Right to Wear Greek Letters Vindicated at UT Arlington

The SigEp Chapter at UT Arlington was put "under investigation", and was told they could not even wear their letters. After a student rights organization (FIRE) began asking embarrassing questions about the legality of such a ruling the college backed down. (BTW - the chapter was cleared of the original allegations).

Right to Wear Greek Letters Vindicated at UT Arlington - The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - FIRE

by Peter Bonilla

Recently, FIRE intervened at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) after the Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) fraternity brought to our attention what I suspect is an all-too-common punishment against fraternities and sororities: the prohibition on displaying their letters in any way while the chapter was under investigation. After FIRE brought this issue to UTA's attention, the university promised that students and student organizations at UTA enjoy the full freedoms of the First Amendment. 

Here's the background on the chain of events resulting in this unconstitutional punishment for SigEp, as we wrote in a letter to UTA President James D. Spaniolo on September 13: 

Following an off-campus party held February 4, 2012, which resulted in allegations of "hazing," UTA's Sigma Phi Epsilon ("SigEp") chapter was notified in a February 10 letter from SigEp national Chapter Services Director Josh Hodnichak that it was to "immediately cease any and all chapter activities." These activities included "new member activities, Inter-Fraternity Council events, intramural games, social events, chapter meetings, and all other chapter activities." SigEp complied with these orders. SigEp President Troy Maikowski received a similar letter, also dated February 10,from Heather L. Snow, then director of UTA's Office of Student Conduct, ordering the fraternity to "cease and desist all activity" while under investigation. Snow's letter, however, went so far as to ban "wearing of letters on campus." Snow's letter also made clear that the order covered "both on and off campus activities and include[d] formal and informal group gatherings," and warned that "[a]ny further activity that represents the Texas Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon either on or off campus during the suspension period may result in additional disciplinary action being taken."

[Link and emphases added.] 

Elitism or Egalitarianism …

Bob Kerr is away this week, but he sent his post in ahead of time. More good food for thought.

Elitism or Egalitarianism ….

…seems to be one of the central debates in the North American Fraternal Movement. In board rooms, bar rooms and conference rooms can be heard the debate on this topic decade after decade. Are we elite by nature if not by action? Is the grand design really supposed to be egalitarian? Let’s take a walk down this path and see what we will see.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, the two words are defined as:

• Egalitarian – Advocating full political and social equality for all people. One advocating this.
• Elite - The group, or part of a group, regarded as the best, most powerful, etc.

Fascinating distinction. I wonder, if one excels at being an egalitarian, say someone like Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. or Linus Pauling, does ones actions make them elite? Or does it make them egalitarian role models? But, these individuals performed after they left college. To really examine the debate we need to start at the very beginning of the collegiate process. Recruitment.

Recruitment for most colleges is driven by their stated purpose. My undergraduate campus states their mission as:

“…committed to providing comprehensive educational opportunities in an urban setting. Through teaching, scholarship, and public service, the University seeks to equip both students and the larger community with the educational and cultural tools they need to thrive in a complex world, and to achieve both individual responsibility in their own lives and effective citizenship in the local, national, and global community (complete statement available on the University Website. at www.wichita.edu

If we examine the inherent outcomes we see a thematic focus on the development of an effective citizen. This citizenship serves as the great goal for participating in the local, national and global communities. In essence to contribute to serving the needs of the markets we exist in while being conscious to the global impact of our needs.

Now, let’s apply these basic concepts to Greek recruitment.

As it is commonly defined, fraternity recruitment is searching for the best of the best. Virtually every chapter I have ever interacted with says this same thing. Yet, their selection process does not match the desired outcomes. Often the lowering of standards is seen as a survival tactic when it is actually diluting the quality of the organization and its ability to recruit qualified prospective members.

As I have experienced it, there seems to be three basic criteria for selecting prospective new members. The first criterion is academic performance. A common measuring stick is a high school GPA of 3.0 or better. The second criterion is a verifiable history of community service. Finally, some demonstrated leadership experience be it a part-time job, student government, athletics, debate etc. That is the formulae I have experience in the North American Fraternal Movement for four decades.

So, what are the outcomes?

The outcomes vary from campus to campus, chapter to chapter. So let me share some of the indices and let you do the discovery. First, is the all fraternity chapter GPA above the all men’s? Second, are chapters struggling to get members involved with chapter activity or otherwise engaged with a campus group? Finally, how many members are involved in leadership at the chapter, IFC, campus or work level? So, while you are doing that work, I will share a little from my current campus.

In the winter 2008 grade report, 7 chapters performed above the all men’s average while 17 chapters were below the all men’s average. This means that the average male on campus outperformed 70% of the fraternity chapters. The funny thing is, the all fraternity chapter GPA was higher than the all men’s GPA on the strength and size of the 7 chapters. So a lot of above average students on campus are clearly not fraternity men and we seem stalled in how to attract them to our organizations.

So, are we elitist or egalitarian? Let’s see what Cicero had to say.

“We were born to unite with our fellow men and to join in community with the human race.”

In his later years, Cicero devoted himself to writing and sharing his sense of duty that the Roman leaders owed each other and the citizens of Rome. His work was one of the elements of a classical education and many of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were students of his work. Some argue this influence can be seen in the critical concepts in the Declaration. A sense of community and a sense of duty were two of the primary lessons I remember in college and in my fraternity. I was filled with a genuine sense of a responsibility to make a difference regardless of where I found myself standing.

