Plans to bring a chapter of Alpha Rho Chi to Washington University began about a year ago.

The group aims to connect with the St. Louis community through networking, mentoring, portfolio workshops, lecture series and philanthropic work.

Founding president Kirin Kennedy, whose official fraternity title is The Worthy Architect, hopes that the club will provide students studying architecture, design and other disciplines the opportunity for increased social interactions.

“The idea of the group is [to be] something that allows students to interact outside of studio and interact with people that we don’t necessarily get to in architecture,” said Kennedy, a sophomore. “It allows people from the art and architecture world to get more involved if they are interested.”

Visiting members from the national committee officially installed the fraternity at a recent pledging ceremony.

Affiliated Alpha Rho Chi alumni including Jeffery Huestis, associate dean for technology of the Washington University Libraries, attended the ceremony.

The fraternity currently has 18 members from the architecture, engineering, and art schools and the College of Arts & Sciences. Bruce Lindsey, dean of the College of Architecture, also became a member of the first pledge class.

Although the fraternity is based in the architecture school, students are not required to take architecture classes in order to join.

The philanthropic component of the fraternity is still in its nascent stage, and the officers are looking into working with Habitat for Humanity, among other organizations. The officers have worked under Lindsey’s guidance for the past year to bring their idea of an architecture fraternity to fruition.

“They’ve been working hard. It’s taken a year, and it’s really to their initiative and interest in developing the program that we were able to make it happen,” Lindsey said.

As a part of initiation, new members participated in two days of educational programs about issues including time management, study skills, networking, professional mentoring and the basic structure and traditions of the organization.

According to the fraternity’s treasurer, sophomore Drew Heiring, whose title is the Worthy Estimator, the founding class also had the opportunity to create its own traditions.

The group will be looking to become involved in raising scholarships for architecture students. Currently, there is one major architecture award called the Alpha Rho Chi Medal, which is awarded for leadership within the school.

The officers and new members are now looking ahead to fall recruitment.

“The sign of a good organization is if it survives its founders, so I know that they will be looking to bring in new, young members from the school,” Lindsey said. “I have nothing but optimism that they’ll succeed.”

The fraternity’s other officers include sophomore Kalina Kheirolomoom, the Worthy Scribe (secretary); sophomore Alyssa Stein, the Worthy Associate Architect (vice president); and sophomore Joe Wheeler, the Worthy Superintendent (ritual director).

Many people have experienced the elements associated with fraternity formals that I described in my article. Those elements, of course, are not always present, and some of the comments, e-mails and direct responses that have been stimulated as a result of the article emphasized this point. Reactions from both ends of the spectrum, including everything from outright anger to long-awaited excitement, further illustrate that this is a topic begging for discussion. Yes, some dates go as friends with no expectations of hooking up, others are in relationships and that changes everything, and many attend formals unsure of their intentions. These examples were obvious to me, and therefore, since my goal in writing this opinion piece was not to describe every element of formal but rather to bring attention to a very real issue, I didn’t feel they were necessary to include.

I was in no way trying to insinuate that all guys take girls to formal for the sole purpose of having sex with them. In fact, I explicitly stated in my article that I was glad to be going with someone I knew, because this was not my experience. To all the men whose egos were bruised by my article: There are many courteous gentlemen in fraternities. My date for the last formal I attended is a perfect example. Many of my friends are in fraternities, and these are friends whom I love and respect.

I never intended the article to be a commentary on Greek life. Since it was printed, however, I’ve been surprised to find that a mentality exists among some (not all) members of the Greek community here at Wash. U.: In more or fewer words, “You’re either with us or against us.” This logic is bizarre given the number of people in Greek life with differing outlooks and perspectives. Wash. U. Greek life, in particular, prides itself on involving many kinds of students, and therefore, the community shouldn’t be surprised that its members will have opposing opinions on the system and the traditions that make up sororities and fraternities.

I am not asserting that the expectations I spoke of in my article are more prevalent in Greek life, but rather that they exist and manifest themselves in different ways from the world outside of college. An individual can still be in support of Greek life even if he or she sees certain aspects of it as cause for concern. If criticism only came from outside the Greek community, it would be clear that Greek organizations weren’t examining themselves closely enough. I am a proud member of Greek life here at Wash. U., but like any organization at any university, it isn’t perfect. The discourse that has resulted can only strengthen Wash. U.’s Greek organizations.

