May no act of ours bring shame,
To one heart that loves thy name.
May our lives but swell thy fame,
Dear old State, dear old State.
–Lyrics from Penn State Alma Mater
I wonder just how many times the various members of Beta Theta Pi had sung those noble words before the evening of Feb. 2, 2017. That was the night when they brought great shame to all Penn Staters and death to one, 19-year-old Timothy Piazza.
Beta Theta Pi was supposedly a “dry” fraternity, meaning no alcohol was permitted. But on that fateful night last winter, during a bid acceptance party, Piazza was put through a “gauntlet” of 18 drinks (beer, wine, vodka) that brought about head-first falls and his eventual death due to traumatic brain injuries. None of the Beta brothers called for help until 10:48 the next morning.
This week, 11 of the fraternity members are going through a second round of preliminary hearings at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. For them, it’s another step in their defense process as they face criminal charges such as involuntary manslaughter. For us, it’s another opportunity to remember the life of Tim Piazza and to abhor the mixture of alcohol and hazing.
Perhaps we need another dose of media coverage so we will never revert to any pre-Piazza notion that “boys will be boys” and that fraternity hijinks are as funny as those depicted in National Lampoon’s “Animal House.” I think some outrage here in Happy Valley is still justified. And so is a deeper commitment to positive guidance for fraternities.
GREEK EXPERIENCE
I should mention that I’m one of “them.” I was an active member of a Penn State Greek house from my initiation in 1972 to my graduation in 1974. My experience at Acacia fraternity was relatively tame, and in fact, I would call it “life-enhancing.” But a lot of things have changed since the early 1970s, and I wonder about the future of fraternities at Penn State. Surely the Greek houses will be permanently banned if things like the following continue:
-
Various members of Kappa Delta Rho were found by Penn State to have engaged in hazing, use and sale of drugs, underage drinking, persistent harassment and posting “compromising” (in some cases, nude) photographs of females on a private Facebook site which was accessible to the group’s members. Penn State withdrew KDR’s fraternity recognition for a three-year period in May of 2015.
-
Just two months after Piazza’s death, Sigma Alpha Mu held a party during Parents’ Weekend and the result — announced shortly thereafter — was the fraternity’s suspension by Penn State for at least two years. In response to the Piazza tragedy, the university had enacted new restrictions on fraternity parties, but as President Eric Barron noted in an April 10 letter to the Greek community, “Nine of the University’s 82 fraternities and sororities that we know about violated at least one rule, and one fraternity – Sigma Alpha Mu – violated almost every rule that was imposed. The drinking was excessive and was not restricted to beer and wine.”
No, I don’t think that Penn State’s fraternities (and sororities) will survive, apart from positive change. But don’t take it from me. In his April 10 letter, Dr. Barron noted that Greek students self-report excessive drinking that is four times higher than the average student. And he added that an association with Greek life yields a sexual assault victimization rate that is 50 percent higher than the average student.
Barron concluded by saying that if the dramatic negatives cannot be ended, “I predict that we will see many empty houses and then the end of Greek life at Penn State.”
TEN NOW SUSPENDED
It seems that the chickens have been coming home to roost. As of last fall, 10 of the 49 fraternities housed under the Intrafraternity Council were under suspension. According to Onward State writer Elissa Hill, their suspensions combine for a total of 190 months, or nearly 16 years. And, she added, “that doesn’t even include the permanent ban on Beta Theta Pi.”
Given this sad state of affairs, I decided to speak with someone who has a positive plan, a friend I’ll call “Will.” Will is a 30-something faculty member at Penn State who serves as a university advisor for one fraternity. I am withholding his name because I didn’t want him to hesitate in discussing new fraternity initiatives that are still untested and unproven.
First, Will says he has no problem with the regulations created by Penn State last spring. In fact, he describes them as “a step in the right direction.” And he laughs a bit when he notes that last semester, his fraternity achieved its best collective GPA in the last nine years. (“Just maybe that had something to do with the reduced number of parties.”) But he doubts that policies alone can change a culture as deeply ingrained as the Greek way of life. Says Will, “We need more involvement from adults in the community who really care about students and can provide mentorship.”
