UM Punishes Frats/Sororities in Treetops Incident
EDIT to avoid controversy about source of information. Looks like pretty tough love from the administration.
http://www.petoskeynews.com/featured-pnr/university-of-michigan-fratern…
February 27th, 2015 at 1:55 PM ^
Happened to my fraternity (Sigma Chi) after I graduated. It has taken us years to recover and we're still not all the way back to where we were before the expulsion. Not an insignificant punishment and richly deserved IMO.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^
SAM might be able to pull a ZBT and survive underground depending on whether their nationals pull their charter. Sucks for them b/c their Michigan chapter is the largest one in the country.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:30 PM ^
In the Daily article, it says Michigan asked the national SAM to revoke their chapter. I doesn't follow that up though.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:17 PM ^
Sammy has been suspended/off campus more than they've been on campus in the last 20 years. I remember they burned their house down a while back. I wonder at what point their National just says forget it and lets the chapter go.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^
SAM was on probation but feeling out a new chapter while I was in school from 2000-2004. A few of my friends were in the initial class - I think it was 2002 - when SAM officially came back. I'm surprised they took off and expanded that quickly; must have a nice house?
February 27th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
Their old house just off Hill St was a dump but it burned down I think in the late 90's. When they came back they bought the TKE house (which was AOPi Sorority in the 80's and 90's) up on Oxford next to Sigma Nu. Not a very nice place and it had residential neighbors on one side who always used to call the cops.
February 27th, 2015 at 5:06 PM ^
from a former SAM, here's the timeline.
In the mid 90s we got kicked off campus for something before my time. In 1999 they recolonized the frat, but they lost their house when it burned down during the summer when no one was living there. We didnt burn down our house and the insurance adjusters never solved what caused it to happen (or if they did, I was never told). In fall of 2000 I was a pledge in the house-less house, signing up to join under promises from national that they were going to buy us a house.
They tried to build the frat back up to the size where national would spring for a new house, but national wouldn't front the $ without us getting enough guys. we couldn't get enough guys to pledge in 2001 without a house, and we couldn't get a house without enough guys to pledge. In 2002 the house folded after spring semester. In 2004 national SAM recolonized and bought the new kids a house right away, having learned from their mistake with us, which enabled them to get enough bodies since people would actually pledge the frat again.
February 27th, 2015 at 11:30 PM ^
I was living in the fraternity house across the street during that summer. A few of the guys rounded everyone up when they noticed the house was burning around 2AM. Within a few minutes just about every one living in our house was on the front lawn watching it burn.
I don't know what started it, though I do know that a few folks had figured out ways to get into it. It isn't hard to believe it could have been arson, but it could also have just been electrical. Those are old houses in that neighborhood and our house had a couple of really "warm" plugs that nearly caused ours to catch fire, too.
I distinctly remember watching a transformer on the side of the house just expode.
Wow man... that was a long time ago.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:39 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 3:22 PM ^
It's kinda complicated, but here's a short list I remember from when the guys older than me had to rebuild ours.
1. Filling the fraternity house (ranges from 20-45 people)
2. Recruiting optimally to fill said house (15-30 people per year either semester)
3. Getting around 2-3 satelite houses (and if affordable floors in Landmark/Zaragon/ArborBLU) in addition to original house (recruiting 25-30 a year)
4. If possible, getting sorority partner for football season (only 14 sororities vs. 36 fraternities so it is competitive)
5. Hitting # quota which can range from 80 to 200 at UM.
All while doing this you gotta come up with a marquee philanthropic event like Pike Rivalry Run, Psi U Winterfest, Delt Dodgeball etc.
Takes usually 4-6 years to recover after getting re-chartered after being kicked off campus/expelled by nationals. And that's only if the initial re-charter students (about 20 or so) WORK THEIR ASS off recruiting the right guys.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:36 PM ^
It's not going to be a positive orgaization without a lot of hard work.
A few of my friends re-chartered when we first went to college. It was a lot of fun the first 3 years or so, but their recruiting sucked and after a while they became the anyone can pledge frat. That's when the "Frat Life" guys everyone despises who think it's only about drinking and getting laid started to show up.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:58 PM ^
It's fun and games until you realize those people are useless in making your chapter more than 30 people large. Gotta have good all around hardworking guys.
I forgot to mention SAE's Mudbowl philanthropy, which is probably what Michigan's Greek Life is most known for nationally.
So yeah it can be very positive if done correctly.
February 27th, 2015 at 6:54 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 4:06 PM ^
I could see how it would be cool to have small gatherings up on the rooftop patios, but are there much of any other advantages?
February 27th, 2015 at 4:16 PM ^
It's fake "luxury." I'm sure any home builder/carpenter/designer would laugh if they actually see the rooms.
Yes it's a new thing now b/c those apartments have really lax noise violation policies (AKA no COPS!) and nice amenities (hot tubs, grills, partyrooms/patios). You can rage/party to your hearts content as long as you just clean up.
Better to clean up those brand new facilities vs. the run down satelite houses after football season or in the summer.
Good times...
February 27th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^
I believe you are correct. It was a LONG and difficult road and we just had the rededication of the house last year. OccaM does an excellent job above outlining the various steps that have to be taken to make it happen and his list isnt by any means comprehensive.