Such public conversation about this topic has hit a nerve; I think that much is clear. The article I wrote is in no way broad or narrow enough to cover all the elements of this issue. The underlying mentality I described as being behind fraternity formals does not only apply to fraternity formals and does not always apply to fraternity formals. It does, however, apply. The article was just a starting point for greater discussion and examination. Anyone who says simply, “This wasn’t my experience and therefore it isn’t true and doesn’t exist,” is far too self-involved and concerned with image to give this topic the consideration it deserves. The pressure to hook up at formal poses a serious issue. The fact that such a debate has been stimulated only further emphasizes this point.

Alissa is a sophomore in Arts and Sciences. She can be reached via e-mail at arrotbla@artsci.wustl.edu.

However, I was deeply concerned with the content and tone of the article. My concern lies not in the identification of the aforementioned problem but rather in the implication that this problem is widespread and an accepted norm within the Greek community. To imply that all men believe that their dates “owe” them something in return for the money they spent on a fraternity formal is wrong and perpetuates a negative stereotype of our community.

In reality, most men in our community do not take that approach to formals, and many of our chapters actively program to avoid this sort of mentality in their members. As a community and within individual chapters, our expectations are that every fraternity man treats his date with respect and takes the initiative to clearly communicate with his date to avoid putting him or her under unfair pressure

Fraternity formals are meant to be fun and exciting events that bring our brotherhoods closer together, but problems that can arise from these types of events must be dealt with. I hope that in the coming weeks there can be effective dialogue between the Greek and campus communities about this issue.

Kurt Wall is a Junior in Arts and Sciences and President of the Interfraternity Council. He can be reached via e-mail at kurtwall@wustl.edu

It is a given, for instance, that if a boy asks you to his formal, you will be sleeping in a bed with him. The implications of this are quite obvious. He pays for the formal, the meals and the hotel room, generally expecting something in return. I find this logic to be absolutely ridiculous. The idea that when a girl says “yes” to formal she is in effect saying “yes” to anything and everything her date has planned for the weekend is not just ignorant; it’s degrading.

I do not mean to intend that guys, or even the more specific fraternity brothers, are solely to blame. Girls play an equal role in accepting the traditions that revolve around formals as uncontested rules. When we fail to question the greater implications of such expectations, we are only further promoting the behaviors we hope to avoid. If you go to a formal and don’t want to hook up with a guy and do it anyway, if you fake sick instead of just saying “no,” or if you feel guilty for not giving your date what he wants, you are only enabling an ideology that is clearly outdated and even immoral in its nature.

I have admittedly played a role in perpetuating this fraternity formal mentality. Once at a formal, my friend felt uncomfortable sleeping in a bed with her date. “Just do it for one night,” I told her. “He brought you here, he paid for the room, and he doesn’t want to share a bed with a guy.” In a not-so-subtle sense, I was telling her to suck it up, to put her needs below those of her date. I was sending the message that her feelings, therefore, were less important than his. This sexist attitude is at the core of every stereotype against women and every abusive relationship. If our feelings are less significant, then we are less significant, and if we are less significant, then we give men even greater incentives to take advantage of us. It is not a stretch to say that when we put aside our own priorities, even for one weekend, we are only a close step away from more catastrophic forms of misogyny.

Boys can’t buy our emotions any more than they can buy our bodies. We say “yes” and then change our minds; we think we have feelings for someone and then realize it’s all wrong, and we agree to go to formal but still aren’t sure that we want to have sex. That doesn’t make us fickle girls—it makes us human.

I’ve apologized again and again for my advice on that night, and I still consider it one of my biggest regrets. What I should have said, and what I’ll say to all the girls invited to formals who are stressing over the events of the evening, is this.

Do what you want to do, and trust yourself. If you don’t want to sleep in that bed, don’t do it. If you don’t want to hook up with him, tell the truth. If he’s pissed and done with you and mad that he spent all this money and the girl he took isn’t going to have sex with him…he can go screw himself, literally. You are not alone. So many other girls and guys at that same formal are worrying about the same thing. If the pressure was off, if the sleeping arrangements weren’t predetermined, and if we stopped worrying about our end-of-the-night hookup, everyone would be having a lot more fun.

