Wisconsin fraternity suspended over racist, bigoted slurs

[struggle4progress]

May 18, 2016

The University of Wisconsin has suspended the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at its flagship campus after finding that members of the fraternity repeatedly used racist and bigoted slurs and ostracized a black member who tried to stop it.

The suspension handed down Tuesday by the school's Committee on Student Organizations comes a year after the fraternity's University of Oklahoma chapter was disbanded after video emerged showing members engaging in a racist chant.

Under the Wisconsin suspension, the chapter cannot participate in any Greek activities until Nov. 1 and can't recruit new members this fall. Members also have to undergo diversity and mental health training before the chapter can be reinstated. The chapter had already been on probation for an unrelated incident of underage drinking ...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-wisconsin-fraternity-racism-20160518-story.html

[Monk06]

1. Of the three Universities I attended only one allowed Fraternities and Sororities on campus

and the people who joined them were without exception entitled white racist rich kids

You found them in the Commerce and Engineering faculties

The hatred of Engineers for Art Students in the one university that allowed Frats was nothing short of pathological

Pricks all of them Ignorant, unread and conceited

[bonzo925]

2. this is why colleges should switch to just being stem schools

the dumbass fratboys would no longer be going to school (they'd probably go to trade school instead)

[xmas74]

3. I was in a sorority.

I was not entitled, not racist and not wealthy by any means.

Some go too far.

[Monk06]

4. My big complaint is based on my experience of Canadian Frats I'm not sure there

are any sororities at UBC on which my experience is based

Sororities in general are not as agressively bigoted as Frats except for a few southern ones like
Alpha Delta Pi

Here is a short list of offenders

http://college.usatoday.com/2015/03/15/timeline-list-of-recent-sorority-and-fraternity-racist-incidents/

Another gripe I have is Frats who are employed in Accounting and Engineering giving preferential hiriing to their brothers at job fairs That is flat out fraudulant

An ex girlfriend wasted an interview with one accounting firm because a fellow student gave the secret hand shake

The system encourages cronyism and arrogance and is the opposite of Meritocracy

[xmas74]

5. That's why I pledged.

It was all about networking. I don't get much from it anymore, though I was invited to a frat party a few weeks ago when I mentioned that I was once a Rose. (TKE little sisters were once called Roses.) When I said that I was also in a sorority and said which one the table bought me a shot.

That's about it from this end, though I probably could use it further to my advantage. I've been saving all my favors for my kid, when she needs it most.

[Monk06]

7. That's the problem with these organizations The networking only works for members

and constitutes an unfair employment barrier for those who are excluded from frats and sororities by economic, racial and ethnic exclusiveness

For instance the Frat boys in the Commerce department at UBC where all caucasian If you were Chinese you weren't invited to pledge

The thing is 80% of the UBC was ethnically Chinese, either foreign students or born in Canada

The Frat guys would get hired by their friends at the annual job fairs by the top five companies

The Chinese students had to article with small firm or Revenue Canada

In fact I was told that if a Chinese student had even the hint of a Chinese accent they would not be hired by any of the top five companies and some clients stipulated that they did not want Chinese articling students working on their audit teams

Networking is always great if it is an open network and anyone can join

Not so with Frats and Sororities in spite of the occasional African American, Asian or Hispanic faces you see in their brochures Tokenism is still exclusion in the larger picture

[xmas74]

8. I was in Alpha Xi Delta.

Our president was Hispanic, my roommate was AA, my mom was half Vietnamese. I came from a very lower middle class family. (Most would call it working poor or a small notch above.) There is variety but it depends on the campus. That's no different than any other club on many campuses.

Yes, we partied. Guess what? We also were required to have a 3.0 on my campus. If you dropped lower you had mandatory study group. Most of us were also involved in other organizations across campus. We were very active in our community, both on campus and in town.

Most of my networking wasn't actually from the Greek system itself but from activities. Philanthropic demands a certain amount of hours each semester from each member. (That's not campus-that's from Nationals.) You don't complete them, you're on probation. Anyway, I met even more people and made more connections through the volunteer hours that we put in across the community. Yes, I could have volunteered on my own but as a group we were able to plan entire events. At the time locals could decide who and/or what to volunteer for and we chose a wide variety of organizations. We planned dances for the adult special needs community in our area. We did yard work at a local shelter. We would fundraise for the local food pantries, giving them money for food and collecting hygiene items. We were regular volunteers for Meals on Wheels. Doing all of that as a group allowed us to meet people in the community we'd never meet otherwise. We made connections, we networked and we were remembered as the nice young ladies who worked so hard in the community.

As to hiring practices, that's the way things go sometimes. I've been passed over for plenty of jobs because I wasn't related to so-and-so or I wasn't a member of (name your club/organization/church here). People sometimes hire the familiar-that's life. Is it fair? Not always but it happens. As to frats/sororities being all white there are AA frats, Asian frats, etc. Not every campus has them but they do exist and many are looking to expand. When it comes to hiring Greek they don't actually care whom you pledged but that you pledged in general. My best leads came from an AKA, which is a member of the Divine Nine and not what you'd think of as a traditional "white bread" sorority.

[KamaAina]

6. One of my two did

and Yale has since brought them back.

The president of Zeta Beta Tau during my two years at the University of New Haven was African American. One of the Zeebs did, however, tell me that another brother wasn't Jewish despite his last name, and when another got into law school in Macon, Ga., one of the brothers told him to "watch out for the boofers!"