Bad boys. Bad boys. What’cha gonna do?
November 16, 2006
It must really suck to be Chi Phi President Matt Hughes right now. His fraternity brothers have been roasting him over the fire of police, administrators and your’s truly. I really hate to annoy the frat guys by putting them on blast – again. But let’s look at the facts:
Sept. 6 — Seven pledges and a visitor displayed a pornographic magazine featuring black women to passers-by at Tate Plaza, Brumby Hall and in a shopping plaza on Alps Road. The guys photographed the passer-by reactions.
Sept. 14-18 — Our friend Kim Ellis in judicial programs finds the pledges violated the sexual harassment portion of the University’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy. The fraternity is placed on a two-year probation and given several other sanctions. A new member educator who OKed the prank and the pledges each are given individual probation and sanctions.
Sept. 21 — The Interfraternity Council, which regulates 22 social fraternities, also places five sanctions on Chi Phi.
Oct. 11 — ACC Police arrest Drewry Allen Littlewood, one of pledges who showed porn to passers-by, and charged him with underage possession of alcohol. Littlewood was chasing and shouting at the officer, the police report said, because the officer was arresting his friend.
Oct. 16 — The fraternity hosts an anti-discrimination seminar as ordered by Ellis. They open the doors of the event to the entire University. Yet, the only non-Chi Phi attendees are the speakers from the Office of Legal Affairs, Mama Shamp, and your’s truly.
Nov. 14 — University Police arrest Harris Thomas Culley and Ryan Andrew Thomas when the officer saw the two running from the Baptist Student Union after s window of the window was broken, police said.
Culley, a member of the Tate-porn crew is charged with a felony count of criminal damage to property, underage possession of alcohol and possession of a fake ID.
Thomas, another Chi Phi new member, is charged with underage possession of alcohol and possession of a fake ID.
Hughes kicks Culley out of the fraternity and suspends Thomas.
So what’s your take?
Is The Red & Black picking on the precious frat boys? Or are these delinquents having too much fun at the expense of their fraternity and University’s names? How well has the University handled Chi Phi’s repeated offenses? How long will is be before another Chi Phi member is arrested?
Please post your thoughts.
Look for a hilarious column on the Chi Phi drama from Paul Rehm in Monday’s paper.
- Juanita
jcousins@randb.com
November 17, 2006 at 4:57 pm
How well advertised was the anti-discrimination seminar?
I think there are plenty of occasions where a fraternity will have arrests involving several of its members, but these do not make the news as correlated events (the same can be said of floors in some of the halls and dorms, for example). Perhaps what framed this whole semester was the Tate center incident, and since that involved some level of legitimation from responsible persons in Chi Phi, it makes it seem as though the fraternity endorses a culture of criminality.
Maybe Chi Phi attracts rowdier kids, maybe rowdy kids are attracted to Chi Phi, or maybe some people just act up because they are not taught or do not know better what it means to take pride in one’s self and in one’s brotherhood.
If it’s a question of whether this is Chi Phi or something to do with fraternity (or sorority) culture, it seems to me that someone with a little journalistic know-how could take the names that are publicly available of people who have been arrested, facebook or myspace or whatever them to see what fraternities or sororities they pledge, and then build a table of it all. One can even compare the number of fraternity or sorority members arrested to non-members. Then someone can discuss more the data than the feelings or impressions.
December 21, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Sounds like the same pranks when I went to school and was in a frat from 78-82. The only difference between then and now is the increase in the drinking age and a lot less tolerant campus police. These changes make it much tougher to get away with the same highjinks. We were locked in rooms to finish off mass quantities of booze, tied to trees with female discipline applied and had to find golf balls in a field infested with cow patties in the middle of the night.
Enjoy college while you can. The real world is just around the corner.