So, the question remains, egalitarian or elitist? If we say elitist then building community will be difficult if not impossible. The perception that one chapter or the other should be the leader of all the rest because of size, GPA or length on campus is a difficult pill for others to swallow. Clearly our recruitment criterion is a standard that can be achieved by anyone from any background.

If we are egalitarian, then we can work together to build genuine community based on mutual trust and respect. We can learn to serve each other and the greater causes we all cherish. We can learn to be better leaders, followers and disciples of the teachings of our separate rituals. Perhaps we have a duty to each other, as interfraternal brothers and sisters, to guide and mentor our undergraduate brothers and sisters to be more cooperative and less combative. To seek to work together versus vanquish each other in every aspect of college life. Perhaps if we learn how scary we can be in our group behavior, constant rivalry and unhealthy competition, we can discover how to attract more qualified candidates to learn with us and join with us. Peace, positive tension and harmony are far more welcoming than bitter feuds started so long ago no one knows why we don’t like each other.

Make no mistake about it, I firmly believe we should have high standards. I also believe that we should resist every temptation to lower our standards. We should also expect our interfraternal brothers and sisters to maintain and preserve their high standards. But high standards do not make us elite or egalitarian. Only our attitudes and behavior towards each other reveals that distinction,

Bob Kerr
Coordinator of Greek Life
Oregon State
OGH

Conclave - Resolutions Round-Up

There are the usual mix of resolutions being proposed. Some good, some mundane, and some that make you wonder "What were they thinking?". Here is a sample. We will let you decide which category they belong to. Note - nearly all are still in the "committee" phase. Resolutions that have been definitively passed or defeated are indicated:

• R 1. Ritual equipment must be kept complete and in good order. Failure to do so could result in Loss of charter.
• R 2. (passed) If there is a vacancy for a District Governor in an area the HQ Executive Director may make Chapter Counselor appointments for that district.
• R 5. Raise the Housing Fund fee from $20 to $25.
• R 6. Rename the references to the National Housing Corp. to reflect the name of the new LLC created to satisfy tax requirements
• R 7. (passed) All Alumni Boards (AVC) must appoint an ex-officio undergraduate member.
• R 9. (defeated) Invocations and meal blessings are not to reference a specific religious denomination.
• R 10. (passed) Encourge full use of the Ritual interpretation; HQ to get involved in making sure there is uniformity in the perfomance.
• R 11. Add "Sound Spirit" to the "Sound Mind, Sound Body" slogan.
• R 12. Create an "Alumni Senate" to vote on matters of Chapters' Finace, Assets, and Operations. Adoption of those matters would be subject to approval by both the "Alumni Senate" AND Grand Conclave legislative session.
• R 13. Nominating committees may not have "interference" from uninvited "interested parties" while they are selecting nominees for NBD, Grand Pres., etc.

A reminder - all proposals and their ultimat disposition will be available on the HQ web site after Conclave concludes.

That's the update as of this morning. we will let the reader decide which of these proposals are "muck" that needs to be raked.

Rider Sets New Policy for Fraternities & Alcohol

Rider U. turning to fraternity monitors
Move is in response to frosh booze death
BY MARY JO PATTERSONStar-Ledger Staff

Rider University will hire its own professionals to live in fraternities and sororities as part of a wider crackdown on alcohol triggered by the death of an 18-year-old fraternity pledge earlier this year.

The move may be a first in the nation, said Anthony Campbell, dean of students at the private, co-educational college just north of Trenton in Lawrence Township.

"Many colleges and universities have 'house mothers' and some have graduate students. We're taking it a little further, having professionals who are our own employees," he said.

Frat house "directors" are only one facet of the school's broad new alcohol policies, announced yesterday after months of soul-searching by a task force that concluded that Rider needed a "social renaissance" as well. Other changes will include creating more opportunities for social activities, especially late at night, and strengthening sanctions for alcohol violations.

The task force that created the new policies explored banishing both alcohol and Greek life, but decided to do neither.

"(Banning alcohol) is an unrealistic approach that would be almost impossible to enforce," it wrote in its report. Making the campus dry would only push drinking off campus, or contribute to "hidden forms of dangerous drinking," it stated.

The task force also deliberated whether to banish fraternities from campus but ended up affirming their value.

"We decided they do add value, if they work within our mission," said Campbell. "We think we've created a safer environment."

Gary DeVercelly, a pledge of Phi Kappa Tau, died March 30 in a New Jersey hospital following a night of drinking at the frat house on campus. The Long Beach, Calif., resident was found to have had a blood alcohol content of 0.426 percent, which is more than five times the legal limit for driving.

Friends of DeVercelly told The Times of Trenton that before his death, he had talked about having to drink an entire bottle of vodka at an upcoming pledge initiation night. On the night of his death, he consumed three-quarters of a bottle in 15 minutes before collapsing, the Rider college newspaper reported.
His death remains under investigation as a possible hazing incident by the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, college officials said yesterday.

Rider's new rules, posted yesterday on the college's Web site, will take effect this fall.
In its report, the task force emphasized that binge drinking is a national problem. It cited a report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University that said 49 percent of full-time college students binge drink or abuse prescription or illegal drugs.

The college's new policy prohibits alcohol during social events at both Greek houses and residence halls. It permits alcohol to be served only at "registered" events in nonresidential facilities such as Rider's licensed pub -- under the supervision of campus security.

