Everyone Murders

November 17th, 2017 at 7:58 AM ^

Along with "stricter standards" imposed, maybe a house shut down for a term, and then on with frat-business as usual.  It's no surprise that this is a focus this year, especially with the senseless death of Tim Piazza at PSU.

Here's a great deep-dive on that tragedy - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/11/a-death-at-penn-state/540657/ .  And recently it came to light that one brother tried to delete even more damning evidence, but the police were able to recover the basement camera recordings.*

So wanna guess who was first a loyal member and then supporter of that chapter until his timely death?  Of fucking course it was Joe Paterno.  Of fucking course.

*A cover-up at Penn State?  I guess it could happen ... .  In this instance, the frat member erased the hard drive with the recordings just as law enforcement was scouring the place for evidence.  Daddy's gonna have to lawyer that "kid" up real hard.

Everyone Murders

November 17th, 2017 at 9:42 AM ^

I don't recall where I read that Joe Paterno was Beta Theta Pi (so I might be wrong), but there's this:

[A] brother of Beta Theta Pi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, reveals how changes to the frat in the weeks prior contributed to Tim's death. ...

Taken in by the fact that Beta was tied to the Penn State establishment, he joined, pleased that it seemed above a lot of the behavior exhibited by other Greek life organizations. "I knew the Paternos loved Beta, I knew that the administration supported them, it just felt like the right place to be."

and this

Joe Paterno was at the dedication of the new Beta house.

... Rumors circulate in the frat from time to time about serial child rapist Jerry Sandusky's interest in Beta. According to the brother I spoke to, alumni of Beta recalled visits by Sandusky to the Beta house in the early 2000s.

Source:  https://thetab.com/us/2017/09/29/inside-penn-states-beta-theta-pi-the-fraternity-that-killed-tim-piazza-71975

So I probably misremembered that Joe Paterno was a Beta Theta Pi.  He was also an active promoter of the frat.  Because of course he was.

Perkis-Size Me

November 17th, 2017 at 2:12 PM ^

It's infuriating that those scumbags had the charges dropped. They may not have wanted to kill him, but it happened anyway.

I suppose their punishment will just have to be that:

1) They will live with the guilt for the rest of their lives. They're murderers, whether the court says they are or not.

2) Unless they've got a very forgiving daddy who will just hand them a job in the family business, these scumbags won't ever get any job beyond minimum wage. Not ever. All it will take is a simple Google search by any hiring manager for that company to decide these guys won't be allowed within 500 ft of their offices. They'll be scrubbing toilets at McDonalds for pennies and come home smelling like explosive diarrhea every night. 

And that still won't be justice....

Everyone Murders

November 17th, 2017 at 9:56 AM ^

Also, I'm going to come right out and say that both (A) the Sandusky tragedy, in which Joe Paterno actively enabled and abetted the rape of children, and (B) the senseless death of Tim Piazza were at one level due to a Penn State culture of covering up.

In short, Tim Piazza died because the fraternity (that Joe Paterno dedicated) decided it was more important to cover up a critically injured "brother" than face consequences for violating rules.  A common theme in "Happy Valley" of covering up heinous events rather than facing consequences.

It's not really that much of a stretch.

NittanyFan

November 17th, 2017 at 11:41 AM ^

Those kids basically had the attitude of a driver involved in a hit-and-run accident --- "Oh shit, I screwed up and I'm in a whole lot of trouble here.  Maybe I can make a run for it and avoid it all.  Better yet, maybe this problem will resolve itself on its own.  Either way, I'm going to try to avoid dealing with my role in this."

Hit-and-runs occur everywhere in America, of course.

I don't for a second think Joe Paterno or Graham Spanier (neither of whom were exactly the best role models for getting away with a cover-up, of course, given that it all eventually got found out and they were all fired and/or indicted and/or convicted) influenced their thinking at all.

Maybe my school was unique as regards Joe Paterno and perhaps it was more likely to occur there vs. other schools.  I don't necessarily agree, but I'll entertain that discussion. 

But THIS event?  I truly believe this could have happened anywhere.  Excessive drinking in fraternities and frat boys trying to avoid responsibility is not some "unique-to-Universities-located-in-Central-PA" issue.  And because of such, JoePa, IMO, is irrelevant to this thread and issue.

Everyone Murders

November 17th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^

I think there's a lot to what your saying here.  It's very fair to note that binge drinking and such goes on at all sorts of frats around the country, and Tim Piazza's death was not necessarily a "Penn State" thing.  I'd even go so far as to say the stupidity of Piazza's "brothers" in ignoring his medical plight could have happened at any high-charged frat.  Drunk young men + life-and-death decisions = Potential Tragedy.  Just about anywhere.

However, it bears mention that this is a fraternity that the Paternos endorsed and supported, and that was a factor in the frat's prestige at Penn State.  And just like their endorser and hero Joe Paterno when faced with a tough choice, these "brothers" did backflips to try to avoid culpability, including after the fact cover-up behavior.

BTW, I think you provide an interesting perspective on the board, and are anything but a rabid JoePalogist (TM).  We just disagree - because facts have a very anti-Joe Paterno and anti-PSU bias.

mGrowOld

November 17th, 2017 at 8:55 AM ^

Because as everyone knows, the ONLY place on a college campus where alcohol is abused and people do stupid things to try and impress others is a fraternity.   

Glad we got that on-campus drinking problem fixed.  Pro-tip - better get to the library early on Friday & Saturday nights, seats will surely fill up fast.

 

ijohnb

November 17th, 2017 at 9:54 AM ^

kind of drinking that goes on at fraternities is more systemic, and the dynamic created between brothers and pledges can be problematic.  A lof of pledges begin to see the older brothers as authority figures, with inherent virtue and an enhanced understanding of what is right and wrong and how far things should go, when the reality is they are all just kids with unlimited booze.  There becomes a presumption that "somebody" has it under control and that is not always the case.  I am not here pretending to be an expert on all things Greek, but I developed an unsavory view of Greek life and its trappings while I was in school.

In reply to by ijohnb

mGrowOld

November 17th, 2017 at 10:05 AM ^

If any studies have ever been done comoaring drinking fatalities or simply reported incidents between fraternities,doems and 18-21 as a whole? My guess is the ratio would be remarkably similar with the latter group actually having higher incident ratios.

ijohnb

November 17th, 2017 at 10:20 AM ^

don't know.  And I'm not here to degrade fraternities as a whole, I know a shit ton of people who were in fraternities at different universities and am close with some to this day.  Some had positive experiences and seemed even enhanced by their experience.  And it is possible that the fraternity system does provide some stability to the chaos, and that frat brothers can protect and guide each other through difficult situations that could be worse if not for their affiliation.

But from what I observed when I was at fraternity houses for extended periods, I don't know, there seemed to be an element of personal sovereignty missing from the people I encountered.  Everything seemed to result from kind of engrained "group think" of the members and dissent was largely ridiculed.  I was witness to some staggeringly poor decisions and conduct at some fraternities, above and beyond that which I witnessed in other campus locales, to the extent that I stopped going regardless of who I knew there.  When my sons are of college age, I will recommend strongly against their involvement in Greek life.

In reply to by ijohnb

Hemlock Philosopher

November 17th, 2017 at 11:24 AM ^

"Within the general college student population, members of social fraternities and sororities are more likely than are other students to engage in high-risk drinking and substance use and to experience related problems ()."

HailHail47

November 17th, 2017 at 7:38 AM ^

Why are universities just waking up to this? Drinking, hazing, drugs, and sex are not new. I'm not saying that I endorse that behavior, but why is everyone more sensitive to this stuff now?