Formal doesn’t have to be a trap, though. There is no need to have a catch, a contracted clause, or even a simple expectation of a hookup. You can be a great date without sacrificing yourself. Just like we aren’t predictable, automated machines that can sign away two nights of our life without the slightest hesitation, I’m willing to bet that the same expectations place unwanted pressure on the many guys attending formals.

So, the next time a date tries to guilt you into sleeping with him, remember that it may be his formal but its still your choice. When you take away the fancy dresses and nice suits, you’re only left with a guy paying for a girl to have sex with him, and we all know what that’s called.

Alissa is a sophomore in Arts and Sciences, she can be reached at arrotbla@artsci.wustl.edu.

Sam Guzik | Student Life

Sigma Alpha Epsilon kicks off the chapter’s annual event, Paddy Murphy week, by reenacting an Irish funeral procession around campus last April. The event is in honor of the legend of Paddy Murphy, a member who was murdered during prohibition due to dealings with Al Capone.

The campus air will be filled with the dark dirge of bagpipes and a funeral procession this week. Men in kilts carrying a coffin will march through the streets, occasionally stopping to dance. This is the highlight of Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s traditional Paddy Murphy Week.

The tradition is meant to commemorate Paddy Murphy, a legendary figure in SAE mythology. According to some accounts, Murphy was a bootlegger from Prohibition-era America who worked in cahoots with the classic American crime boss: Al Capone. While participating in a dealing of bootleg alcohol, Murphy was killed by crime fighter and SAE brother Eliot Ness. In his dying moments, Murphy revealed to Ness that he too was a member of the fraternity. Ness ordered an honorary burial for his fallen brother. And thus, Paddy Murphy Week was born.

The week culminates in this funeral procession, which is all that most of campus sees of the tradition. But there is more to Paddy Murphy’s legacy than that.

According to senior SAE brother and chapter adviser Jon Bremer, there are gentler stories about Paddy Murphy. According to Bremer, SAE brothers were increasingly becoming community hooligans, partying too hard and sleeping around. Murphy came along and dedicated himself to straightening out the fraternity.

Each year, one SAE senior is selected to be Paddy Murphy.

“We choose a brother who exemplifies the qualities of a true gentleman and has sacrificed a lot for the frat,” Bremer said. “We honor [Paddy Murphy] as a metaphor for all the brothers in our frat, or anyone in the community who is a leader in effecting change and realizing when something can be improved upon or something’s wrong and making things better.”

In that spirit, this year SAE is expanding the tradition. In addition to the usual funeral procession on Monday, SAE will be hosting two philanthropy events.

“We’re trying to expand our tradition to help the greater St. Louis community,” SAE President Garrett Schreiber said.

On Saturday, the brothers will be helping the elderly with difficult household tasks such as moving furniture, doing yard work and painting. On Sunday, they will be hosting a car wash in the Hillel parking lot from 1 p.m.-4 p.m.

“The bigger the philanthropy event, the more people will know about Paddy Murphy Week and be able to get excited about it also,” Schreiber said.

Other chapters across the nation do philanthropy for Paddy Murphy Week as well.

The message of the week—steadfast brotherhood—is particularly resonant for Wash. U.’s SAE chapter.

“The week is supposed to represent a strong brotherhood and the connection between SAE [brothers], and it’s especially important to our chapter because of the turmoil we had gone through in the past few years,” Schreiber said. “But we were able to ride it out and continue to improve ourselves.”

SAE was put on probation in 2006 and lost its University recognition in 2007 for improper conduct at their formal. The fraternity also lost its house. In 2008 the fraternity got permission for recognition in 2009 and will return to its house next year.

“While we’re growing in terms of getting the house back and growing membership, it’s still important to emphasize the close ties we have,” Schreiber said.

With additional reporting by Chloe Rosenberg

ZBT is currently prohibited from having any programming and is essentially a non-functioning body.

“A temporary suspension simply means that we, along with their national headquarters, are investigating alleged policy violations and that the chapter should not put itself in an even more difficult situation by continuing in a business-as-usual manner,” Director of Greek Life Michael Hayes wrote in an e-mail to Student Life on Sunday. “It protects all of the stakeholders.”

The alleged infractions occurred during the recruitment process that ran from Jan. 23 to Feb. 3. The fraternity’s recognition was suspended on Friday, February 5.

Student Life could not confirm details about the alleged recruitment infractions.

According to Kurt Wall, president of the interfraternity council (IFC), ZBT was not allowed to participate in bid acceptance night on Saturday as other fraternities were.