"We're saying, Greek houses will be treated as our residence halls are. There won't be weekend parties inside the fraternity house," Campbell said. On the other hand, "If you're 21 and you're having a drink with dinner in your room, that's okay."

Rider's new stance also establishes a "good Samaritan" policy encouraging students to seek help for others under the influence of alcohol or drugs, without fear of repercussions.
Campbell said college officials estimate the program will cost the school between $400,000 and $500,000. Seven frat house directors must be hired, he said.

Rider, on its Web site, did not shy away from referring to the March tragedy.
"While alcohol abuse by college students is a national challenge, Rider is redoubling its efforts to prevent it," said college president Mordechai Rozanski. "This is my commitment to Gary and his family and the more than 5,000 other families whose sons and daughters attend Rider."

Rider has 3,764 full-time undergraduates and four academic units, including the Westminster Choir College in Princeton. It is home to 10 Greek organizations, housed in seven houses owned by the university.

Sandy Lanman, a spokeswoman for Rutgers University, said Greek organizations on its campus are privately owned. "We have no employees in those houses," she said. "To be registered, however, they have to abide by certain regulations," including rules regarding alcohol use.

How to write a blog post - publicity version

We get publicity information from many SigEp chapters here at S&P Central, and we try to post as much as is possible and reasonable. However, we don't have a staff that can create a timely and interesting post from a skeletal email such as "The SigEps at Farmer State really kicked ass in the hay bailing contest last month! Can you put it on the blog, Bro.?"

The S&P folks are not journalism majors (most of them, anyway) and do not claim to know all the tricks of good writing, but these are our unprofessional suggestions. If you want to get posted, here are a few guidelines to help you and us get your story on the blog.

• How Generally interesting is it? Consider if you were reading the blog and saw the story. Would you care? Campus-wide honors for a chapter or a brother Chapter of the year, of the student body) are good info for other chapters. It lets them compare their achievements and may inspire them to step up. Good GPA numbers are interesting if there is other context, but not so much by themselves.
• What are the details? One or two lines about winning "Skit-Night" is not enough. What was the skit about? Who else was competing? Did someone fall off the stage and carry on regardless?
• Is there a link? A story in the campus paper, town paper, or TV websites gives us a way to piggyback onto someone who actually CAN write. They often have pictures we can steal use too (we do try to credit all sources). Multiple links are even better. Pictures and Video are great.
• Local angles. A big story - like VA Tech - is going to have lots of coverage. If there is a SigEp side to it that has not been heard we will want to get it out. In the case of VA Tech, the SigEp chapter was trying to make sure all were accounted for. They were, but it took several hours to be sure. We sent updates as we had them.
• Timing - If an event is coming up, let us know in advance. Friday night is not the time to send a release for the bake sale on Saturday. Give it at least a week - longer if it is a big deal or there are celebrities involved. If you send after the fact, the sooner the better.

A good way to make chapter information available is to have a good press release. This one from Dartmouth details the election of a Sig Ep brother as Student Body President and is very well done. We would have used it but we already covered that story. It was so well done, however, we want to keep it as an example - thus it inspired this post.

Thanks everyone. Keep those cards and letters coming!

Fraternity President as "Godfather"

(This interesting commentary was sent to us by our friend "Asclepius")

How to Be a Fraternity President: As Learned from Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather”

A year ago, before returning for my sophomore year of college, I bought a movie on the recommendation of a friend. The movie was “The Godfather”, winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Picture and, as I would find out later, a guide to life. I watched it the first time, awestruck for three hours as the highs and lows of the Corleone Family played out before my eyes. But, on the second, third, and fourth viewings, I kept picking up on the little things that make it such a great film. I began to view the movie, not only as a masterpiece of American cinema, but as a guide to running a fraternity. As I came back to school in the fall, I began to draw parallels between running the most powerful Sicilian crime family in New York and operating a successful college social fraternity. I began to model my own behaviors after Don Corleone; in a much more legal way, of course. What follows are some of the lessons I have learned from my favorite movie of all time.

“Never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking.”
     -Don Corleone to his son Santino, after speaking up in a meeting with Sollozo

In the early part of the movie, the Corleones meet with Virgil Sollozo, an aggressive narcotics smuggler looking for political protection. Corleone objects to his proposal on ethical grounds despite its lucrative payoff. When Sollozo tries a last ditch effort to convince the Don, Santino speaks out of turn, seeming excited about the deal. Sollozo sees this as dissension within the ranks of the Corleone Family’s leaders, and attempts to assassinate the Don, hoping that Santino will make a deal once he assumes control of the family. Sollozo saw the weakness and attacked it, when he otherwise would have moved on or tried to find protection elsewhere.

In this case, the “family” is the executive board of the fraternity. Within the confines of an exec board meeting, debate and disagreement are valued. You need a variety of opinions and points of view in order to make an educated decision as president. Debate facilitates reason, and reason usually leads to better ideas, plans, and actions from the exec board. However, when you meet with the chapter as a whole, you must present a united front and support the decision the president has made. If the VP of Programming and Recruitment openly dispute a decision supported by the President, VP of Member Development, and the Chaplain, the brothers in the fraternity will detect this as weakness. Once this weakness is sensed, decisions about the direction of the chapter lose their legitimacy, validity, and acceptance by the chapter at large.

