of the article included a very sad story about how one African-American student was a strong candidate for student body president. This young man's father also happened to run a pizza place in Tuscaloosa. "Machine" supporters and other greeks told everyone to stop going and ordering from the pizza shop because an African-American had the nerve to run for office. The pizza shop eventually went out of business and the student could no longer afford to go to college.

I was an editor of my college's newspaper and I corresponded with some members of the Crimson & White -- the Alabama student newspaper. Members of one of KU's student body coalitions had stolen thousands of newspapers from the printer after seeing an unfavorable article written about one of their candidates. From what I understand the Machine is alive and well at Alabama.

After doing a little investigating, I learned that KU had a version of Theta Nu Epsilon called "Grapevine" which from what I understood was a secret group of greeks who sought to have control of the KU student government -- who knows if they are still around. Frankly, I think student governments on most campuses are a joke -- they are the same people from high school who campaigned for homecoming queen.