Beta Theta Pi Closes Pepperdine Chapter (Alcohol)

[exlurker]

Article:
http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/news/2...11-01-beta.htm

Brief excerpts from the Pepperdine paper's article:

Pep deactivates Beta chapter
SAMANTHA BLONS
Assistant News Editor
Pepperdine administrators handed down a death sentence to Beta Theta Pi on Oct. 18 when they deactivated the fraternity on campus and stripped it of its privileges as a student organization.

The Student Organizations Judicial Board decided to close Pepperdine’s chapter of Beta Theta Pi, following a September 19 recruitment event at which alcohol was allegedly present. The decision was based on student reports that claimed some attendees, including active fraternity members, recruits and their female dates, had consumed alcohol at the annual “Date Night” Recruitment event. . . .


. . . Beta Theta Pi did not appeal the decision within the seven-day window Pepperdine offered them to do so. . . . . the fraternity did not appeal because the national organization also revoked its charter.

The active members of Pepperdine’s Beta Theta Pi will receive alumni status with the national fraternity, Thurling said. The nine members of the Fall 2007 pledge class have not yet been initiated, but can still join the national fraternity if they so choose . . . .

A statement by the president of the now-closed chapter is at

http://graphic.pepperdine.edu/perspe...11-01-beta.htm

[PeppyGPhiB]

Pepperdine's "dry" policy strikes again! Beta and Sigma Nu were always known as the party fraternities at Pepp, and a couple of the most popular. It was sad when Sigma Nu was kicked off campus a few years ago, and I'm sure my chapter will be sad to see the Betas go - they won't be able to compete together for their 4-peat at Homecoming this year.

I'm guessing this means Pepperdine will be looking for a new fraternity, since it already does not have enough. Whichever organization decides to colonize should realize that Pepperdine takes the alcohol policy seriously and that they need to either follow the rules, or get good at keeping it on the downlow.

[banditone]

Weak-sauce.

[Kevin]

There are some things schools just need to turn a blind eye toward. College kids are going to drink. Punishing them for doing so is ridiculous so long as nothing gets out of hand.

Since their National pulled the plug, it can't quite be so simple as this story makes it sound.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Pepperdine is affiliated with the Church of Christ, and it therefore enforces not only a dry campus, but dry organizations. Even if you meet off campus, organizations are not permitted to have alcohol at their events. It still happens sometimes, but all groups understand that they better keep their mouths shut about it or they will pay serious consequences. This was a foolish mistake by this chapter.

Beta Theta Pi simply may not have wanted one of its chapters to exist as unrecognized by the university. Since the chapter would not be permitted to do anything on campus, have registered events with other greeks, conduct recruitment, etc., they knew the chapter would die in a short period of time anyway. If I recall correctly, Sigma Nu did the same. But I was surprised to read how FAST Beta HQ pulled the charter...it sounds like it was immediate!

Still, I'm impressed with the classy response by the Beta chapter president in the school paper.

ETA: I should say that Pepperdine does mostly have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. That is, if they don't see alcohol use and no one comes to them saying anything about it, they leave everyone alone. But if you post photos on Facebook or go to a popular restaurant in Malibu where students and/or faculty are sure to be, you're putting yourself at risk.

[CTCannon]

I just saw the old news of Beta getting axed. Pepperdine is a haven for secret police style, think-they-are-Christians, pharisee acting students. There are a lot of great people too, but the amount of people who "turn you in out of love" is ridiculous. And since 86% of the students are on financial aid, it can actually really hurt someone. I was not, and therefore had more slack because of the hypocritical attitude of the university. I love Christ and I also enjoy drinking. I was ratted out, for example, in an instance where they had to search my fridge, while I was not present and find jello shots inside a capri sun box, because of an anonymous tip. The insecurity of these people is straight up sad. I have specifically seen the shallow faith they have crumble and lead to an abandonment of God. If anyone wants to see the judgment of Pepperdine's, Church of Christ, go check out the video on their(Church of Christ's) doctrine in the library. (No offense non judging COCer's) Going National was the biggest mistake we (Beta Phi Alpha) ever made and I hope the guys can rediscover true brotherhood when the school or future national connections are not involved. By the way, we had dry pledging and if you were caught drinking, you and the rest of your pledge class would be chugging near-beer running up a sand mountain.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Only about 15% of the students at Pepperdine are CoC. There are many other denominations, but a lot of students don't even claim a religious affiliation. I partied plenty when I was there, and I lived on campus all four years. If your roommates ratted on you, it sounds like you just had crummy roommates. I know there are plenty of goodie-goodies there, though, that are sheltered beyond belief, so I don't doubt what you say.

