^^^^Wow, just…wow.
Quite unfortunate. Hopefully the University comes down hard.
i will hope that the university will take action. We’ve hear action from one of the parties involved, SAMmys and they did the right thing suspending this chapter swiftly but have not heard from any of the other fraternities or sororities. I think they need to be called on this.
I think the event was a ski weekend for the fraternity. It said the rooms were reserved by that fraternity, and the others were there too, probably as guests/dates. Of course, I also read that the fraternity has reserved 50 rooms but that 120 people were involved, and I don’t know of any fraternity ski weekend where only 2 people shared rooms - usually there are 4+ in every room so I think our journalism friends aren’t getting all the numbers correct.
Why should the other houses be suspended because a few of their members participated in an off campus, non sanctioned event? You wouldn’t suspend the entire football team if some members went on a shoplifting spree on their own. You wouldn’t punish the entire band if one member were arrested for DUI or speeding.
It is a fraternity problem. And a sports team problem. And a university problem. And a student problem. And a Wherever Young Adults Will Gather Unsupervised Problem.
Here’s a link from a couple years ago. Six BC students caused 25K in damage. I believe that would be more “per student” than the Michigan ski resort incident? Maybe these students were part of a fraternity, but the story doesn’t say so. The vast majority of fraternities/sororities don’t vandalize. The vast majority of college students don’t vandalize.
When they do, bad press is the result.
I don’t know that it’s useful to bemoan the Greek system and suggest that’s the problem. The entitled, destructive kid will find a way to vandalize, whether part of a fraternity or not.
I do hope the ski resorts are able to sue the heck out of the fraternity’s insurance for lost income!
People have always done intolerable things if they perceive it will be tolerated by their group.
If this behavior was only by a couple people and wasn’t aibetted by the group, why were the rest of them unable to stop it before it went so far?
Have you ever been at an unsupervised high school party?
My feeling is that individually or in a smaller group very few of these boys would have destroyed property like this. I think this is one of the issues with frats in general. There is always a group of alpha males that exhibit bad behavior and everyone else feels obliged to follow suit. The boys who may have tried to be the voice of reason would just be shouted down or shamed into conformity. In many frats individualism is not valued - you go along with the “group think” or pay the price of being ostracized.
If I was at a high school party, it wouldn’t have been unsupervised now would it?
Oh you mean when * I *was in high school?
I went to many, many parties with liquor/drugs in the 1970’s, and NEVER did I EVER see destruction like that.
Any wear and tear on the property was accidental, NOT deliberate.
THAT is the difference.
This involved 2 different resorts and 3 different fraternities booked rooms. One of the fraternities has suspended activity but as far as I know, we have heard nothing from the other fraternities that were involved in vandalizing a completely other resort. I know that most of the press involved one resort and one fraternity but there was another resort involved and 2 other fraternities that caused damage.
Kick em all off campus now. And I say that as one of the sororities involved was my house (not at Michigan of course). Just no excuse and I hope our national comes down hard on them.
Several while I was in HS in NYC. Not too different from many gatherings at colleagues and friends’ places nowadays. Then again, none of my HS friends nor I would unleash such unprovoked destruction on others…including other businesses.
In any event, high schoolers are irrelevant here considering we’re not talking adolescent minors in HS, but young adults in undergrad who are older and thus, SHOULD DAMNED WELL KNOW BETTER.
Pretty much all of them were unsupervised.
Misread.
Deleted.
“What is perplexing is why they do not seem to see that this will end badly? These are smart kids. How can they be so dumb at the time they are doing it?”
Will it end badly for them in any way they care about? Probably not. I hope there are criminal charges, but even if there are convictions, I doubt we’ll see jail time for first offenders committing property crime. Their parents will pay for the damage, and for lawyers to get the kids out of trouble, and this will be a blip in the kids’ lives. They do this because they have bad character and they know they will almost certainly be sheltered from any consequences.
The chapter may get shut down, and the national organization/university gets a black eye, but kids selfish enough to behave this way won’t care about that.
I know I’m super square, but my a cappella group always went on ski retreat to Vermont in January (the group still does this every year). We traded concerts in the lodge for rooms, meals, and lift tickets. These are the kind of memories that we fondly recall 20 years later. There was a fair amount of drinking and risque behavior, but we were always so careful not to disturb the other guests or hurt the property. We didn’t want to ruin that sweet deal! Also we were, you know, decent human beings. You can have unsupervised, young, drinking college kids on a ski trip and get zero trouble unless there are narcissistic jerks in the group. Of course these resorts will be reluctant to host any college groups any more. Bad apples like this ruin the fun for everyone.
We have stayed at Boyne Highlands many times, and it has always been a family-oriented atmosphere in the lodgings. We have never had issues with loud parties. Had I been at the resort near this mammoth party, I would have been so angry - and I would very likely be upset enough not to return. Unfair to the resort, for sure … but it would be my reaction.
I went on many a ski trip with friends in college (including my sorority sisters), and although we did party, we were never anything but respectful of the hotel and the other guests. I have no sympathy at all for these young people, and if I were a parent of one of those students … there would be heck to pay at my house.
I had a similar experience to kels but at Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, not at Boyne. We stayed there once and there were extremely loud parties and people running up and down the hallways at all hours of the night. The staff didn’t seem to do anything about it until around 3 in the morning and I haven’t been back. It just wasn’t worth it.
I do feel for Boyne Highlands. I’ve been there more than once and it is a lovely place.
IMHO, hotels need to be quicker to call the police when there’s a disturbance. Other than casino hotels, most properties don’t have the in-house security staff to handle drunken hooligans. No one should have to put up with this kind of crap.
What are your thoughts on the sororities that contributed to the destruction?
Or do you think all the frat guys were drinking while the girls went skiing?
If the sorority girls contributed to any vandalism, then they are just as bad as the guys. Duh. What other answer would you envision?