Prospective members who were extended bids from ZBT met with chapter leaders and David Wallace, coordinator for housing programs in the Greek Life Office (GLO), and were told that ZBT was not currently accepting new members but that they could potentially accept their bids in the coming weeks pending the results of the investigation.

If applicable, prospective members could also accept a bid they received from another fraternity.

The first part of the investigation will occur Monday when sophomore Lian States and junior Zachary Buckner—the vice president of standards for the Women’s Panhellenic Association and IFC respectively—meet with Hayes to determine whether ZBT will face the Greek Life Standards Board.

Wall said that it is likely that the case will reach the board.

The Greek Like Standards Board consists of States, Buckner and one delegate from each sorority and fraternity chapter. The board is the self-governing judicial body for fraternities and sororities and conducts hearings for chapters that have violated University, state, or Greek Life policies.

At stake are the fraternity’s national and University recognition, which are not necessarily contingent upon one another.

If ZBT loses its national recognition, it could also lose its house. The fraternity chapter is housed in an off-campus apartment on Forsyth Boulevard. The apartment is owned by the national ZBT organization.

But Wall said that the outcome of the investigation does not have to be an all-or-nothing result.

“There are intermediates between the two extremes,” Wall said.

Wall noted that the ZBT chapter has been cooperating with the GLO, IFC and the standards process.

Junior Andrew Bort, president of ZBT, said that he was confident that the chapter would come out of the investigation as a recognized fraternity chapter.

“We believe that we are in the right here,” Bort said. “So we are pretty sure that we will come out of this just fine.”

Wall said that the investigation would likely be completed in one or two weeks.

The Greek Life Office (GLO) took away Sigma Alpha Mu’s (SAM) house in late December following a drug bust on Dec. 8 in which the Washington University Police Department (WUPD) arrested three fraternity members, all of whom were then given alumni status by the chapter.

Under the direction of the national organization, the chapter completed a membership review. Senior Brian Grobman, the chapter’s president, said the review helped the fraternity strengthen and consolidate its sense of brotherhood.

“We were looking for a more committed active membership,” he said. “Our numbers have gone down since January, but our remaining members are more committed to being a fraternity that takes the initiative to be more active on campus and to [go] in a more proactive direction.”

The chapter currently has 21 active members, compared to approximately 50 at this time last year, with 14 new pledge candidates from the past fall recruitment—the highest number of pledges among all the fraternity chapters on campus.

Grobman and junior Sam Werboff, the chapter’s vice president, see this year’s pledge class as one of the signs that SAM remains a full, strong brotherhood.

“Even though the time has been difficult and the life of the fraternity has changed, the overall strength has never been stronger,” Werboff said. “The guys that have decided to stay with it through the tough times—it’s brought us together in a way that we’ve never seen before.”

Mike Hayes, director of the GLO and executive director of campus life, said he believes the experience has led the members to shift their focus in a more important direction.

“They now understand it is bigger than just living together,” Hayes said. “They define the whole experience differently and see the benefits of why a person would want to join a fraternity. There is a misperception out there that you have to have a house to be a fraternity, and that is just not the case.”

Grobman called the past year a “process of change,” and new commitments to the membership are part of that process.

Junior Adam Savaglio, former SAM president, devised an action plan for the chapter that includes yearly full chapter meetings with the GLO director, WUPD and Betsy Foy, the substance abuse specialist at Student Health Services, and required completion of GreekLifeEdu, an online prevention program. Chapter members are now also subject to a revised internal standard and code of conduct.

“Our biggest thing right now is having a strong sense of accountability, and all these things are here to introduce self-accountability and accountability for our brothers,” Grobman said.

Yet, despite their progress and continued efforts as a brotherhood, the chapter’s members have realized that it can be hard to shake a bad image from the past. Grobman also expressed frustration that some students are under the impression that the chapter is no longer recognized.

“People don’t seem to understand the difference between losing your house and losing your recognition,” he said. “We don’t have the house anymore, but we still have recognition from both the school and national.”

As for the chapter’s image, Grobman emphasized that the only way to change it is to focus on strengthening the chapter through its actions and sense of brotherhood.

“Overall, we can’t concern ourselves with what people say about us. At the end of the day, we can only concentrate on our own behavior, and ultimately, that will change the things people say about us,” he said. “It’s a learning experience. You can learn from it and become better and strong from it—which we did.”