Will has an office in his fraternity’s house, and he interacts with the members at least twice per week. He says he’s usually able to see beyond their facades and discern their real needs. “These students are going through a lot,” he notes. “They’re crying out for meaning in life.”
And that’s where Will says adult mentors can fill the gap — whether they are alumni, faculty members or others from the community. With good mentors, Will believes, Greeks can be a more positive force on campus, just as they have demonstrated through their strong leadership in THON.
GREAT POTENTIAL
“I really feel that the fraternities have the greatest potential for developing leadership of any organization on campus.” he says. “True leadership is born out of a team environment, and I can’t think of a better one than 50 guys living in a house together. They build this cohesive unit, and natural leadership is born out of that. So the younger men can catch leadership skills from older students.
‘Some of that can happen in residence halls — I lived in residence halls during my college experience — but I see much greater potential for that to happen in a fraternity. But when there is a lack of good leaders, the fraternity can become a very negative environment. Unfortunately, many of the fraternities at Penn State have created a toxic environment.”
I asked Will how he seeks to build effective leaders at his fraternity. First, he says, the process isn’t about him. The chapter has its officers, of course, and it also has an alumni advisor. And that alumni advisor is a wonderful resource who constantly challenges the brothers to think about the purpose of the fraternity and the purpose for their individual lives — to “Find Your Why.”
Will’s own contributions are also significant. Each semester, he meets individually with all of the younger members to help them assess their academic progress. He helps to plan developmental workshops such as a resume seminar that was recently held and the Dale Carnegie course which may soon be offered. And he provides two small group sessions per week to assist the men who are searching for a meaningful faith in God or those developing a faith that already exists.
Above all, Will believes in mentorship, the process of developing leaders through one-to-one instruction. He thinks it may be the ultimate answer for Penn State’s fraternity system.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in our fraternity these last few years,” he says, “where we take some of the seniors and their whole goal for their senior year is to mentor some of the younger guys from a servant leader perspective.”
* * *
Mentorship. I’m talking to Will in March of 2018, but suddenly I find myself reflecting back to my fraternity experience in the early ’70s. I wouldn’t have called it “mentorship” back then, but that’s really what made the difference.
I showed up as a wet-behind-the-ears sophomore pledge at Acacia in the fall of 1971. I’m sure I was less mature than most of the other pledges, since they had spent their freshmen years learning to survive in the dorms while I had done the “townie” thing of living at home.
My goals weren’t very impressive — make a few friends, pick up a degree in journalism, and then get hired by a daily newspaper to do sportswriting. But I was aware of one greater need that lurked below the surface. Each week, I disliked the five weekdays but enjoyed Saturday and Sunday. As a future sportswriter, I could keep score and I knew I didn’t want to lose every week of my life by a 5-2 margin.
And that’s where the mentors came in. Gary Eldred, a native of Mill Hall, and Al McCracken, from South Williamsport, were a pair of seniors who lived across the hall in the Acacia house. They were two of the six or seven Acacians who spoke openly about having a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus. Well, I decided that maybe a connection to God would help me find meaning during every day of the week. So at my invitation, they explained the gospel to me in a clear way that built upon my church upbringing.
One day, maybe a month later, I realized that I was ready to respond to God’s grace with a simple expression of faith. And so I knelt in my room at Acacia fraternity and simply asked Jesus to forgive my sins, to be my Lord and to share His life with me throughout eternity. Yes, I’ve heard all kinds of stories about things that happen in fraternity houses, but on that day, my room at Acacia became a place of spiritual birth. Say what you will about “religion,” I am still deeply grateful — especially as the Easter holiday approaches — for those mentors and for the direction they gave me some 46 years ago.
* * *
And I’m grateful for a guy like Will. Yes, he is a professing follower of Jesus, and we attend the same church here in State College. But whether the young men in his fraternity choose to follow his faith steps or not, I know he’s looking out for their best interests.
“The fraternity system here at Penn State can be transformed,” he says. “It can provide an environment for students to grow as men, as citizens, as leaders. Maybe that’s an idealistic view, but I don’t think it’s a lost cause.”
