On Monday, Alpha Epsilon Pi was officially suspended by the Greek Judicial Board. The decision came as a result of AEPi’s purported philanthropy event last December, in which members of the frat allegedly caused “mayhem” according to a letter from the Overture Center staff. Sex in the bathrooms, drunken sober monitors and a host of hearty “fuck you’s” to the coat check staff resulted in a complaint that rounded the Office of the Dean of Students, the Committee on Student Organizations and, most importantly, the Greek Judicial Board.
First off, we appreciate the decision of the Greek Judicial Board in holding AEPi accountable for behavior that was not only embarrassing for any group of University of Wisconsin students, but also openly flouted its social probation with drunken idiocy and half-baked excuses. We can only hope the decision is not overturned by IFC and certainly encourage that body to uphold the Greek regulations it has established.
As for AEPi: You got what you deserved. While many have seen your attempt to justify debauchery by balancing it with charity as hypocritical — and we certainly agree — we also find the actual fundraising attempt to be a little more than pathetic. If AEPi really intended to raise money for B’nai B’rith, the Overture Center would not have been your first choice.
Every charity has administrative costs and overhead. But they usually try to minimize expenses to focus on what they can dole out. For instance, if you have a lavish fundraiser in Washington D.C. with a $100K overhead, it’s usually because the people in attendance are paying thousands of dollars simply to attend. You do not, as AEPi did, spend between $4 and $6k on a venue and then collect a third of that amount, which will ultimately be donated to charity. That’s just a little disingenuous.
And so the fraternity deserves what it gets. But despite AEPi President Jeff Herscott and others’ claims that this paper has no business getting involved in fraternity matters, this story also deserved top placement in our newspaper.
The fraternities on this campus consider themselves private groups of residents whenever Greek letters appear in headlines. The argument goes that putting a frat party or punishment at the top of the page would essentially be the same as putting a student getting busted for underage drinking below our nameplate: there’s no reason to point a large finger toward a group of private citizens, and we do so based on our personal prejudices.
No, we do so based on the fact that the Greek system is a large portion of this campus and has enough sanction and regulation from this university to warrant our attention. While it is true the Greek system regulates itself, it does so based on an implicit (if not explicit) agreement with UW administration. At one point, the UW System Board of Regents had regulatory authority over the fraternities until it ceded that power to the UW-Madison campus in the early 1970s.
This was meant to step away from a parental role in the fraternity system, but the authority has always been there. Whether it’s the placement of advisers from ODOS on Greek Judicial Board or recognition of registered student organization status with CSO, UW has a major stake in UW fraternities and sororities. If the Greek community agrees to regulate itself, it should acknowledge that the role is of public interest, even if the actors are private.
Aside from that, Greeks, through their philanthropy and network of support, represent a very prominent face of the student body at UW-Madison. When they go out and harm that reputation in one of the most prominent public facilities in Madison, we have a duty to report this, and this editorial board has a responsibility to hold them accountable for their reflection on the student body.