“Their aides sat behind them, the Consiglieres up close so that they could offer any advice when needed.”
     -The peace meeting of all the Dons in America, Chapter 20

Every man, no matter how wise, needs an advisor. It seems the more powerful a man becomes, the more important his advisors become. As president, you must have a strong consigliere, an advisor or counselor. To quote Socrates, “the wisest man is the man who knows how much he does not know”. This means Don Corleone knew his weaknesses and complimented them with an appropriate consigliere. A consigliere is often just as important as the man who pulls the strings. The don is the muscle end of the family; the decision maker that leads the way. A “yes man” of a consigliere is no help; one needs an advisor strong enough to oppose the don, providing a counterpoint, or even to play devil’s advocate from time to time, in order to make sure an informed decision is made every time.

My consigliere (yes, I call him that to his face) happens to be my VP of Finance and my best friend. We get along and are best friends, but we truly compliment each other. I like to be the visible leader and a decision maker. I speak well and often, and I like my presence to be felt when I am in a leadership role. My consigliere is more reserved. He does not like the spotlight or the burden of decisions; he has assured me he prefers the position of right-hand-man rather than leader. But I can always go to him for advice and receive an honest opinion. He will call me out when I am out of line, when no one else will; he will prick my conscience from time to time, pointing out mistakes that others ignore. I value that boldness in people, because true friends can tell you when you are wrong. He is the constant voice of reason that prevents me from crossing the thin line from strong leader to tyrant. When faced with a tough situation, my consigliere’s advice is always sought before I take action. My AVC president is also a close consigliere, providing an experienced, alumni viewpoint.

“Allow a man to “make his bones” before trusting him with the family business.”

In the hierarchy of the Corleone family, there is the Don and consigliere, followed by his caporegimes, under which are many “button men”, who in turn are in charge of many young hoodlums who have only loose affiliations with the family. In order to move up the hierarchy and earn oneself more responsibility, one first had to “make his bones”, or prove himself through a job. This job often consisted of “knocking someone off” or another important action in the family’s interest. This was meant to test a man’s loyalty to the family, his competence in working the family business, and his willingness to do what is necessary for the family. Once a man “made his bones”, he received more important responsibilities and higher pay from a part of the family’s earnings. Also, it was understood if something happened to him, his family would be taken care of in his absence.

In SigEp, identify young talent and potential for leadership in your new members and call on them to perform a small job, like a chair position or organizing a small event for the fraternity. If he “makes his bones”, you can trust him with more important tasks, moving up him up the ranks to exec board or even groom him as your successor as president. Considering Sigma Phi Epsilon’s badge and it symbolic skull and crossbones, one can interpret “make his bones” as waiting for a brother to go through the Epsilon Rite of Passage/Rite of Initiation. Once a brother earns his badge over his heart, only then has he “made his bones” and with it, the trust to perform important duties to the chapter.

“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
     -Don Vito Corleone to his godson, Johnny Fontane

Despite his ruthlessness as a business man, the Don is very traditional in his views of the family and personal life. In fact, the reason these seemingly ordinary men get into their business is to protect their families, make a better life for their children, and a refusal to go through life with someone else “pulling the strings”, or living by another’s rules. As a brother in Sigma Phi Epsilon, we usually take on the mentor role of “big brother” to a younger brother in the chapter. Do not take this responsibility lightly, for you can never underestimate the role that a good mentor can play in a young man’s life. Young men are full of energy and drive. However, it usually takes the mentorship of a “big brother” to provide focus and guidance in these challenging college years.

This particular quote is my favorite from the Godfather. It constantly reminds me of my responsibility to those having prior claim upon my substance. I’d like to think that SigEp and the Balanced Man Program have made me the man I am today. However, before my college years in the Balanced Man Program, I was part of mom and dad’s own version of the BMP for the better part of 19 years. They made me the man I am today and, I thank them every day for raising me to be a good person. The Balanced Man Program just put on the finishing touches, smoothing out all the rough edges. Make sure you spend quality time with your family, because they do not need an oath of obligation to remind themselves how much they love you.

I will never be part of the Corleone crime family, but following these guidelines, I have been a more effective leader for my “family”, Ohio Iota.

An Honest Conversation About Alcohol

(This article has been passed around to several alumni group mailing lists. We got it and think it is worth reading and passing on.)

An Honest Conversation About Alcohol

by Scott Jaschik
/Inside Higher Ed/
February 16, 2007

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Two months after he finished up as president of Middlebury College in 2004, John M. McCardell Jr. wrote a column for The New York Times called

"What Your College President Didn't Tell You." In the piece, he discussed how he was "as guilty as any of my colleagues [as presidents] of failing to take bold positions on public matters that merit serious debate." Taking advantage of his new emeritus status, he proceeded to take a few such positions. Among other things, he wrote that the 21-year-old drinking age is "bad social policy and terrible law," and that it was having a bad impact on both students and colleges.

His comments didn't surprise college presidents, many of whom boast about dry campuses or dry Greek systems that don't actually exist. But the prevailing attitude among college leaders about McCardell and his column was: "Easy for him to say now that he's retired - and he may well be right, but it's not like he could ever do something about this."

