Phi Psi at OSU Lose House to Explosion

Explosion rocks frat house
By Tom Henderson
Corvallis Gazette-Times

With only seconds to spare, an Oregon State University fraternity president rescued 12 students and their dog right before their living room blew up in a gas explosion Saturday around 2 p.m.

No one was hurt in the blast that ripped through the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, but students and firefighters credit Phi Kappa Psi President Christopher Gerritz for a timely rescue.

Eight fraternity brothers were watching the OSU football game in a room directly above the boiler when Gerritz popped into the house for a couple of minutes. While his fraternity brothers watched the game, he heard a sound and smelled natural gas. He went down to the boiler room to investigate.

“The steam was just billowing out of the door,” he said.Gerritz said he knew he might have just seconds to act. He immediately cleared out the eight students watching TV and another four who were in their rooms. He also made sure the house dog, a Labrador-fox terrier mix named Yaeger, was rescued. He then led his fraternity brothers and the dog across the street.

The explosion followed in about 30 seconds, Gerritz said. “It sounded like an M-80 going off, only worse.”

“We didn’t smell the gas,” said Kevin Dwyer, one of the students who was watching the game. “I noticed it as soon as Chris saved my life.”

Gerritz, an Air Force ROTC student, said he’s starting to feel jinxed at the number of times calamity has visited the fraternity house in recent weeks.

On Oct. 14, fraternity alumnus and honorary “house dad” Jack Price was fatally injured just outside the house at 140 N.W. 13th St. Price, who was volunteering his time at the house to help rehab its kitchen, started his large pickup from under the hood when it lurched forward and ran him over. He died soon afterward at the hospital.

A couple of weeks later, one of the fraternity members was arrested after a 21-year-old woman from Portland accused him of raping her during a Halloween party at the fraternity house. The 19-year-old is free on bail pending a legal resolution of the charges.

This is Gerritz’s second year as president. It’s been exasperating, he said.“It all happens to us,” Gerritz said. “Just when I want to quit, everything literally explodes.”

Still, Sgt. Jim Zesslin of the Corvallis Police Department said Gerritz can feel good about himself: “He did everything right.”

Gerritz’s parents, Steve and Sandy Gerritz of Medford, were in Corvallis visiting their son for OSU Dads’ Weekend, and his dad was across the street when the boiler exploded.

“It was one of those things right out of a war movie,” Steve Gerritz said.

An hour later, Steve Gerritz said he still felt jittery thinking about how close his son came to disaster. Nonetheless, he was filled with pride for his son’s reaction to a crisis.“He’s always been that way -. when things get scary, when things get bad, Chris is always calm. He’s a leader.”

Zessin said the explosion probably was caused by a natural gas leak. The streets around the fraternity were closed off for more than an hour.

The living room in the fraternity house took most of the damage, and windows were broken out. The house will be closed for at least a day, Zessin said.

Most of the 27 students who live in the fraternity were gone at the time of the explosion. Many of them were attending the game.

Following the explosion, Gerritz called all the fraternity residents who didn’t know about the explosion to let them know they’d need to find another place to sleep Saturday night.

During a weekend designed to make dads proud, Steve Gerritz said Saturday was a day he’ll never forget.“This was heroic,” he said. “Chris’ timing was absolutely phenomenal.”

A Final Word from DZ on DePauw Situation

Statement from National President -
February 26, 2007

I am sure by now that you have read the unfortunate New York Times article which involves our sisters at DePauw University. The article is inaccurate and grossly mischaracterizes the situation.

It is important that all Delta Zeta women understand what has happened and the steps that the National Organization is taking to bring all parties to the table to find resolution and to support these women moving forward.

It is in this vein that I ask you, as a leader, to commit to supporting our DePauw members and Delta Zeta. Your commitment and leadership is an important part of our healing process.

After years of struggling to recruit, Delta Zeta DePauw members voted in August to close the chapter at the end of the 2006-2007 school year. The women's majority vote meant that they could live in the house and be relieved of active membership duties, including the intense work of recruiting on a daily basis. The intent was for Delta Zeta to close and reorganize to return at a later date.

On September 12th the request for reorganization was denied by the University. The University indicated that Delta Zeta, which has been on the DePauw campus for 98 years, would not be guaranteed a return. University officials asked Delta Zeta to undertake a membership review.

