OT Update: Fraternity SAM suspended by UofM
Many of you have been following the story about the vandalism caused by Sigma Alpha Mu at Tree Tops Resort in Northern Michigan. The News (and Freep, for that matter) are reporting that UofM has suspended the fraternity in light of last weekend's actions.
In addition, up to five other Greek organizations at UofM may possibly also be suspended. This story has legs, and I'm sure there is more to come.
Besides Sigma Alpha Mu, UM officials said Sigma Delta Tau sorority was involved in the vandalism that occurred at Treetops Resort in Gaylord the weekend of Jan. 16-17.
That same weekend, Pi Kappa Alpha and Chi Psi fraternities along with Alpha Phi and Delta Gamma sororities were involved in reported vandalism at Boyne Highlands, 50 miles northwest in Harbor Springs, UM officials said. The damage involved 12 rooms.
UM officials want all of those groups to be suspended as well, university spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.
January 23rd, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
January 24th, 2015 at 5:47 AM ^
Thought you were responding to me.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:15 PM ^
First thing I checked was to see if my old fraternity was on there - it wasn't. I see the hotels are doing their best to repair the damage and reopen the areas affected. I would imagine some parents will be getting extra bills in the near future to cover the cost. But like some of the posters above said, criminal charges do need to be filed.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:09 PM ^
The university reported that Sammy national organization suspended the chapter from all activities.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:10 PM ^
Paging Peter Klima...
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:40 PM ^
Nothing to see here. It's not like the New York Times has picked up the story.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/21/us/ap-us-travel-brief-ski-re…
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:11 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:16 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
I can tell you this right now, a couple "bad apples" don't do $50,000+ worth of damage.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:31 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:46 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
Do you live in the real world? "Sins of omission are equally as intolerable as sins of commission." Are you kidding me? Have you ever been in a social situation with more than 10 people in your life? I'm not saying join in, by any means, but personally stopping a brigade of people who have their minds made up? The President of the United States can't do that. I guarantee there were people there who thought you themselves "this is a terrible idea" and they didn't have a prayer of stopping it.
Stop living in a fantasy land.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:11 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:35 PM ^
OK, so he's incorrect for implying that 2 students averaged $25k in a damage a piece. You're attacking semantics. I don't think anyone believes that 2 people did all of this.
If you and 117 other decided to lock arms and one of you held up the picture from Tiananmen Square then sure, maybe you would have had a shot. You need to put yourself in their position - it's just not realistic to think that you would be the singular hero to step up and save the day. Don't you think that atleast one of the 118 (in your example) people there thought to themselves "this is a terrible idea, we're going to wake up tomorrow and completely regret this"? There's a reason they couldn't stop it - it wasn't reasonable. Don't blame the group for the actions of a select few.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:22 AM ^
Jesus, the Greek system is way more pitiful than I ever thought if folks are making lame excuses to not step up and stop a few people causng that much damage. You sound like a middle schooler.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:05 AM ^
My teenager could have given a more cogent defense than this guy.
Entitled little shits.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:40 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:01 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^
UMichClass2017, do you think that SAM will identify the major culprits? Same thing for Chi Psi and Pike? Presuming these individuals are adults, should they be identified publicly and do the perp walk?
I can believe that the vast majority of fraternity and sorority members who were present at Treetop and Boyne were not actively nor maliciously destroying property. However, if their fraternity brothers and sorority sisters are not willing to identify them, (or better yet, if they are not willing to identify themselves,) then I am less willing to see forgiveness offered to their houses.
If those students responsible are expelled, or removed from school for at least a year or two, and sued for damages trebled, I could see suspensions for the fraternities and sororities being lifted quickly. If, on the other hand, through some perverse sense of "brotherhood" no one takes responsibility, I could see the banhammer coming down on the entire house.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:27 AM ^
It sounds like there will most likely be no actions taken against Chi Psi and Pike. I would not be surprised to see Sammy encourage the main culprits to step forward, though. And I imagine they will have to go through some sort of brotherhood review if they want to preserve any chance at remaining on campus / an active chapter.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:11 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:29 PM ^
PIKE does their Rivalry Run which raises about 50k a clip for cancer every year... Good enough?
Believe it or not you can do "real" community service/philanthropy and also party like animals.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:31 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
One doesn't cancel out the other. You can't say, "Yeah, but we raised a bunch of money for........" I don't want to argue with you; you're 20. I've had too many of those conversations in my own house. And I'm not arguing the value of the Greek system on campus. But what happened is wrong, cannot be defended, and those responsible should be held accountable.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:09 PM ^
Not defending this bullshit. Just defending against the meme of Greek Life not doing community service/philanthropy like the person above insinuated.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:18 PM ^
To me, this is less about the Greek system and more about group dynamics. If one or two guys were at that resort, this wouldn't have happened. But when you get a group of people egging each other on and challenging each other to go one further, this can happen. Groups are pretty powerful, especially when they have a singular purpose and are comprised of similar members - there's no one dissenting. There's no one saying, "Hey, think about what you're doing." Groups can be powerful in a good way for the same reason, but when the leader can't lead in the right direction, this kind of shit happens.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:42 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:27 PM ^
Actually this amount of damage may be a felony so some time in jail may do the trick.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:07 AM ^
What a giant douchebag. You should be ashamed, but you clearly do not. I'm embarrassed for you.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:55 PM ^
Don't be so smug.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
Agreed. i am very much in favor of the greek system. i believe it provides a significant benefit to those that take advantage of its positive aspects. it is, however, events like this that give it a bad name. these students should be treated as harshly as any criminal. they committed a criminal act and i'm not against actual time in prison- 10 days might be an interesting time for these young people to consider their lunatic behavior.
i really don't get what these kids are thinking. one of my friends told me his son told him of a group of students who actually went up for a weekend party with building materials in tow , ready to repair the damage they knew would happen. how do you go along in anyway with that? we did some stupid things, but we were never destructive and would never have considered something destructive.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:16 PM ^
Rhetorical question for the day, if they were partying at their own fraternity house on campus, would there have been $50k worth of damages, I don't think so....
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
maybe.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:40 AM ^
rhetorical question.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 4:03 AM ^
They think thats a cool thing, not a bad thing.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:19 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:44 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:07 PM ^
Serve a purpose.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:49 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:27 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:32 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:20 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:20 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:43 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:31 PM ^
PIKE: Not surprising.
Chi Psi: Gibbons... now this?
Sammy: Seriously?!?!? LOL
DG: Too funny
Alpha Phi: Michigan dance team might need some new tryouts.