McCardell is about to try. With backing from the Robertson Foundation, he has created a nonprofit group, Choose Responsibility, that will seek to promote a national discussion of alternatives to the 21-year-old drinking age. The group is preparing a Web site with studies that challenge conventional wisdom about the advantages of the law, while explaining its flaws. The group will also push an idea - floated without success in the 1990s by Roderic Park, then chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder - to allow 18-20-year-olds who complete an alcohol education program to obtain "drinking licenses." And McCardell and others plan to start speaking out, writing more op-eds, and trying to redefine the issue.

The current law, McCardell said in an interview Thursday, is a failure that forces college freshmen to hide their drinking - while colleges must simultaneously pretend that they have fixed students' drinking problems and that students aren't drinking. McCardell also argued that the law, by making it impossible for a 19-year-old to enjoy two beers over pizza in a restaurant, leads those 19-year-olds to consume instead in closed dorm rooms and fraternity basements where 2 beers are more likely to turn into 10, and no responsible person may be around to offer help or to stop someone from drinking too much.

Any college president who thinks his or her campus has drinking under control is "delusional," McCardell said, although he acknowledged the political pressures that prevent most sitting presidents from providing an honest assessment of what's going on on their campuses. But he said that the dangers to students and institutions are great enough that it's time for someone to start speaking out. While he was president at Middlebury, one of his students died, a 21-year-old who was driving after drinking way too much.

Until the 1980s, states had a range of drinking ages, but a gradual upward push became a de facto federal policy in 1984 with the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which required states wanting their full allotment of highway funds to have a drinking age of 21. The states all complied. Since then, federal and state officials have largely hailed the law's impact, noting among other things notable declines in the number of teenagers killed in drunk driving accidents. At the same time, federal officials have also issued warning after warning about alcohol use by teenagers - many of them starting to drink at much younger ages than ever before.

After the Times ran his op-ed, McCardell said that he obtained a small grant from the Robertson Foundation that enabled him to hire some Middlebury students as assistants, and they started looking at available research. Their findings led the foundation to believe a larger campaign made sense - and it awarded McCardell $200,000 to start his new group, with the idea that he would also start to raise more money.

What was striking about the research, McCardell said, was how little of it conclusively backs up claims about the positive impact of the 21-year-old drinking age. "This is by definition a very emotional issue, but what we need is an informed and dispassionate debate," he said. He said that the major flaw in analyses to date has been false assumptions about causal relationships. If DWI accidents among teens have dropped, that must be because of the rise in the drinking age, proponents say.

But McCardell noted that a range of other factors could be at play, too - such as changing attitudes about seat belts, the availability of airbags, etc. At the same time, those who see a causal relationship in one set of statistics ignore others - showing continued drinking by college students (under 21) and substantial evidence of truly dangerous drinking by a subset of that population.

"Data are data," McCardell said. "Facts are stubborn things."

Why does he think the law should change? Under the current system, "family members are marginalized and disenfranchised," McCardell said. To try to teach responsible drinking could involve violating the law. And teens end up experimenting with alcohol "surreptitiously and recklessly."

Then these students land at colleges, creating "an impossible situation" for institutions, McCardell said. "You either become an arm of the law, which you are not about, or a haven from the law, which poses a fundamental ethical dilemma," he said. To the extent colleges have changed drinking patterns, they have not stopped drinking, but forced it off campus or underground. Students are then "much more vulnerable."

McCardell is well aware of the odds against changing the laws, but he said that so few members of the public have ever seen or thought about the evidence - and that change is possible with a sustained public campaign. As a former president, McCardell said that he can understand why a sitting president wouldn't want to take the lead on this issue, but he said he thinks some will join the effort if it can establish traction. "I hope to encourage them," he said.

Such a campaign will be welcomed in some quarters, but not others.

Henry Wechsler, who surveyed the drinking habits of thousands of college students for a series of projects at the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol study, called McCardell's approach "a poor idea." Wechsler said that 19-year-olds just don't drink responsibly so there is no reason for them to drink, period. "Nineteen-year-olds do not have two beers. When they drink, they drink a lot," he said. "What happens to 16- and 17-year-olds. Should they also be legal?"

Also skeptical is Drew Hunter, president of the Bacchus Network, a national group that helps colleges discourage alcohol abuse. Hunter acknowledged that the drinking age of 21 has not so much altered students' drinking habits as "pushed alcohol off campus," and that "students who want to go out and drink in large quantities are going to do so - regardless of the drinking age." He also said that McCardell was correct on the situation the law creates: "We're putting a large number of our students in a situation where they break the law on a steady basis."

But Hunter said he did believe that the drinking age has saved lives, especially those of teen drivers. He also said that his organization supports the current law and that he did not think McCardell would succeed. (One irony: Bacchus, the group favoring the 21-year-old drinking age, receives some financial support from the alcohol industry, and its board includes executives from Anheuser-Busch and Coors. McCardell said that his new group in its push to change the law will not take funds from the alcohol industry. "There will be every temptation, but we are not going to let ourselves be tarred in that way," he said.)

Other experts contest Hunter's view that the public will not be swayed on this issue. Michael P. Haines, director of the National Social Norms Research Center, at Northern Illinois University, said that while large majorities of Americans have reported being concerned about underage drinking, focus groups have found that this view is a nuanced one. When Americans say that they oppose underage drinking, they are thinking of high schools and middle schools, Haines said, not "a 19-year-old who is married and working full time, a 20-year-old in the military, or a 19-year-old in college."

