When bad things happen to good fraternities, the university often agrees with their national organization and chapter alumni to close the chapter for a prescribed period, after which it will be fast-tracked for reactivation. This allows the chapter to "cycle through" any putative bad apples and get a fresh start without losing its campus presence for long. Such enforced hiatuses can be used as chances to reinvigorate alumni support and undertake extensive renovations on property not viable when actives are in residence. While it isn't exactly a win-win situation, it's as close as many chapters get after potentially lethal scandals.
Such a scandal befell the Zeta Psi chapter at Dartmouth College in the early 2000s, when a private letter containing lurid sexual commentary was allegedly stolen from the house by the jilted ex-girlfriend of several brothers and disseminated through the university. (For those iniquisitive as to the details, The Dartmouth Review has a meticulous story.) In the ensuing brouhaha, an arrangement was reached to shutter the chapter to modernize the physical plant, after which the chapter would be permitted to resume operations. The time has now come, and Zeta Psi's executive director Dave Hunter calls Dartmouth reactivation its "number one" priority. The Zete Dartmouth alumni president agrees that the national has been "extremely supportive," and with renovations nearing completion, "expects formal re-recognition to proceed quickly."
This seamless coordination of national, alumni and university is contrasted with the travails of the local fraternity Beta Alpha Omega, the rump remains of a Beta Theta Pi chapter derecognized in 1996. The chapter has just completed its first recruitment season since the derecognition, but their former national has taken a dramatically different position from Zeta Psi. Beta executive director Jud Horras said, "I just think that local alums have chosen to start the chapter outside the guidelines of our organization, so the decision was made that they were more than welcome to start a local organization, but it is in no way associated with or sanctioned by Beta Theta Pi." Since fraternities must be affiliated with a national to be recognized at Dartmouth, this could be a stumbling block.
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I am a Beta alum, but I promise I am not a Beta alum from Dartmouth.
Beta Theta Pi national was, unlike most other big nationals, unique for many decades because it experienced very little internal political conflict. If one knows who Wilson Heller is, one can view his writings where he confirms this fact consistently. This is not the case today
Unfortunately, starting in the mid/late 1990s and continuing to this day, the quality and integrity of the leadership of the national officers fraternity has declined significantly. Beta's biggest blunder has been the creation of the so called Men of Principle initiative. MOP's purpose is to focus the fraternity back to it's core values. Certainly a very noble concept. In reality, what has happened is that a very few have nothing less than forced their ideology on the rest of us.
The overwhelming majority of our alumni have absolutely zero in common with the fraternity's board of trustees or the people who run the administrative office.
The lack of recognition and support of Dartmouth Beta's alumni by Beta national's board of trustees and administrative office is despicable. It is an embarrassment to all Betas, past and present. I am simply ashamed of the men who run my fraternity.
Please know that Mr. Horras' comments in the article only reflect the position of the General Fraternity's current board of trustees and administrative office. These men are NOT the fraternity. The Fraternity is our 130,000 living undergraduates and alumni. Very few would support the position Mr. Horras and the board of trustees have taken with reference to Dartmouth Beta Theta Pi. Shame on Mr. Horras and shame on Beta's board of trustees.
We all look forward to Dartmouth Beta Theta Pi's return to our organization. The sooner the better.
i don't know what exactly Beta Theta Pi's MOP Core Values program consists of, however, all the National Panhellenic Groups (sororities,) have had an emphasis on a return to core values because of all the horrible publicity that Greeks receive. And, though, we are not blameless, most of the problems come from out-of-control, underage drinking at fraternites, and the bad PR affects the sororities, too.
As a volunteer at a large northeastern university for the past four years, I have seen at least 2 fraternities per year kicked off campus for gross, repeated alcohol violations.
In speaking with their alumni, these boys have no core values and don't have any idea how to run a fraternity that is not alcohol-centered.
Fraternies used to hold their core values dear, but are now havens for date rape and underage alcohol abuse. At the campus I am referring to Zeta in particular is famous for its CEOs and Corporate 'Hos parties, which it invites sororities to participate in. The alumni are fully aware of what goes in the chapter and get a good chuckle over the whole thing.
The only way that today's fraternities will survive is if they do return to their core values. One fraternity which I have observed do this remarkably well is Chi Psi Fraternity. Kudos to them.
It is hard to imagine any mature adult would want any association with any alcohol abuse and date rape.
Furthermore, it would not to be wise for one to assume Dartmouth Beta Theta Pi alumni would be willing to invest money and time into re-starting their chapter so a bunch of misfits could destroy their chapter house and their reputation.
My bet would be that the alumni behind the Beta Theta Pi re-start are a varied group that are very interested in "core values" and responsible citizenship.
Interestingly enough, I searched various internet Dartmouth press outlets and several state the Beta house at Dartmouth is dry.
Being a "dry house" is often meaningless. It may be the policyof the national fraternity, but many dry houses still have unsanctioned parties that their nationals know nothing about. On many college campuses the universities require that all the fraternities have "dry houses." Does this mean the collegiate chapters comply? Absolutely not; it just drives the drinking and parties below the radar of the campus authorities.
In addition, if their local alumni went to college when the drinking age was 18, many tend to not take these policies seriously, anyway.
Alcohol abuse, and to a lesser extent drug abuse, are at epidemic proportions in America. They have been for a very long time. There is alcohol and drug abuse in every facet of a college community. Fraternities and sororities are not the cause of, nor are they responsible for, this plague. Getting rid of them would have no impact this issue. It is far bigger than this.
To think that any well meaning and clear thinking fraternity or sorority alum supports his organization so a child can abuse alcohol or drugs is sadistic thinking.
I must say, it is interesting that binge drinking appears to have been much less prevalent when the legal drinking age was 18. Maybe the many college and university president's who support lowering the legal age back to 18 are on to something?
We could always go back to prohibition. That certainly stemmed the use of alcohol. Look at what making drugs illegal has done. We no longer have drug addicts.
Point being?
There is no single or easy answer to this issue. If we make everything illegal, alcohol and drug addiction and the problems that accompany it are going to continue to be epidemic. If we legalize everything, alcohol and drug addiction and the problems that accompany it are going to continue to be epidemic.
This is a world wide issue. It is not just a fraternity and sorority issue...
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