Fraternity scolded for building giant snow genitals

<Sigh> Why does this not surprise me? At least no one was hazed, kidnapped, or assaulted, or forced to drink to excess. However, we have no word on whether the model ended up with frostbitten manly bits.

Fraternity scolded for building giant snow genitals:

Police made brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity tear down the giant snow sculpture
they crafted in front of their house near Purdue's campus March 7.
 (WLFI photo / Elisabeth Rentschler)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Many people used this week’s snow to make snow-people and igloos, but not everyone. Police officers received a report of a giant snow phallus sitting on the lawn of a campus fraternity.

According to West Lafayette police dispatchers, on Thursday afternoon someone called to report a giant male member made of snow in front of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at 690 Waldron St.

Police officers responded to the fraternity house to put an end to the snow sculpture.

Some of the fraternity’s brothers WISH-TV's sister station WLFI-TV spoke with said it took them roughly 2.5 hours to build it, and that the officers who arrived told them they could either turn the sculpture into a snowman or it would have to be torn down.

The brothers were unable to reach that goal, and the sculpture was destroyed.

According to previous discussions WLFI-TV has had with police on this type of snow sculpture, this violates the state statute category of obscene matter.

Indiana Code 35-49-3-1 prohibits the sale, distribution or exhibition of obscene matter, which snow shaped into male genitals would qualify as.

If charges were filed in this case, it would mean a Class A misdemeanor for the perpetrators. However because the sculpture was destroyed, no charges were pursued.

This isn’t the first time a large, icy male member has been spotted after a big snow in the area.

A few years ago, a home in Lafayette displayed a couple of inappropriate sculptures, as well.
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Oh, wait. You want a picture of the offending sculpture? Filthy minded pervs! OK, Here you go (after the jump to allay the NSFW crew):

EKU Opens Remodeled Greek Housing

Greek Towers Open to Fraternity, Sorority Members
Jerry Wallace
PR&M Communications

Many members of Eastern Kentucky University fraternities and sororities have a new home – in the middle of campus.

The University’s new Greek Towers, incorporating renovations to Todd and Dupree Halls, opened this fall to an enthusiastic response, according to Lindsay Greenwell, associate director for student involvement and leadership at EKU.

The Towers represent a “positive for our Greek community because they have created a space for the chapters to call their own,” Greenwell said. The renovations, completed at a cost similar to any routine residence hall renovations, were done with the input of the Greek community.
“This was truly a great project to be involved with,” said Kenna Middleton, director of housing at EKU. “The planning group was made up of two members from each Greek organization on campus that wanted to be involved, chapter advisers, the Greek Life office and Housing. We met weekly … to finalize decisions, choose colors, carpet, etcetera.”

The Towers are priced the same as other EKU residence halls, although the chapters do pay an annual fee for the use of chapter, office and storage space.”
Middleton said the Towers aid in the achievement of one of Housing’s chief objectives: development of community.

“Within chapters, there is already a community that comes from the sisterhood and brotherhood,” Middleton said. “This takes that individual community a couple of steps beyond their own chapter into the other female or male chapters and then ultimately extends the entire Greek community as a whole.”

The Greek Towers is an extension of a recent trend at EKU: the emergence of more “special interest” housing. “The Greek Towers is in keeping with our philosophy of these communities, and we truly believe, because our GPA and retention numbers support it, that community engagement plays a role in the University’s retention efforts.”

Of EKU’s approximately 1,000 Greeks, many live off campus in various houses and apartments, none of which are owned by their housing corporations or national organizations.
Greenwell predicted that the centrally located Greek Towers will “greatly impact recruitment. “It puts the Greek community front and center on campus. (Others) will see the brotherhood and sisterhood that exists in and between chapters.

“The Towers will not serve as a home to the active members, but it will serve as a gathering place for alumni. I also think the Towers will become a source of pride for the chapters living there. Hopefully, they will outgrow the space in Todd and Dupree, and we will look at building chapter houses.”

http://www.prm.eku.edu/ekunews/?module=0&article=1105

SigEps in DC partner with Masonic lodge for beautification project

SigEps and other Greek organizations at American University in D.C. are working with William R. Singleton - Hope Lebanon Lodge #7 to help restore the tree canopy in Washington.

On Saturday, December 6, 2008, starting at 9 a.m., more than 50 volunteers will assemble at 4441 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, to plant nearly 30 new trees in the park adjacent to Tenley Circle.

"Our hope with this project is to use the natural beauty of trees to transform two city blocks into a welcoming area for all members of the community to embrace.
“Our hope with this project is to use the natural beauty of trees to transform two city blocks into a welcoming area for all members of the community to embrace,” commented Mike Reid, chairperson of the event. “Our planning committee has been reaching out to several other community organizations including the American University Chapters of Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and Pi Kappa Phi; Saint Anne’s Church; and Cleveland Park Congregational Church to make this a true community event.”