Haines, whose group has argued that scare tactics about alcohol abuse fail to reach students, said he was pleased to learn of McCardell's new campaign. "I think the 21-year-old drinking age is a disastrous failure," he said. It has forced many colleges to avoid communication with students of the sort that might actually lead to healthier behavior, he said. "Many colleges are worried that if they talk about alcohol with their freshmen, they will be charged with condoning underage drinking," he said.

Honesty is badly needed if colleges are going to reach students, he said.

McCardell said he knows some will make fun of a former president for crusading on this issue, but he also spoke about the importance of honesty. "This is not about giving more beer to young people," he said. "This is about opening our eyes to the social reality around us."

Think about Conclave

Conclave 2007 is coming soon. It is not too early to think about legislation. This interesting declaration from Sigma Phi Beta might start a conversation.

What do you think? Should Sig Ep adopt a similar policy?

Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity

Policy on Citizenship and Immigration Status

Mission Statement:

The Council of Sigma Phi Beta enacts this policy to provide further clarification on the Nondiscrimination and Harassment policies of the fraternity as they relate to national origin.

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Values Statement:

Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity values brotherhood, diversity, leadership, education, scholarship, Greek Life, member rights, community service, tradition and the overall Queer experience in a hetero-normative society. Sigma Phi Beta Fraternity provides a safe space free from discrimination, while promoting diversity of cultures and backgrounds.

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Membership Details:

No chapter or colony shall require members or prospective members to verify their citizenship or immigration status as a condition for membership in the Fraternity.

How Long Are You a Pledge?

Daily Pennsylvanian
University of Pennsylvania
Official or not, U. Penn fraternities extend pledge periods
By Lauren Textor

The deadline for initiating new members into University of Pennsylvania fraternities is today, but some fraternities will be running into overtime -- with or without official permission.

Under Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs regulations, pledging for both fraternities and sororities is supposed to last six weeks, after which pledges must be officially initiated. But about six fraternities have received official permission from OFSA to postpone initiation until after spring break.

OFSA director Scott Reikofski said that extensions are usually granted so that speakers who cannot make it to campus by the deadline still have the chance to visit during pledging.

Tau Epsilon Phi, for example, has permission to initiate by March 12."We wanted to invite a representative from our national [organization] to come, and he couldn't make it until then," said junior and TEP president Austin Pena.

However, some current pledges, who would not disclose their identities for fear of repercussion, say their chapter heads are pushing off initiation -- without permission."I know they aren't following the deadline. Sometimes, our pledge process continues even into sophomore year," one freshman, who is pledging a fraternity at Penn, said.

Another freshman, pledging a different Penn frat, said he has a schedule for pledging events that extends after today."I guess we'll be initiated after spring break -- they didn't give an exact date," he said.

Reikofski said there is "absolutely no excuse" for ignoring today's initiation deadline."Any chapter that goes beyond [today's] deadline without express written consent from this office will be fully investigated by the Office of Student Conduct for violation of university directives," Reikofski said, adding that their entire new member education program will also be looked into."If violations are found by either OSC or the National Headquarters, the chapters will very likely be placed on at least one-year probation status with multiple educational and punitive sanctions imposed," according to Reikofsky.

Sigma Nu President and junior Steve Bibu said that, although the nine Sigma Nu pledges are not yet initiated, they will be before the students leave for Spring Break.

Bibu added that, ideally, he would like the deadline for initiation to be later."The longer the process, the better to give the new members more time to adjust," Bibu said.

Pena, who is also the InterFraternity Council president, said the IFC does not monitor each fraternity's initiation process."

Each chapter submits a list of its new members to OFSA," Pena said. "It's not in our jurisdiction" to ensure that each fraternity holds initiation by deadline.

All eight sororities initiated their new members last weekend.

Christian Fraternity Secures Its Place

CLASH OF IDEALS • FREEDOM TRUMPS MU'S NONBIAS POLICY
By Tim Townsend
Columbia, Mo. --

On a recent Sunday night, the brothers of Beta Upsilon Chi at the University of Missouri were sizing up a new pledge class.

Andrew Guthrie, president of Beta Upsilon Chi (pronounced "bucks" by the brothers), or ΒΥΧ, stood in the sanctuary of the university's A.P. Green Chapel, facing his fraternity brothers and a handful of young men. It was the end of rush week, when students shop for a fraternity or sorority.

"God, thank you for tonight," prayed Guthrie. "Thank you for getting us through another couple weeks of school. We pray for the next pledge class, that you will guide them here.

"There are fraternities for athletes, for Latinos, for agriculture students. But the 14 brothers of ΒΥΧ are not so picky. Pledges can come from any background "If they show us they have a relationship with Jesus Christ, that's really the only requirement we have," said ΒΥΧ brother Miles Steele.

But it was that single requirement that prompted university officials to demand that ΒΥΧ, which stands for Brothers Under Christ, adhere to the school's nondiscrimination policy in December. Two weeks later, the university backed down, allowing that the fraternity brothers' constitutional rights of free association, as laid out in the First Amendment, trumped the university's nondiscrimination policy.

The case exemplifies the difficult road some religious fraternities and sororities travel on public university campuses where there are church-state issues involving funding and facilities-access. It pits two fundamental constitutional principles - the right to free exercise of religion and the prohibition against the state establishing religion - against each other.

Should a student group that grants membership only to a particular stream of one religion be able to claim it is being discriminated against because it discriminates?

