Phi Delta Theta was more than a “fight club.” It was more than a bunch of dudes consuming things that “are not typical of eating.” Phi Delt at Emory was a brotherhood, in the broadest sense of the term.
It is still publicly unclear what specific information the anonymous emails convicting the fraternity contained. What is clear is that in our current system, fraternities are not punished for hazing; they are punished for getting caught. If any school officials truly believe that a dozen fraternities on their campus are free of hazing, then I pity their ignorance. The clear message being sent by these officials is that they haven’t the slightest care what occurs behind a fraternity’s doors as long as they don’t see it.
A few emails, a hasty summer investigation and several egregiously questionable descriptions of Phi Delt pledging made by Dean of Students Bridget Riordan in a July 25 Wheel article amid an ongoing investigation have left the Georgia Beta chapter’s existence shattered, and its legacy tainted. While the actions for which the fraternity was charged may or may not have been worthy of such negative publicity, the administration should have respected the privacy and delicacy of the investigation at hand before making statements that exaggerated the situation. Describing a night of boxing matches as a “fight club” was the most obvious example of this rhetoric.
Consequently, a promising pledge class was disbanded just months after initiation and an existing bond of brothers was broken and dispersed. These are truths that will not change, but never will I regret pledging Phi Delt.
Whether I’m living on Eagle Row or in Clairmont Towers, Emory can never take away the semester that made me into more of a man than any class or lecture I’ve ever had to sit through. From Phi Delt I didn’t learn how to drink beer or do push ups. What I did learn was how to trust, how to believe, how to love and how to forgive. I met upperclassmen whom I never would have found in my freshman classes or Learning and Living Communities. These young men became my mentors. I went places and had experiences that I never would have dreamed of when I came to Emory. These are my fondest memories from my first year in Atlanta.
Alas, I do not hope for pity or a reversal of events past. My only pity is for those incoming students present and future who will never have the opportunity to rush Phi Delt at Emory. No one can take away the bond of Phi Delt. All they can do is push it away. But in the end, it’s not us who loses; it’s the school. A few years down the line when the administration sees what becomes of Greek life at Emory and Phi Delt alumni, they might rethink their approach and sanctions for such a good group of kids.
Jake Max is a College sophomore from Baltimore, Md.
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Oh boo hoo guys. You hazed and you got caught. Period. Deal with it and learn your lesson.
This is really just pitiful.
Why not ban all fraternities? We know they all haze…
“To be banned, to frat no longer–
No more, and by a ban to say we end
The heartache and the thousand Natural lights
That brew is heir to–’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To ban, to frat no longer.
To drink, perchance to meet slams. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that ban of fraternity what slams may come
When we have shuffled off this GDI campus
Must give us pause.”
“Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction …” You broke the first two rules of Fight Club! Now take your medicine beeatch!
It doesn’t matter if Phi Delt was “more” than a fight club or a bunch of dudes consuming things not typical of eating. It matters if they WERE or not. Not the extent to which they may have been. It is a question of whether they WERE or WERE NOT. They were. Therefore they were suspended and rightly so.
What? Over? Did you say ‘over?’ Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough … The tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!
???? Do you mean the japanese???
It’s too bad y’all won’t be able to have brotherhood due to the lack of a formal institution on Emory’s campus. I can’t even count how many friendships I’ve lost because Emory wouldn’t officially recognize them.
There are many better places to direct your pity. Emory’s incoming freshman class will be fine.
This brother does have a point about Emory Greek life being a free-for-all unless an org is actively caught hazing. How is Phi Delt gone for some (typical of Emory) hazing, while Sig Nu has had a rape and a brother choking a girl, Sig Chi and Kappa Sig both had racist parties, and a bunch of tiny white Tridelt girls dressed up as Mexicans for a mixer? How are these considered acceptable behavior, while hazing is probably not as harmful to the community?
I actually enjoy having a place to smoke my peace pipe every year.
“Stoopid is as stoopid does!” Hazing has no place on Emory’s campus. No thought of the liability to Emory. Join a branch of the military if you want to haze/be hazed! This article reminds me of a petulant child, like Paris Hilton, crying because she CANNOT have her cell phone in jail … waah, waah, waah! Grow-up, and please go elsewhere to do so – back to Long Island with you!
Sorry, but this piece was trite and poorly written. Though I agree that Emory handled the situation incorrectly, you can’t expect sympathy on the grounds of “c’mon, everyone does it!” That’s just a fallacy.
Good riddance!
Poor form here guys. Very poor form.
“I met upperclassmen whom I never would have found in my freshman classes or Learning and Living Communities” Just like any other social group/club….
Fraternities run counter to just about everything that Emory says it stands for: They exclude students and are bastions for the wealthy, they lack diversity, many are composed of one religious group, some are full of New Yorkers, others are southern. They all haze, just as this Phi Delt refugee has pointed out. They are expensive, exclusionary, borderline racist, and the violence they are perpetrating against women is being covered up by the university.
If the AJC gets ahold of this and does their “investigative thing” watch out.
What you just described is everything Emory DOES stand for!