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 1:24 PM ^
Thanks. That's what I thought. Definitely rushed Sig Ep when they were living in the Sigma Chi house.
January 30th, 2015 at 3:48 PM ^
graduatedn '90
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:29 AM ^
This might be taken the wrong way, but how did it set back your house a decade or more? Ok, it takes 10 years to get back to the same status, but it isn't like your research got destroyed and you had to start over.
I know, it is probably just syntax, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.
January 23rd, 2015 at 6:47 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
and in Sig Ep's case, it took until 2012 to get a "permanent" house back after returning in various temporary housing locations for a decade.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:26 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:09 PM ^
As a current member, I can shed some light on it. Basically what happens is that there's a large disconnect between the past and present. Ergo, you lose the financial support network that keeps the house in good shape. You lose a lot of the more positive traditions, like guys coming back for reunions and such. You essentially have to reconstruct a culture. That can be good and bad. If things get so bad that the charter has to be revoked, it's probably good that the culture is getting purged. But you do also have to reconstruct everything else, from internal policies and governance mechanisms to philanthropy events that were once a tradition to social standing and events like that. It can be both good and bad.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:15 AM ^
Those dangerous assholes should have been jailed. Were they jailed?
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^
suspended their activity. . .
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:23 PM ^
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January 22nd, 2015 at 9:59 PM ^
as the running you over prank.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:21 PM ^
Prank?
January 22nd, 2015 at 9:59 PM ^
when criminal charges are filed against individual members.
incoming!
January 22nd, 2015 at 9:59 PM ^
It's a start, but still hoping to see criminal charges brought by Treetops and individual punishments doled out by the University.
Let the individuals involved face repercussions for their disrespectful actions beyond having their beer pong table taken away from them.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:04 PM ^
Quadruple post
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:05 PM ^
Quadruple post
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:03 PM ^
Quadruple post
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
As a minor note, the quadruple (indeed, the repeated posts of 15 or more) posts have been some pronounced lately, so I would like to remind people to not hit "Save" multiple times if indeed that is what is going on. After all, some of us have paid our water bill three times by accident - well, I have anyway.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:41 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^
document.getElementById("myBtn").disabled = true;
Put it in a Javascript onclick event handler. What am I missing? I do this sort of thing all over the place.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:12 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:32 AM ^
I still chuckle when I see a post by MeanJoe and want to reply, "Yay!" to all of them. Ahhhh, reminds me of the days leading up to, "It's Happening!"
January 23rd, 2015 at 1:12 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:39 AM ^
A friend of mine was moving and rented a truck, which he parked in front of his apartment. After we had loaded the damn thing, it wouldn't start. If I remember correctly it turned out it had been filled with regular gasoline instead of diesel. So we had to scramble to find a pickup truck and various other cars to get him moved.
On Monday he calls up to try to get his money back. Initially they tried to blame him for the whole problem, of course, but eventually they grudgingly admit that he was in the right and that they'll give him his money back.
When he looks at his VISA statement the next month, he notices that they've credited him seven times. He never said a word.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^
Suspended for how long though? The two worst offenders at Indiana University in the last few years were suspended, but not for long. Once they came back they were basically doing the same stuff. It needs to be a worthwhile amount of time. Like 5+ years.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^
Unless they were on Double Secret Probation!!
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:28 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^
It's a start, but still hoping to see criminal charges brought by Treetops and individual punishments doled out by the University.
Let the individuals involved face repercussions for their disrespectful actions beyond having their beer pong table taken away from them.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:02 PM ^
That's all well and good, but is it a start?
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:05 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:08 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
It'd be interesting to hear from fraternity members from Sigma Alpha Mu, Pi Kappa Alpha and Chi Psi who are also here at MGoBlog. I'm sure there are some who are on this blog who are in one of those houses. I wonder if any are willing to share what they were thinking, and what they think the repercussions and sanctions should be in light of what happened.
I just went to the Sammie site for UofM (LINK: http://www.michigansammy.com/) and there still is nothing posted whatsoever about the weekend.