Community Organizations Form Partnership to Beautify Tenley Circle

Slumlord 101

What a great idea.

First, graduate from college and move out of the "student ghetto" - that area of barely livable houses and apartments that surrounds most schools and caters to dorm overflow. Then you turn around and start buying up property in the same ghetto and renting it back to your friends and former neighbors.

A year ago, Jeff Shea began buying up rental properties around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from which he had only recently graduated with a business major. Shea, 23, who lives in Chicago, owns three rental homes near campus, including a four-bedroom house he bought for $138,000 and rents to four students for $1,800 a month.

"It's the best time ever to buy houses," Shea said. "The rent is inflated because so many people go to school here."

Just be sure to let people think you have a slightly more respectable job - like piano player in a whorehouse.

There are some risks, of course.

But like any real estate investment, buying in a college town comes with risks, particularly for investors. Think Animal House. Students are known to drink, punch holes through windows, spill beer on carpets, or just not be very responsible.

Students? Irresponsible? I'm Shocked! Shocked, I tell you!
College Towns: Still a Smart Investment - Yahoo! News

This Old (Frat) House

There have been several articles lately about old fraternity houses and how they are being dealt with (or not) by the schools and communities. Here are a few that reference SigEp houses, mostly in the past tense.

UCF trustees approve frat house renewal plan

It's official: Pike House will be demolished, and two other former fraternity houses will be refurbished as part of a plan to spruce up Greek Park at UCF.

Trustees approved a plan today to fix up the former Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity houses and then make them available as rental housing to other organizations.

Fraternity alumni sell land, house

Lynda Wiley, director of the Office of Student Life, said the office helped with the communication between the university and the alumni. The business transaction happened between the Office of Business Affairs and the local alumni housing corporation that owned the house, she said.

This means that if we're looking at the redevelopment of Riverside Avenue we're looking at what's going to be the best for the landscape for existing and new groups," Wiley said. "This was an opportunity that the alumni were willing to sell it, and it was between two houses the university owns and is leasing to own."

The Phi Sigma Kappa house was the sixth house the university bought in the past five years and the second in the past year, Wiley said. Ball State bought the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house last semester.

Empty frat house a pesty presence for neighbors on Gayley

Their old house on Gayley Avenue was rented out to another fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, for 10 years spanning 1995 to 2005, said Ben Hejna, a fourth-year psychology student and member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Zeta Psi decided to stop renting out their house in 2005 because they were considering moving back into it, but a tree fell into the house that winter, Hejna said.

Greek Revival

Most Dartmouth coed organizations, fraternities, and sororities (shorthanded by the College as "CFS") have their own houses, the majority of which are privately owned (seven are College owned). Many of the physical plants that support those houses are showing their age and, as Sigma Phi Epsilon's community service chair Kevin Scully '09 notes, "have taken some serious punishment" over the years.

Tennessee Sig Eps Help with Tree Project

SGA tree initiative root of beautification plan

Fred Weber - Staff Writer

The University of Tennessee SGA broke ground this week on the planting of 90 new oak trees around the university’s campus in an effort to help beautify the campus.

These Wynstar Willow Oaks will line the middle of Volunteer Avenue, running down the street from the Pilot station all the way to Hodges Library. This species of oak was specifically selected for the orange color its leaves change into during the fall. They are also durable species with roots that will not affect the street. Because the trees were cloned from a single seed, the genetics of each tree are identical, said John Rader, president of SGA.

Rader said planting the trees was part of his initial campaign when he ran for president last year.
“Part of our campaign platform last spring was campus beautification and (we) wanted to do something that would be long lasting and have a tremendous impact on the campus. ... We felt that trees were the best option because they lasted the longest and made the most visible contribution.”

Rader said the location was difficult to decide because of the lack of green space on campus. Volunteer Avenue was ultimately chosen because it serves as the “main thoroughfare for prospective students,” Rader said.

He noted that Tennessee currently ranks 11th on the Princeton Review’s list of unsightly campuses and feels these trees will attempt to combat the campus’s problem of missing green.
SGA Senate Chair Brandon Morrow added that planting the willow oaks will “make a lasting mark on the campus.”

The SGA raised approximately $13,000 for the project, receiving donations from Strong Hall, The Honors Council, IFC, Pan-Hellenic and six fraternities: Sigma Chi, Phi Sigma Kappa, Pi Kappa Alpha, Phi Gamma Delta, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Kappa Alpha. The trees were purchased from a Tennessee alumni grower who now lives in Georgia.

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