Hayes also remains hopeful for the chapter’s future, saying, “I think they are ready to do what they need to do to be a good chapter.”

Some fraternities and sororities hold a rush period during the fall. While 240 men and 250 women rushed last year during the formal recruitment period, about 75 chose fall rush this year.
For sororities, the fall process is sharply different from the elaborately planned spring recruitment, which is run through the National Panhellenic Council. “Informal is kind of the exact opposite,” said Lucy Morlan, coordinator for chapter development. “They don’t necessarily have to hold events.”

Each sorority has its own process and voting procedures for informal recruitment, she said. “If you want to hold an event—open it, broadcast it, advertise it—you can do that,” she said. “If you just want to approach two or three people that you already know, you can do that as well. There really is no structure to it.”

The process also differs for fraternities from formal recruitment, said Dave Wallace, coordinator for Greek housing programs.

“The formal process is display oriented. The fraternities will have events, show off their house, talk about their accomplishments, what they’re engaged in—a couple weeks of that,” he said. “Then they have closed events, which are more brother oriented: those people that the men have clicked with.”

“In informal, it’s basically that closed event without any of those open events. It’s more targeted, it’s more, ‘I have a friend; I think he would be very much interested in being a part,’” he added. “It is basically a time where you don’t have event after event after event, and it’s more dialogue driven than event driven.”

The makeup of the students and their reasons for pledging can also differ from those of spring recruitment. “Only women who have been in college for a semester can participate in recruitment, so fall informal recruitment is only available to sophomores and above,” said junior Melissa Bryan, vice president of recruiting.

“Transfer students, sophomores, juniors, seniors, all go through informal recruitment,” Wallace said.

“I believe people usually join that process later because of relationships they’ve built with members of that organization. And a lot of the time they’ve been asked,” he added.
Sororities see similar reasons, Morlan said.

The additional time allows some students to develop a more accurate perception of Greek organizations. “I would say that as juniors and seniors join, some of their early notions of fraternities and those organizations have been dispelled by some of the relationships they’ve built,” Wallace said. “Some people come to the University and say adamantly, ‘I will not join,’ and then some of their friends join and they realize that it’s really not this heinous media thing that has been created.”

They added that students who are unable to return early from winter break or whose schedules do not permit an intensive time commitment during the spring often choose fall rush.
“It all kind of depends per [person],” Wallace said. “There’s no cookie-cutter reasoning.”

The experience of the fall pledges is little different from that of spring pledges, Bryan said, although in that first semester the small size of the pledge class creates a more intimate experience than in the spring. Because of how they are structured, fraternities are able to make greater use of informal recruitment than sororities.

The National Panhellenic Council rules include placing a cap on membership to ensure a quality experience, Morlan said. “Historically because that number is set at 90, and our groups are already significantly above that mark, that’s why we haven’t done informal recruitment before,” she said. But the number was raised two years ago to 115 per sorority, giving some sororities with remaining spaces after formal recruitment the option to fill them in the fall.

“About half of our community was eligible to do it,” Morlan said, although not all chose to.

Twenty-six women pledged this fall—an increase from 15 last year. But Morlan attributed the rising number to the presence of a new sorority last spring: Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII). As a new sorority, AOII also engaged in informal recruitment last year, holding a rush period in the spring the week after the formal period.

Morlan anticipates that in the upcoming years, informal recruitment may not be an option for sororities because different pledge class years have recently been the same size, leaving no gaps in younger classes. But she added that this could change if the cap size were changed, and that it is reviewed and reconsidered every year.

Fraternities, on the other hand, have no cap on their memberships, so they may hold informal recruiting at their discretion. According to Wallace, the number of men rushing in the fall has risen from 40 to 70 during his three years here.

“I think that’s a positive direction, because I think there was a thought process out there, ‘If I don’t join my second semester freshman year, I don’t join,’ and that’s not necessarily the case in all of our organizations,” he said.

Morlan, however, cautioned women against thinking of fall rush as an alternative to formal recruitment.

“We don’t want women to miss out on the opportunity of joining here and bank on the fact that it’ll be available next year when it might not be,” she said. “If you don’t want to go through formal recruitment, that’s completely fine, but there might not be a chance for you to join during fall semester, and we don’t want you to get the wrong impression.”