Lincoln Journal Star
May 17, 2006
http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/05/17/local/doc446a5243de49a564273883.txt
Secret fraternity newsletters still circulating on UNL campus
By MATTHEW HANSEN / Lincoln Journal Star
The Spring 2006 cover page of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Senior Scroll advises readers to take the contents of its newsletter lightly.
Flip over the cover of the secret fraternity publication and you'll find eight pages of jokes about homosexual fraternity boys and ugly sorority girls, cracks about race, ethnicity, eating disorders, promiscuity and drug use, a handful of hardcore pornographic photos and a homemade crossword puzzle in which the correct answer for 18 Across is "erectile dysfunction."
One fraternity member who won't be named here because of decency standards and the possibility of a libel lawsuit is "arguably the biggest bitch on campus," the newsletter says.
One sorority girl is called out for flirting with other girls' boyfriends.
"We're not going to ruin your reputation," the newsletter says of a sorority on campus. "That was done hundreds of years ago when your chapter was started by fat chicks and hobos.
"Some believe the letter and a similar publication printed by secret fraternity Theta Nu Epsilon are harmless fun, allowing the members of the university's Greek system to laugh at one another while keeping wayward fraternities and sororities in line.
The newsletters anger other student leaders, who see the Senior Scroll and TNE as symbols of the very image the Greek system is trying to shed.
Much to university officials' chagrin, the letters continue to appear on the front steps and kitchen tables of the campus' fraternities and sororities and often in the hands of a furious parent several times a year.
"This is the grossest one I've ever seen," James Griesen, UNL's vice chancellor of student affairs, says as he leafs through a copy of the Spring 2006 Senior Scroller.
"In general, fraternities do some great things. But when you get a group of guys out there like this spewing hatred, it drags down the whole Greek system.
"Theta Nu Epsilon is the grandfather of the university's secret fraternities. Reportedly founded at Yale as an offshoot to the infamous Skull and Bones secret society, TNE made its way to the University of Nebraska by the late 19th century.
The Secret Scroll Society is a newer, smaller group that doesn't have the national prestige of TNE.
Locally both groups recruit members only from UNL's fraternity system; there are perhaps two-dozen members in each secret society at any given time, according to Robert Joseph, a former Interfraternity Council president.
The historic importance of secret fraternities control of student government, for example, or a strong alumni support system guaranteeing younger members lucrative jobs has all but disappeared at the university, Griesen says.
The secret societies have also stopped decorating campus sidewalks with their logos and defacing walls and library drop boxes with their stickers, according to Griesen and Linda Schwartzkopf, director of Greek Affairs.
But the newsletters remain, throwbacks to an era some associate with "Animal House" and others remember as a time when the Greek system reigned supreme.
"There's a certain amount of tradition that goes along with these clubs," says Bobby Dudzinski, the president of Sigma Phi Epsilon, who says the letters show up on his fraternity's dining room table every semester.
The fraternity members pass it around and laugh at most of the jokes, he says.
"The newsletters are used to make sure those people know their actions aren't going unnoticed ... Sometimes it may not be the best way of calling people out, but it definitely seems to get the most response.
"Sometimes that response is from parents, especially the mothers and fathers of UNL sorority members mentioned in the newsletter, Griesen says.
The longtime vice chancellor of student affairs has fielded countless calls from angry parents over the years asking him if he could rid campus of a group like TNE.
The answer, Griesen says, is no.
"I've had mothers in here distraught because their daughter has been portrayed as a prostitute," he says. "How do you stop a group like this? It's secret.
"About 15 years ago university police did catch a trio of students painting the TNE skull-and-keys logo on a sidewalk and reported it to Griesen, the vice chancellor says.
Rather than reprimand them the actual infraction, destruction of property, is fairly minor, he says he demanded the trio give him a sealed envelope containing the names of every UNL fraternity member in TNE.
Griesen told the three students all three were student Greek leaders that if he saw any other sign of Theta Nu Epsilon's existence on campus before they graduated he'd open the envelope and go after every member.
If TNE disappeared from public view, the last one to graduate could pick up the still-sealed envelope and destroy it.
"We had pretty good control of it for years after that," the vice chancellor says, smirking.
Former UNL student Robert Joseph says he tried to convince the secret societies to be more positive in their newsletters when he served as president and then the graduate assistant of UNL's Interfraternity Council.
He corresponded with both TNE and the Senior Scrollers using group e-mail addresses he found in their newsletters or got from friends. He also talked to friends he believed to be in a secret society.
(Both groups' e-mail addresses were inactive when the Journal Star attempted to contact TNE and the Scrollers last week.)
Joseph says he's not bothered by the secret societies themselves because they allow members from different fraternities to meet one another.
He is bothered by the newsletters' content.
"It's just crass," he says. "And I can't remember ever seeing a significant change in a (fraternity or sorority) after they were singled out in a newsletter.
"Adam Macdissi, a May UNL graduate who's attending the University of Nebraska Medical Center this fall, knows what it's like to be singled out in the newsletter.
"I laughed," he says of the negative mention of him in the Spring 2006 Senior Scroll. "I can pretty much take it, but some of the people they pick on can't handle it as well.
"Macdissi's biggest beef with the 2006 newsletters wasn't their portrayal of certain sorority members as promiscuous or certain fraternity members as uncool.
"Especially compared to last year, they weren't very funny," he says."They were just dumb."
(c) 2006 Lincoln Journal Star.
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