Particularly damning is a statement from Tree Tops commenting on the public apology from Chapter President Joshua Kaplan. Barry Owens, general manager of the resort, was quoted saying this about Kaplan:
“I thought it was a joke because it was the president who was quoted and he was actually one of the ringleaders here,” Owens said. “He was one of the people who assured us they would behave themselves.”
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:34 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:45 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:52 PM ^
Go back to your shitty life.
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:54 PM ^
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:55 PM ^
Wanna contribute something useful? If the poster is in one of the houses, just maybe he knows a little bit more about the fiasco than you do.
I can easily see 1 frat doing obscenely dumb shit worth up to 50k in damages and then the other ones dragged into the mess cuz of publicity.
Do we have the damage figures for the other 2 frats? If say those damages are 1k each in a couple of rooms, are we still going to publicly lynch them too?
Lets relax.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:09 PM ^
If the damages are 1,000 each, then yes, they should still be publicly shamed.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:41 PM ^
Let me introduce you to labor costs. A door that costs 200 bucks tops ends up costing upwards to 800 or more. Considering this is a ski resort, they prolly use high end contractors which boosts the costs even more.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:10 PM ^
In what world is it not a big deal to do 1k of damage to a hotel room?
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
1k is easy to rack up anywhere when you got 200+ people. If you don't clean up after yourselves (ie stains garbage) and add in some drunken bs like punching a wall, I'm sure you can get 1k easily due to labor costs.
Smart people would clean up after themselves, assess the damage (if anything permanent) pay up.
1k was just an arbitrary number, but when this thread was made a few days ago this is the kind of debauchery I was thinking of at first.
50k is way out of what I was thinking.
January 23rd, 2015 at 6:54 AM ^
the first place.
January 22nd, 2015 at 11:37 PM ^
While I agree it is bad to damage property, things do happen, and $1k of hotel damage is not too hard. I was in Vegas for a Bachelors party, and one of the guys basically passed out when he was trying to piss at 4 am, fell on the toilet, and broke the back portion. He got a bill for about a grand for that.
Just saying, when there are 100+ kids, it is not outlandish to get $1k of damages.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:32 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^
WolvinLA2, here's the thing. When Sigma Alpha Mu's "prior" (chapter president?) Joshua Kaplan is quoted saying this was an isolated incident, very few were involved, maybe a couple guys, you have two possibilities, neither of which are good:
- One possibility is that Kaplan is correct: there were two or three guys doing all the damage. In which case, how in the world can 115 or so other people (Sammies and SDTs) ignore the vandalism and destruction? Which covered 45 rooms? Hallways? It really is ironic that Sigma Alpha Mu, of all fraternities, would believe that it is ok to ignore and turn a blind eye to the criminal actions of others.
- The other possibility is that Kaplan is trying to do damage control, and the reality is that a significant number of fraternity bros (20? 30? 40?) were involved in the systematic trashing of Treetops resort. The problem with this scenario is twofold. First, it means that Kaplan is blatantly lying and covering up. (The implication of Treetop General Manager Owens, quoted in the Detroit News.) The other problem is that you have a huge portion of this fraternity thinking this kind of destruction is completely ok. Did they reall think no one is going to hold them responsible? That they could act this way with impunity?
One other observation. Thus far, I have heard literally nothing from anyone in a sorority, not Sigma Delta Tau, Delta Gamma, or Alpha Phi. Back in the day, it would be more typical for guys in a fraternity to do stupid destructive stuff. Is that still the case, or does the equality of the sexes mean that the sorority sisters were just as destructive as the fraternity brothers?
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:00 AM ^
I know that's just "normal damages" wherever I stay...
smh
January 22nd, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
UMichClass2017 offered his input in a measured and respectful manner, and you responded like this. Who's the douche again?
January 23rd, 2015 at 6:50 AM ^
I'm not sure about the majority of board members but I generally leave the room in the same condition as when I arrived. I assume that is not abnormal. Perhaps that is why they were dragged into it. That's just my guess however.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^