Daniel Flynn

Cops Sicced on Greeks for Giving Out Cocoa, Wearing Letters

Faternities at the State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY-Potsdam) are crying foul after their member were threatened with arrest by school officials for giving out free cocoa and for wearing the sweatshirts of their suspended fraternities near a Greek function. In an educational institution, it's hard to see why the school wouldn't uphold constitutional rights," notes Michael Inzerillo, a frat-member who was threatened with arrest for giving out hot chocolate to other students and for wearing his fraternity's letters near a Greek function after he was told not to do so. Inzerillo and other Greeks contend that overzealous administrators are violating their freedoms of association and expression, guaranteed under New York's constitution.

Hot Cocoa, Cold Reception

On February 4th, members of SUNY-Potsdam's All-Greek Council were threatened with arrest for manning a table in the student union that distributed hot cocoa to students coming in from the cold. Although the group received permission from the school to have the table, some school officials argued that the table could serve as a backdoor method for suspended organizations to recruit new members.
     "They weren't just distributing free cocoa out of the goodness of their heart," school spokesman Scott Shewell told Campus Report.
     "We were informed that we would be arrested if we sat at the table," Inzerillo, a member of the All-Greek Council and the suspended Psi Phi Delta said. "We sat there and told them to get the cops." The police arrived and a confrontation then ensued resulting in the fraternity members eventually leaving the table.
     Stefan Hyman, a member of Delta

They weren't just distributing free cocoa out of the goodness of their heart. Kappa Theta, told the student paper, The Racquette, that he was at the table having a conversation with a sorority sister "just as a student" when an administrator "said that if I didn't get up, he would arrest me."
     Christine Strong, dean of student affairs, informed the school's student paper that although she had no evidence that members of the suspended fraternities were engaged in the recruitment of pledges, her gut feeling was that they were. She informed them in advance that they would be arrested if they sat at the table.
     Police detained no fraternity members, but the following week the All-Greek Council was stopped from giving out hot chocolate.

Illegal Sweatshirts?

In addition to being prevented from giving out cocoa, brothers from the suspended fraternities faced incarceration for wearing their fraternity sweatshirts while sitting on the steps of the student union.
     "A gang would call it their colors," opined Director of Campus Life Chip Morris. "Fraternities and sororities call it their letters."
     "They said we couldn't wear our own shirts and sit in the student union at the same time," Inzerillo of Psi Phi Delta told Campus Report. According to Inzerillo, Christine Strong, dean of student affairs, gave the order. "Christine Strong said that as long as we were sitting on the steps with our letters on we could be arrested," he attested.
"It is true," Strong replied when asked if she threatened to arrest the students if they didn't leave or remove the offending articles of clothing. "I did ask them to leave that particular area of the union. The reason that I did that is that we were in the process of our campus rushing—the beginning of the pledge process." The members of excluded organizations, therefore, couldn't wear their letters near areas where recruitment was taking place.
     "Because of the sanctions against this particular fraternity, they can't take part in the rushing and pledging process," Strong maintained. "A group sitting there in the midst of this particular activity was a violation of their sanction." In late March school officials informed members of the suspended organizations of new prohibitions against two or more students wearing "letters" of disfavored fraternities to gather in the student union.
     Although fraternity members were faced with the choice of taking off their "letters," leaving the area, or being arrested, school spokesman Scott Shewell maintains that neither this set of choices nor the threats over the free cocoa table violated students' rights to assembly and free expression on their own campus. "Students may assemble wherever," Shewell contended. "They can certainly wear their letters wherever. But they cannot assemble to use the facility as a member of a suspended organization."

The Abolition of Greek Life?

