DSP-UVa douses pledges with (bad stuff)

[DeltaSigStan]

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...221#post559221

[Lamp Guard]

I hope the men in our former pledge class are all ok. It's so important to be picky about who we let into our fraternity.

[Rock Knobbster]

What the hell is the matter with people?! What part of this has to do with the Brotherhood of Man? You want someone to be your brother, but first you have to throw urine on him? No one threw piss on Boskey or Tonsor or Pete Wacker or Allen James and it didn't seem to make them any LESS brothers!

We wonder why fraternities have such a negative image. One stupid thing like this puts a hundred positive things on the back pages. I have ZERO tolerance for this kind of crap. Every boy (I can't begin to call them men) who engaged in this activity should be expelled--not just from Delta Sig but from their university as well. This is the 21st Century for God's sake!

[hoosier]

_
_ Prosecutor declines to charge frat with hazing is dousing incident for urine dousing
By the Associated Press

Published January 24, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- A fraternity at the University of Virginia will not face hazing charges for dousing a pledge with vinegar and urine, a prosecutor said.
"Hazing, as defined in the criminal code, was not supported because there was no serious bodily harm," Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman said.


Chapman had been reviewing the case of a 19-year-old student who said he and other pledged at Delta Sigma Phi were doused with vinegar and urine and endured other violent and disgusting hazing rituals as part of a pledge ritual on Oct. 28.
While declining to press hazing charges, Chapman said Saam Fouladgar, a student at the university from Dunn Loring, has been charged with trespassing and destruction of property for an incident that occurred at an apartment on the morning of Oct. 28.
Friends and roommates of the sophomore who filed the hazing complaint called police after two men were seen entering the sophomore's apartment and later throwing furniture into the parking lot. The sophomore's identity has been withheld by police.
Fouladgar is due in Charlottesville General District Court on Feb. 20. The charges, each misdemeanors, carry a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail and/or a $2,500 fine.

[oudeltasig04]

i know it has been awhile since someone has posted on this topic, but i would like to post my opinion and i feel that this incident was a poor representation of what Delta Sigma Phi stands for.

[Basseq]

For those who visit this page looking for information on the Alpha Mu chapter of Delta Sigma Phi at the University of Virginia, please note that while this unfortunate incident did happen, most public accounts are exaggerated. (I am currently a brother in good standing at this chapter, and have had extensive conversations with brothers and alumni who were pledges during this period.) I'm not trying to downplay the situation or the severity of hazing: things were still out of control.

Regardless, know that in 2003, all but eight brothers left the house, either voluntarily or through Nationals intervention (some brothers left while still in good standing and were not involved in the situation). The house has been rebuilt since then, and currently consists of a strong brotherhood of men who understand that hazing is not what one does to one's brothers. There are no active brothers who were in the fraternity at the time of these events.

In other words, it's a completely different house.

For more information, please visit Delta Sig at UVA.

(PS: I'm aware that this topic is old and I'm resurrecting it. Why? Merely because this is the third or fourth result in a Google search for "UVA Delta Sig" (even though it's old news) and I'd rather address the issue than let it lie, unanswered, for potential brothers and/or their parents to find and misinterpret.)

[saamfou]

Now that Basseq has resurrected this post, I figure it is time for me to offer my side of this event. I am Saam Fouladgar and I (along with all of DSP) was unfairly characterized in most of the coverage of this event.

Basseq is completely right about things being exaggerated.The fact is that what transpired was a personal argument between myself (a brother at the time) and my little brother (pledging at the time). We continue to be great friends and have even been roommates since this incident. Unfortunately, this argument occurred at the fraternity house where I lived and was immediately after an organized exercise session. Also, a third-party who witnessed portions of the argument panicked and got authorities involved unnecessarily. This final piece led to the escalation and exaggeration of all the events.

The truth is that everyone who was close to the situation knows that any pledge activity during the UVA Delta Sigma Phi pledge process was identical to what one might expect to experience at high school football or wrestling practice, or in some cases, military exercise. Unlike most other fraternities, our pledge process was based on strengthening the pledge's mind while strengthening and challenging the pledge's body, through cleaning responsibilities to build dedication to the house, team activities to build camaraderie, or exercises to push the body to its perceived limits and then break through them. Basically mopping, push-ups, and conferences.

On that fateful night after a normal pledge activity, things did get a bit out of hand and escalate into an argument between myself and my own little brother in the fraternity, but that is the only shred of truth you will read in any of the accounts of this story. One common misperception regards someone's account regarding "substances" that people were doused with. The only substance that any pledge was "doused" in was vinegar. During push-up drills, one of the brothers thought it would be funny if he poured vinegar on a pledge who is very health conscious and eats a lot of salad. It was a joke, to which the pledge in question was amenable to at the time.

What ultimately launched the fraternity into a state of turmoil was when publicity surrounding my altercation with the pledge and opened the door to scrutiny from authorities who were begging for an example to be made out of fraternities. We all know that frat scandals make great headlines.

Basseq is right, this situation was exaggerated. The subsequent "re-organization" rendered our frat unrecognizable so all but 2 brothers left in protest. I'm sure that those who remained and continue to be members had and are having a great time, etc. it just wasn't what the rest of us signed up for.

So hopefully people who bother to look up my name and see me associated with this debacle would also bother to read my side of it. All I can say is that if you don't believe me, just notice how the supposed "victim" is one of my best friends in the world and that all the charges and accusations regarding hazing, etc, were dropped entirely.