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End of the line: SAE gone until 2009

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by Drew Hamm

Monday, April 10, 2006

The University of Wisconsin's Interfraternity Council voted by a 10 to eight margin to uphold the decision to revoke Sigma Alpha Epsilon's fraternity status during a special meeting Friday.

"Basically, people felt that the Judicial Board was correct in its earlier decision that SAE was in violation [of our by-laws]," IFC President Brian Burke said.

SAE will now be suspended from campus for five semesters, at which point the house can decide if it wants to re-colonize or not.

"We felt that the punishment fit the crime," Burke said.

An official complaint was filed with UW against SAE in December following a Halloween party raided by the Madison Police Department. Fines from the party exceeded $94,000, and 266 citations were handed out.

Last month SAE was revoked as a student organization, reinstated on appeal and then finally revoked on yet another appeal, which is where the house's status now stands.

Friday's meeting was SAE's last chance to stay a sanctioned fraternity on campus.

The four-hour, 15-minute meeting consisted of multiple witnesses testifying and being questioned by the IFC executive board and representatives from SAE.

The 10-8 vote came from members of the IFC, which includes all fraternities on campus.

"I feel that by upholding the judicial boards' decision, the Greek system is trying to better their image on campus," IFC representative Dave Lincoln said after the meeting.

Specifics of the decision were not disclosed because of confidentiality agreements that all IFC members signed at the beginning of the meeting.

Burke said some of the information was not available to the public even though it may have been pertinent to the case.

With IFC's decision, SAE now faces a number of decisions to make in the near future.

"We're very disappointed in the decision," Adam Ostrum, president of SAE at UW, said. "We've been on campus for 103 years, and now we've lost our charter."

SAE has a meeting with members from its national headquarters Monday to decide what is next for the group at UW.

"Our nationals are coming up from Evanston, Ill., on Monday to help us decide what to do," Ostrum said.

Ostrum went on to say that no final decision had been made as to SAE's house or campus presence as of the time the IFC decision was handed down.

Burke expected SAE to be back on campus once its expulsion was up, calling re-colonization a good option.

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Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 8:56am):

a 1 1/2 hour party doesn't exactly fit the crime

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 12:59pm):

If I was any frat on campus, I'd be scared. Have a big party and you're gone...that's what they are saying. I'm betting the 8 who voted to kick them off have do the same thing every weekend.

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 1:16pm):

"a 1 1/2 hour party doesn't exactly fit the crime"

apparently that is the crime. two different groups, IFC and SJ picked the same punishment and kicked them off campus...maybe greeks are cracking down on each other for the stupid things they do

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 1:36pm):

I agree with the IFC decision.

A courageous and responsible one.

The article was crisply written and informative as possible, given the confidential nature of the process.

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 2:14pm):

umm, lets throw the book at SAE and let Chi Phi be the creepiest house ever with a-bars every night, roofies coladas, probably a highest date-rape and party-rape rate, panty raids, and bouncers that do not check an ID or guest list, hit on women, look up our skirts and sexually harass, and get into petty fights with guests, and arrive and stay drunk on the job. Don't even get me started on their drug dealing or the fact that they are in shoutouts for having the creepiest parties..... So lets throw th book at SAE for getting caught and not at Chi Phi because no one hangs with them.

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 2:16pm):

Lets also not throw the book at sigma chi who has had cops shut down parties because of how obvious it was they were date-rape drugging too many people. Or DU for being absolutely. Why is it that only a few of the fraternities hae any class or taste? IFC should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and snobbishness in how they are implemeting htese laws. I've seen half those guys being worse and doing worse things with their "fraternity" than what SAE got shut down for. still SAE was being bad.

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 2:18pm):

Umm, it's not like they were hazing. There are fraternities tat break more rules. They probably tattle on SAE even though they are worse.

Anonymous (April 10, 2006 @ 11:54pm):

The IFC is full of hypocrisy and the "leaders" are not real leaders, they just cave to the political will of Campus administration. Sorry SAE you got screwed.