Thank you for your help!
February 27th, 2015 at 2:58 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 4:24 PM ^
Will I be seeing you next weekend? This is Houle.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:58 PM ^
some of the probation was starting to loosen up around my sophomore year. . .but they were still struggling by the time I graduated.
February 27th, 2015 at 1:55 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^
coming soon!
February 27th, 2015 at 1:58 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 2:06 PM ^
For those of who wish to continue their Freep boycott, you can find the same story HERE.
Edit: Gobgoblue beat me to the punch, although the above link is to the Petosky News Review, as opposed to the Daily.
February 27th, 2015 at 7:17 PM ^
Haven't clicked a single Freep link since 2007!!!!!
February 27th, 2015 at 2:02 PM ^
a totally reasonable discussion with take place in this thread.
I wonder why the sorority wasn't punished as severely? Is there video/pics showing that they weren't directly involved?
February 27th, 2015 at 2:10 PM ^
Maybe the rooms were registered to members of that fraternity. The money owed may explain why their punishment is so much more than everyone else.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^
Well when you ask a question like that...
Probably because a few idiotic fraternity brothers more than likely raised a lot more hell than a few idiotic sorority sisters?
EDIT: The Daily says as much:
“Members of the Sigma Delta Tau sorority stood by at Treetops Resort and allowed others to vandalize the facility," the University's statement read. "This lack of action is unacceptable.”
February 27th, 2015 at 7:07 PM ^
Or those few idiotic frat bros threw those girls under the bus... "yeah, but they were there too!"
February 27th, 2015 at 2:11 PM ^
Considering your posting history, I find your first sentence incredibly ironic.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:01 PM ^
I'm funny.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:03 PM ^
I'm curious to see what happens to the individuals involved once the criminal process is resolved.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:05 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 2:13 PM ^
As a former UM SAM, I've weighed in on the other threads on this incident. I was always calling for punishment (you can check my comments history) because I felt that the brothers responsible for the damages should be kicked out of the frat, and made to pay back the damages. I didn't think they should boot the whole house though, that seemed excessive. As long as those directly responsible were punished, at least. This punishment is quite harsh IMO. I wonder if the U felt the whole house was responsible and there were not enough good apples worth salvaging after booting all the bad ones, so they just booted the whole bunch?
February 27th, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^
I imagine the kids directly responsible for the damage are feeling mighty low right now, as they just sunk the whole frat with them.
February 27th, 2015 at 7:05 PM ^
Double. Sorry.
February 27th, 2015 at 7:00 PM ^
That's debatable. If they haven't owned the situation or cooperated with the investigation, who is to say they have the emotional intelligence to even feel remorse at taking their org down?
Hell, they had no respect for other people's property in the first place nor how many family vacations got ruined as collateral damage.
As long as there aren't any charges I imagine they really don't give a shit. Their frat will go underground and they can write a check for anything else.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^
SAM is big enough that they might be able to go underground and survive. SDT nope.
February 28th, 2015 at 7:27 AM ^
Yeah SDT is gonna fold if they can't recruit new freshmen for two years. That's impossible to overcome for a sorority.
February 27th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^
What are the odds that guys ratted on the ones who did this? Very, very slim.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:06 PM ^
From my reading, it sounds like it was their lack of cooperation that doomed them:
"We are extremely disappointed by the reprehensible behavior and failure of groups to come forward with information regarding the individuals who are responsible for the incident," she said. "We strongly believe that individuals should accept responsibility for their actions."
February 27th, 2015 at 3:39 PM ^
Your spot on, in this age of hi-res cameras on smart phones where people take selfies and photos of nearly every meal they consume, there MUST BE photos of who destroyed what, but amazingly this has been kepy pretty well under wraps. Thus, the quiet silence of guilt for all. It is unfortunate for the majority or minority of the members of fraternities that did not cause the damage. I guess they are all quietly sticking together and going down together, for now.
February 27th, 2015 at 3:32 PM ^
First off, I was a former UM Greek so I'm not being a hater.
This is definitely a pretty damn bad incident and a four year suspension assures that anyone connected to the house is gone by the time they try to re-establish the chapter.
More than likely no one is pointing the finger at who the bad apples were in the hopes that authorities can't file criminal charges. If thats the case, what choice is there but to kill the whole chapter. In addition, its not like they busted up a room or two and the only people who knew about it were the people in that room. This was a mob mentality that got totally out of control and the failure to stop the ones that were smashing up common areas is reason to kill the chapter as you clearly had both bad apples and the other apples who were not good, they were willing to allow the bad apples to do their thing.
Again, I was pretty hard core Greek and even sat on my housing board of my chapter for a few years after I graduated. No question these guys should be off campus, and, if they ever identified the guys who did this, they should be booted off campus. This isn't how Michigan Men behave and I'm embarrassed to say I'll share a degree with these idiots.
February 27th, 2015 at 6:55 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 2:17 PM ^
Happened to my fraternity in the early 2000s. Doing fine now... (10-14 years later). Boo hoo SAM and SDT.
February 27th, 2015 at 4:27 PM ^
February 27th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^
that could/may/will be brought. i foresee crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth by dozens of undergrads.