Delta Zeta members, who could support the national plan to actively recruit, were asked to remain active. Other members, who no longer wanted to engage in day-to-day recruiting, became alumnae members of the Sorority.

The sole basis of the decision and the membership review was the women's commitment to actively recruit.

It is here in communicating the results that we made a mistake. We misjudged how these communications would be received. Delta Zeta deeply regrets that. On December 2, we informed each woman by mail whether she would be relieved of responsibilities to recruit and become an alumna member or remain on active collegiate status. As you know, active status at a struggling chapter requires daily recruiting. In hindsight, Delta Zeta national leadership should have once again returned to campus and communicated the results in person with each woman.

Finally, we are offended at suggestions that decisions made at DePauw were related in any way to our members' races and nationalities. We are proud of the diversity of our members and alumnae nationwide, which reflect the mandate in our Constitution that members will be selected solely on their merits and without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin or handicap. On each of our campuses, our faces reflect those of the communities of which we are a part, and it is irresponsible to suggest otherwise. Without its diverse population, Delta Zeta could not thrive as it does on college campuses today.

Article III, Section 3 of the Delta Zeta Constitution reads: "All members of Delta Zeta shall be chosen for moral, social and intellectual worth. Membership shall not be denied because of race, color, religion, national origin or handicap."

It is here that I call upon you to commit to supporting these women and Delta Zeta on your campus. Please take steps at your campus and among your personal and online communities to spread the word about Delta Zeta, our good works, and our support for DePauw chapter sisters and our National Organization.

Shortly, I will be contacting many of you to develop specific actions that can be taken. Please do not hesitate to contact me at leadership@dzshq.com with your suggestions, questions and concerns.

In Delta Zeta,
Debbie Raziano
National President

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

At DePauw University the Delta Zetas were a diverse group but not very large. After they were 'reviewed' by a delegation from their National Headquarters they ended up much smaller ans lots more homogeneous - all white, all thin, all popular...

When a psychology professor at DePauw University here surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.”

Women at DePauw University in Indiana who were either asked to leave the Delta Zeta house or resigned in protest hold a sorority photo.

Elizabeth Haneline, who was among those evicted, said, “The Greek system hasn’t changed at all, but instead of racism, it’s image now.”

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits.

Half of the "lucky" survivors were so pissed off at the blatant "image bias" that they quit anyway.

“Virtually everyone who didn’t fit a certain sorority member archetype was told to leave,” said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.

“I sensed the disrespect with which this was to be carried out and got fed up,” Ms. Holloway added. “I didn’t have room in my life for these women to come in and tell my sisters of three years that they weren’t needed.”
[...]
DePauw’s president, Robert G. Bottoms, issued a two-page letter of reprimand to the sorority. In an interview in his office, Dr. Bottoms said he had been stunned by the sorority’s insensitivity.

“I had no hint they were going to disrupt the chapter with a membership reduction of this proportion in the middle of the year,” he said. “It’s been very upsetting.”

The president of Delta Zeta, which has its headquarters in Oxford, Ohio, and its other national officers declined to be interviewed. Responding by e-mail to questions, Cynthia Winslow Menges, the executive director, said the sorority had not evicted the 23 women, even though the national officers sent those women form letters that said: “The membership review team has recommended you for alumna status. Chapter members receiving alumnae status should plan to relocate from the chapter house no later than Jan. 29, 2007.”

Ms. Menges asserted that the women themselves had, in effect, made their own decisions to leave by demonstrating a lack of commitment to meet recruitment goals. The sorority paid each woman who left $300 to cover the difference between sorority and campus housing.

The sorority “is saddened that the isolated incident at DePauw has been mischaracterized,” Ms. Menges wrote. Asked for clarification, the sorority’s public relations representative e-mailed a statement saying its actions were aimed at the “enrichment of student life at DePauw."

In other words: "We had to destroy the Chapter to save it." Right.

There is more in the complete article. It is too long to reprint here, but it goes on to note the Chapter was known for recruiting the 'smart' women - math and engineering majors, as well as focusing more on the person than the 'image'. Earlier issues with their National Organization are also detailed.

I came away with the impression that it is not always the undergrads hazing pledges covered in catfish bait that give Greek organizations a bad name. The ΔΖ leadership seems to have done a wonderful job of shooting themselves in the foot this time.

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias - New York Times