Although school administrators admit that members of suspended fraternities were allowed to participate in All-Greek Council activities, they changed the policy after the controversy over the sweatshirts and hot cocoa.
     "Since that time," spokesman Shewell said, "they have now been notified that they are not permitted to participate in All-Greek Council activities." The members of the temporarily outlawed organizations were using the All-Greek Council as a way to promote their barred frats, school officials claim.
     Greek members opine that many administrators are seeking to find a backdoor method to abolish fraternities and sororities altogether. If the groups were banned, SUNY-Potsdam would not be the first school to eliminate Greek life. Colby, Williams, and Bowdoin have all eliminated fraternities and sororities, with Dartmouth announcing a plan to do the same last year.
     SUNY-Potsdam administrators contend that it's not necessarily fraternities and sororities they're crusading against, but illegal activity.
     "I don't believe these fraternities can continue to exist the way they are," Christine Strong insisted. Underage drinking and hazing are two reasons why SUNY-Potsdam's administrators have gone after Greeks with such vehemence.
     Chip Morris added, "Organizations that as a regular course of business violate the law—I'd like to think that no one supports that."
     When the first collegiate fraternities were formed, Morris explained, their purpose was "to promote academics, community service, and leadership….what we have today may not in some instances be predicated on these lofty goals."
     "There's a distinction between an academic fraternity and a social fraternity," he continued. "A lot of concern relative to behavior emanate from that distinction."
     Greeks point out that in recent months they have raised money for Christmas presents for needy children, donated 180 gallons of heating oil to poor families, provided tutoring services for elementary school children, and constituted a great portion of the volunteer workforce to make the school's homecoming a success.
     "This year there's been a couple of school officials that are in the right position that are very anti-Greek," Inzerillo maintains, citing Strong and Morris specifically. Both Morris and Strong deny that they ultimately seek to eliminate fraternities and sororities at the upstate New York campus. Last semester five out of the school's six fraternities were suspended.

'Kangaroo Court'

Harsh punishments for seemingly benign activities—like giving out cocoa and wearing certain sweatshirts—is bad, frat members complain, but the quasi-judicial process that the school administers is what really angers them. The inability to confront accusers, double and sometimes triple jeopardy, and the acceptance of unsubstantiated allegations as proof of wrongdoing are among the flaws in the school's judicial system, the Greeks say.
     An agreement between the school and fraternities and sororities, which Greek organizations are forced to sign, maintains that the school in consultation with the All-Greek Council may decide disciplinary action. After the administration brought a recent wave of charges against the fraternities, Michael Inzerillo points out, "All-Greek Council voted not to suspend the fraternities because there was not enough evidence." Not finding the verdict it sought in this venue, the school brought charges against the groups in another of the campus's judicial bodies. While such a system of double jeopardy may seem foreign to most Americans, it is actually quite common on many campuses. The system of multiple jeopardy is made clear within the agreement between Greeks and SUNY Potsdam, which spells out that if the school is not satisfied with an All-Greek Council-administration decision, "The College may bring charges independently of this committee." Additionally, real legal charges may be filed against the organizations and their members as well.
     Inzerillo alleged that "hearsay is good enough as far as evidence is concerned" in these school hearings. An example of this, Inzerillo states, was a recent allegation of hazing against Delta Kappa Theta. "Chip Morris and two university police went to the door and demanded to be let in," Inzerillo states. "When they said, 'no,' Chip Morris wrote them up for not listening to a college official. These are fraternities that are not even on school grounds. We own our own fraternities." Despite having only an allegation of a crime and no authority to enter a private home, Morris admits that this incident was the "final straw" and the organization was suspended for three years shortly thereafter. Although Morris contends a student's mother made these complaints, the fraternity was unable to confront their anonymous accuser or to know for sure if there really was one.
     "Anyone who knows anything about Greek life knows that revoking a charter for three years can only have one intent and that is to destroy a Greek organization," observed Bob Fuhr, an advisor to DK.
     Fuhr, a 1988 graduate of the college who served as the adviser to Delta Kappa Theta during the "hazing" proceedings, labeled the hearing a "kangaroo court." The DK alumnus observed that the hearing was closed to all members of the public except one DK brother and one adviser, in violation of the school's rules against a "closed" hearing for such cases. The fraternity, he says, was denied access to the audio recordings of the proceeding. Finally, there was only one student and one faculty member on the board; the school's rules, he points out, require two each. Fuhr wonders how there was a finding of guilt when there was no accuser, no specific offense cited, and no specific fraternity member accused.
     "It's pretty clear that their agenda is to eliminate Greek life on the Potsdam campus," Fuhr said of the administration.
     Although the fraternities have had difficulty gaining a sympathetic ear amongst administrators, they have had some success by taking their battle off campus. Several lawsuits are being planned. Greeks are contacting alumni and are asking them to withhold donations to the school. Later this month during an alumni weekend, past graduates will meet with school officials and ask for a more tolerant stance towards fraternities and sororities.
     Although the fight between the fraternities and school administrators has engendered bitterness on both sides, the Greeks do have some school employees pulling for them.
     "It seems an important source of genuine diversity is not being fully appreciated," offered Potsdam Professor Miles Wolpin. "Can we believe that such 'liberal' values as tolerance and inclusiveness have minimal operational significance for the Greeks? If so, do such double standards flow from multiculturalist ideology? And do they constitute a clear and present danger to freedom of association."