The first Christian fraternities, which sprang up in the 1920 and 1930s from West Virginia to Nebraska to California, were largely Methodist. But the growing presence of evangelical Christians on secular college campuses in the 1980s led, naturally, to a growth in evangelical fraternities.

The first ΒΥΧ chapter was founded at the University of Texas in Austin in 1985 "by a handful of Christian men who desired an alternative to the present fraternal lifestyle," according to its website. ΒΥΧ is the largest Christian fraternity in the U.S. with 18 chapters, 11 of which are in Texas.

In the summer of 2005, after his freshman year at Mizzou, Andrew Guthrie was a counselor at a Christian camp in his home state of Texas. Some of the other counselors were ΒΥΧ brothers at Texas schools, and when Guthrie returned to Columbia in the fall, he contacted the fraternity's national office to see what it would take to start a ΒΥΧ chapter at the university.

To start a new chapter, Guthrie and a few Christian friends went through four phases of an assessment process designed by the national office to ensure the students were ΒΥΧ quality. The assessment included answering a number of "character questions" on videotape, said Guthrie. "They'd have us talk about our faith, who you are, what you believe."

After a visit to the campus by officers of the national office, the Mizzou chapter was approved by the national board in April as the newest ΒΥΧ chapter. The fraternity then applied to the university's Organization Resource Group, which manages the school's 480 student groups, to request status as an official student organization.

That status allows student groups to apply for funding generated by student activity fees that all students pay. In the 2006-07 academic year, that money totaled $323,000.

The Organization Resource Group does not fund "social" fraternities and sororities. But according to Janna Basler, director of Greek life at Mizzou, ΒΥΧ is not a member of the Interfraternity Council, the governing body of all member fraternities, and therefore is eligible for university funding.

All this is important because church-state watchdog groups say that if a public university funds a religious group, it could be violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment, part of which says that government cannot endorse religion. But the same sentence says Americans are free to exercise their beliefs. A university's challenge is to find the appropriate balance.

All student groups in the University of Missouri system are required to include the language of the university's nondiscrimination policy in its bylaws. According to that policy, the university does not discriminate "relative to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability or status as a Vietnam-era veteran.

"In December the university discovered ΒΥΧ had not included the nondiscrimination language in its bylaws, according to Christian Basi, a university spokesman. School officials sent Guthrie a letter asking the fraternity to add the nondiscrimination language.

In return, the university received a letter from the Christian Legal Society asking the school to re-examine its nondiscrimination policy and exempt ΒΥΧ from the policy's ban on religious discrimination, said Basi.

An attorney for the Christian Legal Society did not return calls for comment.
University attorneys reviewed the school's policy and materials submitted by ΒΥΧ's lawyers and decided it "would not require ΒΥΧ to adopt the nondiscrimination policy with respect to religion as a condition for maintaining recognition as a student organization," said Basi.

The reason? "Because our own policy states that it should not be interpreted to violate the legal rights of religious organizations."

Neil M. Richards, a professor of constitutional law at Washington University Law School, called Christian fraternities at state universities "a complicated issue."
"This is the right to associate with like-minded people versus rights of equal access," he said. "But universities, for better or for worse, allow fraternities and sororities to discriminate."

Similar Christian fraternity issues have recently challenged officials at other state schools, such as the University of North Carolina and the University of Georgia.

Historically African-American or Jewish or Latino fraternities and sororities have not faced the same challenges as the new breed of evangelical Christian because they don't restrict membership. Ruby Alvarado Hernandez, chairwoman of the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, said many of the 23 fraternities and sororities that are members of her organization have, due to their open membership, expanded beyond their historic Hispanic origins, and have become centers of multicultural campus life.

"Private organizations are granted considerable free rein on how they identify themselves and how they establish membership criteria," said Betty A. DeBerg, a professor of religion at the University of Northern Iowa and co-author of "Religion on Campus." "In the last decade, the Supreme Court has leaned more and more on the free exercise clause. It is very careful to make sure no one's religious expression is infringed upon."

Back at A.P. Green Chapel, ΒΥΧ brother Jason Moslander is talking to his current and prospective brothers about attitude and suffering. Five young men would be pinned as new pledges by the end of the night, and five more would join them later, making the current pledge class nearly the size of the active membership. In the fall, when this pledge class becomes official, Mizzou's ΒΥΧ chapter will total 24 active members just a year into its existence.

Moslander uses the New Testament as a starting point and adapts its ancient message to the life of a 19-year-old evangelical Christian.

He shares with his brothers a story from the book of Acts. The chapel is quiet as they listen to Moslander read.

In the story, the Christian missionary Paul and his companion Silas were in the Roman colony of Phillippi where Paul healed a slave girl who had made her owners wealthy telling fortunes by way of an evil spirit. The slave girl's owners, now deprived of a source of income, dragged Paul and Silas into the marketplace before the city's magistrates.

"These men are disturbing our city," the girl's owners told the officials. "They are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe."

Paul and Silas were stripped and flogged by the crowd then carried off to "the innermost cell" of Phillippi's prison, where their feet were fastened in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

"As a fraternity we're going to have struggles," Moslander tells his brothers, "especially since this is the beginning."

FSU issue - opinion on Community Colleges

One of the factoids that came out of the recent hazing arrests at the FSU SigEp Chapter is that two of the arrestees are not FSU students but attend a nearby community college. The obvious first question is "what's up with that?"

