<p>President Marx recently released an email to all students banning membership in Amherst’s underground fraternity, Psi Upsilon. In it he wrote:</p>
<p>“As a result of a serious violation involving the leadership and members of the off-campus fraternity Psi Upsilon, and on the advice of the College Council, the College now prohibits all students from joining this organization. This ban is effective immediately. The College will take disciplinary action against any student who is found to be a member of or participating in any activities sponsored by Psi Upsilon, whether those activities are held on or off campus. Disciplinary sanctions in such cases may include suspension or expulsion from the College.”</p>
<p>Fortunately, my D2 doesn’t know anything about this incident. However, I am rather curious as to what happened. Can anyone fill me in?</p>
<p>Hi there…this is my first post on CC. My son is a freshman at Amherst and is strongly thinking about pledging one of the fraternities. I know it isn’t Psi Upsilon. I was wondering if this is something that should concern his mother and me. Does anyone know if this incident will affect the standings of the other frats. I understand that fraternities are “unofficial” and are not considered a part of campus life at Amherst. Any info would be greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>Thank you for any light you might be able to shed on this matter.</p>
<p>amherstdad, if your son wants to join one of these so-called fraternities, I imagine he’ll do it. They are a throwback to a time at Amherst that was problematic, and they were banned on campus for a good reason. I would hope most prospective students for whom belonging to a fraternity is an important part of their college experience would look to enrolling at another college.</p>
<p>It’s a pretty direct refutation of a very core value of the school to join something like that which is banned by the school.</p>
<p>That said, I’m not saying it’s a criminal offence of a moral lapse in and of itself… but I’d probably give my kid a good talkin’ to about it in hopes of dissuading him.</p>
<p>But this is just my opinion, and of course others may feel completely differently. ;)</p>
<p>I’m confused. Fraternities are banned at Amherst, but students are only prohibited from joining one of the banned fraternities? They are free to join the other banned fraternities? This all sounds a bit Orwellian; it’s certainly difficult to parse what “banned” means.</p>
<p>I think they’re banned on campus, is the thing. But, yeah, I agree it’s a mixed message, isn’t it? I guess the other fraternities haven’t been caught doing something egregious yet.</p>
<p>From the Student Handbook:
“…no resource of the college (physical, staff or monetary) shall be used or employed, directly or indirectly, in any procedure relating to rushing, pledging, initiating or otherwise admitting to or maintaining membership by any student of the college in any fraternity, sorority or other social club, society or organization (however denominated).”</p>
<p>Also:
“…the Board took the position that it would not attempt to limit students’ ability to associate freely with whomever they wish off campus, but it would ensure that no college facilities could ever be used by fraternities or sororities. As a result, Amherst students are not prohibited from joining fraternal organizations whose activities take place entirely off the Amherst College campus.”</p>
<p>Fraternities are banned from using campus resources; membership in fraternities is not the issue. Amherst students could join UMass fraternities and sororities if they got bids. Psi U did some pretty awful things, so students have been banned from joining the frat or participating in any of their events. I think it is unfair and ignorant to judge all Amherst fraternities based on the actions of a fairly small group of people, though. To compare: Williams’ men’s rugby was suspended last spring for setting a teammate on fire; it would be useless and inaccurate, however, to extrapolate and say that the rest of their sports teams just “haven’t been caught” setting each other on fire. Psi U’s activities were extreme and atypical, and there is no reason to assume the other frats have similar practices.</p>
<p>Thanks, katbenc…citing from Amherst’s Student Handbook was very helpful in understanding the college’s position on fraternities. It was also helpful getting a student’s perspective on the matter, too.</p>
<p>As I said, other will have different opinions, and I’ll admit the whole concept of frats and closed clubs is something I have a deep philosophical disagreement with – but, yes, it is helpful to read what katbenc posted from the student handbook in terms of clarifying the college’s position.</p>
<p>I’m not going to address this any further for obivious reasons, but I do have some knowledge of some dreadful behavior and “initiation rituals” coming from sports teams cum frats, not just Psi U, that have occurred both on and off campus. Psi U is not alone in this. No doubt there may also be some organizations that are less problematic.</p>