You should know, though, that Beta was always in trouble at Pepperdine. From 1996 to 2000 when I was there, and many times since. And it wasn't always for small stuff. The school looked the other way on the partying for years, but there were allegations of sexual assault I heard about, too, and then this drinking at the recruitment event. That was just sloppy; they took on the responsibility of guys they were just meeting through rush and should have been watching them like a hawk knowing that alcohol had been such an issue for the chapter historically. I do hope that Beta returns to Pepperdine some day - our chapter did a lot of stuff with you guys, and no doubt the "scene" is probably hurting for the lack of another fraternity. But for a chapter to succeed at Pepperdine, it has to learn how to play the game; plenty of chapters have been able to learn, but we've lost a few along the way.

ETA: BTW, when did you graduate? I have a feeling (since it sounds like you were in the local) it was before my time, and if that's the case, the school has progressed quite a bit since then. The student body has become more moderate/liberal and tolerant.

[GoBeta]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

Only about 15% of the students at Pepperdine are CoC. There are many other denominations, but a lot of students don't even claim a religious affiliation. I partied plenty when I was there, and I lived on campus all four years. If your roommates ratted on you, it sounds like you just had crummy roommates. I know there are plenty of goodie-goodies there, though, that are sheltered beyond belief, so I don't doubt what you say.

You should know, though, that Beta was always in trouble at Pepperdine. From 1996 to 2000 when I was there, and many times since. And it wasn't always for small stuff. The school looked the other way on the partying for years, but there were allegations of sexual assault I heard about, too, and then this drinking at the recruitment event. That was just sloppy; they took on the responsibility of guys they were just meeting through rush and should have been watching them like a hawk knowing that alcohol had been such an issue for the chapter historically. I do hope that Beta returns to Pepperdine some day - our chapter did a lot of stuff with you guys, and no doubt the "scene" is probably hurting for the lack of another fraternity. But for a chapter to succeed at Pepperdine, it has to learn how to play the game; plenty of chapters have been able to learn, but we've lost a few along the way.

ETA: BTW, when did you graduate? I have a feeling (since it sounds like you were in the local) it was before my time, and if that's the case, the school has progressed quite a bit since then. The student body has become more moderate/liberal and tolerant.

PeppyG. You're completely wrong. The campus has not gotten more liberal. The percentage of conservative/religious students was at an all time low (<10%) in the early 1990s. Now, the school actively works to increase the percentage of Church of Christ kids (>20% today). Thus, it gets a polarized student body of mostly secular kids (who want to party) and ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalists (who want to help the administration create a police state). A house divided cannot stand. The undergraduate student body at Pepperdine could not be more disfunctional. Because of Prop 8, Pep is now recognized state-wide as being socially conservative and anti-gay.

I also reject your argument that a party frat can exist at Pep if it can just "learn to play the game". In the long-term, a party frat cannot survive at Pepperdine. These are 19-year-old boys who are going to drink beer and then talk about it. The administration will get them eventually. The University can even use weasle language in its accusations like "a culture of drinking" to get rid of frats. My general feeling is that Pep is too heavy handed in managing drinking in its Greek system and is effectively killing the social scene (and negative word of mouth spreads like wildfire over Facebook & MySpace). I understand the importance of keeping kids safe and reducing the liability of the University, but an entire Greek system of service frats and sororities is pretty boring. If I were a National Frat, I would decline to colonize at Pep. Why put in the effort to set up a chapter at a University where the survival rate is so low because of a zero-tolerance alcohol policy?

[timada]

It’s best alcohol and education aren’t mixed, Although I’ve been thinking there are always alternative ideas to this problem, such as drinking only being allowed under controlled conditions, official parties that the campuses would be in charge off. Something like that might even create a stronger social unity on the campus where everyone is invited and the students can relax with the teachers etc. Campuses could offer alcohol rehabilitation treatments and advise too. My campus doesn’t have anything like this to help people.