I have been associated with Sig Ep for quite a while and the chapters I know about only recruit men from the college where they are chartered.

I came across this thread at "greekchat.com" where the incident is being discussed - and in a refreshingly serious way. The question of community college pledging came up there as well. This is a good example of the conversation:

I'm at Florida State. The Community College is less than a mile away with 15,000-20,000 students many of whom are marking time until they can get into FSU (40,000). Pledging TCC students is controversial here. They are allowed to join the FSU marching band, but Greek Life absolutely forbids them joining fraternities or sororities and punishes groups when they do. IFC chapters are split on the issue; some Nationals would permit it and some would not. I'm told that many of the fraternities do pledge TCC students and simply don't report them until they enter FSU. Now, I'm certain that having TCC students as brothers will be among the charges leveled at Sigma Phi Epsilon.

We've been hit hard by the hazing issue here. Two men from FAMU (less than a mile in the other direction) were just sentenced to two year in prison for beating their KAPsi pledges with canes. At FSU, we lost SAE to hazing. I'm told ATO may also be in trouble for hazing, and now Sig Ep is really in big trouble. Both ATO and Sig Ep are preparing to break ground for new $4 million houses!

Last year Florida passed legislation making hazing a felony.

Maybe it will calm down.

We certainly hazed when I was an undergraduate, but now the threshhold of what's permitted seems to have been drastically lowered. Plus, you have to be an idiot to take guys out of the house and do what the SPEs did in a residential neighborhood.

A search of the Grand Chapter Bylaws, recent legislation, the NBD minutes that have been published, and other documents relating to membership shows no mention one way or another about community colleges.(The documents can be found in the "Members Area" of the HQ web site.) It seems to this writer that there is a gap in accountability and risk management here. A chapter is chartered to an individual school, not to a region or community. Having members who are form different schools with different standards would seem to invite miscommunication at best and chaos at worst. Further, as we have seen this week the two schools are treating the incident differently.

"We're concerned about the safety and well-being of our students," said Courtney Barry, assistant dean of students and director of Greek Life at FSU. "We are currently cooperating with the university police department."

Barry said the fraternity has been suspended by the university's Office of Student Rights and Responsibility. The university will review police reports to determine possible disciplinary for Johnson and Vincent.

Alice Maxwell, spokeswoman for Tallahassee Community College, said there's no disciplinary action (emphasis added) issued for Fernandez and Finazzo as of now.

The next Conclave needs to definitively state a policy on members belonging to the institution where the charter resides. This will probably generate some controversy. If membership is restricted then chapters that practice the "open model" will complain that they are being deprived of a source of new members, and perhaps that "all the others do it" too. If such memberships are allowed then the argument will be made that we are looking at membership and revenue before quality, since there is no assurance that a community college student will automatically transfer to a Chapters school on completion of his curriculum.

Nonetheless, there is a need to define the policy. This writer feels that a "One chapter, One school" policy is in the best interests of the Fraternity as a whole.

Let us know what YOU think about it.

Who's Ritual is it??

(Part 1. part 2 is Here)

The Ritual is a dynamic document. It should be consistent with the times in which we live. We didn’t even have an official one until 1907 and it was not the one submitted by our Founders. The one accepted was written by members of the PA Beta chapter. It has undergone numerous changes since that time – both in the way it is “performed” and in the content. Until relatively recently, two things have remained consistent: it has always stayed true to our Cardinal Principles, Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love; and each change that has occurred has been discussed and voted on at Grand Chapter Conclave before any change was instituted. Thus, over the past 100+ years a number of things have changed AND a number of things have not.

An interesting bit of information was recently discovered by our editorial staff. After decades, Sig Ep no longer has a National Committee on Ritual. Who now is to be the Guardian of this ineffable document, to evaluate recommended changes, to see that such changes are appropriately ratified by the Grand Chapter, and then appropriately disseminate these changes globally to our chapters? Guess it really doesn't matter as due process has not been properly exercised in well over a decade. Were you aware that some substantive changes have been made in our Ritual and instituted without ratification by the Grand Chapter?

For a little”modern” history…. When we embarked on the Balanced Man Program over 15 years ago, the Grand Chapter granted the Balanced Man Development Committee permission to “prototype” the existing Ritual, in order to adapt it to the schema of the program. That was apparently taken as a carte blanche to independently and texturally alter our most sacred document without bringing any of the changes to the GC for ratification. In the beginning, the Ritual was not going to be performed differently in BMP versus non-BMP chapters. However, because of the complaints from non-BMP chapters about how long it took to initiate a large new member class, the BMP Development Committee broke it into “modules” to fit Sigma, Phi, and Epsilon Rites of Passage. This carte blanche has continued, incorporating other dialogue and substance that has not been fully discussed and ratified by the Grand Chapter.

In reading the most current “edition” of our Ritual, were it not for the Crest on the Cover, in parts it would be almost unrecognizable as Sig Ep. Fortunately the basic intent of the Ritual has not been altered (yet). But.... is that what will be next? Whether you are comfortable or not with the changes that have been made in well over a decade is irrelevant. What is germane here is that protocol for altering this document, as specified in the By-Laws and Policies and Procedures under which we as an organization are governed, has not been followed.

Is it no wonder, then, that we have chapters out there that don’t use the Ritual at all or have their own “double secret” rituals (e.g., Hook ‘em horns. Cliff Jumping. Number 9.)?

I am Il Doge and I approved this message.