<p>So, on what basis is Marx attempting to prevent students from associating freely off campus with threats of expulsion? It seems to me that his new policy announced in the campus e-mail is specifically in contradiction of stated Board policy in the student handbook. Why don’t the fraternities operate more openly if students feel perfectly free to join?</p>
<p>As a practical matter, Amherst has the worst of all worlds. Fraternities, but with no mechanism of college control such as you have with college ownership of frat houses or a Fraternity Council.</p>
<p>It seems to me that Marx is attempting to exert college control by putting a fraternity out of business when there is no relationship or mechanism in place for him to do so. Marx could arguably expell students for joining any fraternity, but I think he’s probably on pretty shaking legal ground threatening to expell students for joining one fraternity while permitting them to join the others that he knows exist – unless the violation he is citing is the use of college property.</p>
<p>Umm…my daughter has applied to Amherst RD; may I ask what exactly happened with this particular fraternity? M is not really into the whole frat/sor thing, but I’m quite curious after all these posts!</p>
<p>sarmom24, as I understand it the incident at issue was not some dire, dreadful thing. I would classify it as typically moronic college frat behavior – it did not endanger anyone’s physical well-being, but is something I can understand the college would want to take seriously and respond to. It certainly should be NO reason why your daughter (or you) should have doubts about Amherst. It’s not something that couldn’t happen anywhere (and probably does) with or without fraternaties – unofficial or otherwise. It is silly, though, to pretend fraternities only have a life off-campus since virtually everyone lives on campus all four years. Saying they’re off-campus is purely a technicality related to their not being able to officially use campus facilities. (Yeah, a student could join a frat at UMass, but how often does that really happen?)</p>
<p>Anyway… don’t worry about it. It was the kind of thing you’d see in a bad sophomoric movie about college frat antics. Just dumb and juvenile.</p>
<p>I don’t know how many frats there are or how common membership in frats is. I get the feeling they are either part of you life there (by your own choice) or they are not, and if they are not it’s all irrelevant anyway.</p>
<p>The problem is that, without knowing the percentage of frat membership, it is impossible to evaluate the influence on the campus social scene. For example, tour guides at W&L are likely to say, “Oh, no problem if you don’t go greek, there is plenty of social life and no pressure to join.” So you go to the USNEWS data and find out that W&L has the highest percentage of frat membership in the United States (over 80%). Obviously, you will be in the extreme minority if you don’t join.</p>
<p>For a college that has fraternities, as Amherst clearly does, it’s good to know the size of the membership.</p>
<p>Thanks, 'rent – much appreciated. Not to press a point, but, what’s the big secret? I’ve tried to google the whole situation, couldn’t find a thing and I must say your post/reply to me has me even MORE curious now. Silly human nature. Anyway, may the Fates be with us come April. :)</p>
<p>Amherst does not have college-sanctioned fraternities. They don’t support membership; there are no houses, no meeting spaces, no funds, no support of any kind. D2 only knows of one underground “frarority”. It is a co-ed fraternity-sorority. So, interesteddad’s notation that Amherst “clearly does” have fraternities is false.</p>
<p>However, the varsity athletics teams do act like fraternities and sororities in many ways. They hold mixers with other teams and spend much time, even off season, with their team mates. D2 had to contribute to the team’s party fund at the beginning of the year - kind of like dues but not nearly as much. However, the team parties are open to anyone who shows up even if they aren’t on the team.</p>
<p>Do, interesteddad, the percentage of membership is 0%.</p>
<p>^^^
That’s not what I’m told. I was given the number of male fraternities, not including the co-ed fraternity that was just sanctioned, an estimate of the number of active members, and the note that the fraternities operate on campus and with an apparent wink and nod from the administration. </p>
<p>I would characterize the percentages I was given as low, so I certainly don’t think that that Amherst is a big frat school. I do think that having unsanctioned fraternities with no open control by the college is less than optimum. The approach is a bit less than honest on the part of Amherst’s administration.</p>