I spent more than two years reporting and writing True Gentlemen. I visited college campuses in ten states and interviewed scores of students and fraternity alumni. I reviewed thousands of pages of documents from public-records requests and court files and visited university and Sigma Alpha Epsilon archives for historical materials. I attended SAE gatherings, including the fraternity’s biennial conventions and annual leadership school. Some of the reporting has its roots in a series of Bloomberg News articles about fraternity deaths that I wrote with my colleague David Glovin and which appeared from March 2013 through March 2014. I did much of my additional reporting for this book during the 2015–2016 school year. Although firsthand reporting informs most of the book, I benefited enormously from the excellent work of historians, sociologists, and journalists who have written articles and books about fraternities. I’m also indebted to the work of campus reporters who have long been the first line of inquiry into student organizations.
Introduction
I attended Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s John O. Mosely Leadership School, convened aboard the Royal Caribbean ship Majesty of the Seas, from August 2 to August 7, 2015.
$3 billion in real estate: See Sean P. Callan, “The Chapter House Rules; How Corporate Structure Can Handcuff a House Corporation,” Fraternal Law 122 (Cincinnati: ManleyBurke, November 2012), p. 3, at http://fraternallaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Fraternal-Law-Newsletter-November-2012.pdf.
eight hundred US campuses: For these and most of the other statistics about membership and members, past and present, I relied on the North-American Interfraternity Conference.
About 40 percent of US presidents: The North-American Interfraternity Conference counts Bill Clinton, who is an honorary member of Phi Beta Sigma, a historically black fraternity. Clinton also belonged to a service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega at Georgetown University. See http://nicindy.org/about/notable-fraternity-alumni/political-leaders.
2014 survey: “Fraternities and Sororities: Understanding Life Outcomes,” Gallup-Purdue Index, February 4–March 7, 2014, at http://products.gallup.com/170687/fraternities-sororities-understanding-life-outcomes.aspx.
60 percent of all donations: Response to public-records request, April 2016.
just above toxic-waste dumps: “FIPG Risk Management Manual,” January 2013, p. 2, at http://fea-inc.org/Websites/fea/files/Content/5454667/FIPG_MANUAL.pdf.
One in six men: This is my estimate. The North-American Interfraternity Conference counts 380,000 members. About 2.4 million men attend four-year universities (both public and nonprofit) full-time, according to US Education Department data. No one can be entirely sure about changes in fraternity market share over time because fraternity statistics haven’t always been tabulated reliably. One book placed the high-water mark in the 1920s, at almost 12 percent of undergraduates: Clyde Sanfred Johnson, Fraternities in Our Colleges (New York: National Interfraternity Conference, 1972), p. 89. Heather Matthews Kirk, a spokesperson for the Interfraternity Conference, told me the group has kept consistent data for the last ten years. Her survey of editions of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities, the bible of the movement, places the modern record at 401,460 in 1990, up from 195,712 in 1981.
36 percent of students: University of Alabama website: http://ofsl.sa.ua.edu.
336,000 brothers: Figures on initiates and information about members, as well as discipline of chapters, are from Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s website, at www.sae.net.
claims the distinction: Brandon E. Weghorst, ed., The Phoenix: The Manual of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Evanston, IL: Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 2012), p. 152.
ten people died: Examining news reports, court records, and interviewing officials, my colleague David Glovin put together a database of more than sixty fraternity deaths from 2005 through 2013. See David Glovin and John Hechinger, “Fatalities in Michigan Spotlight Deadliest Fraternities,” Bloomberg News, January 31, 2014, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-01-31/fatalities-in-michigan-virginia-spotlight-deadliest-fraternity.
Chapter 1: Drinking Games
To reconstruct George Desdunes’s final night and morning, I relied on the voluminous record of the investigation into his death. These sources include the 580-page transcript of the trial of three students accused and later acquitted of hazing Desdunes: New York v. Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, Max Haskin, Ben Mann, and Edward Williams at the Tomkins County Courthouse in Ithaca, New York, May 21–23, 2012. I also relied on documents related to the Desdunes family’s civil case against the fraternity: Marie Lourdes Andre v. Sigma Alpha Epsilon et al., New York Superior Court, Kings County, filed September 7, 2011. The case file includes records related to the police and prosecutors’ investigation, including witness statements, text messages, and forensic records. Unless noted, quotations are from trial testimony, depositions, or statements to authorities.
twice the legal limit: I used the Cleveland Clinic’s online blood-alcohol content calculator. See www.clevelandclinic.org/health/interactive/alcohol.asp. If Desdunes, who weighed 170 pounds, drank nine ounces of 80-proof (40 percent alcohol) liquor in half an hour, his blood alcohol would have been .15 percent.
Built in 1915: Information about the house, its history, and its members is from the chapter’s website, at www.sae-cornell.org/public6.asp.
In December 1776: For history of Phi Beta Kappa and the Kappa Alpha Society and the early social fraternities, see William Raimond Baird, Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities, vol. 9 (Menasha, WI: G. Banta, 1920), pp. 4–7.
the “collegiate revolution”: Roger L. Geiger, The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 365.
“well-known drinking bout”: Nicholas L. Syrett, The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), p. 156.
“fiery flavor of sin”: John Addison Porter, Sketches of Yale Life (Washington, DC: Arlington Publishing Company, 1886), p. 225.
At Ohio’s Miami University: Walter Benjamin Palmer, The History of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity (Menasha, WI: G. Banta, 1906), p. 231.
SAE’s birth in 1856: For the early history, I relied on a 1,500-page, three-volume history of SAE by one of its most important leaders: William C. Levere, The History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, vol. 1 (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Sons, 1911), p. 25.
Pale and with brooding gray eyes: See William C. Levere, “The Life of Noble Leslie DeVotie,” serialized in the SAE Record from 1906 to 1910, in the Levere Memorial Temple library, Evanston, Illinois. See also Nancilee D. V. Gasiel, “Rediscovering DeVotie,” SAE Record, undated.
mediocre students and troublemakers: Landon Cabell Garland letters, University Libraries Division of Special Collections, University of Alabama, boxes 636–638. DeVotie grades exceed 96, while others were in the 70s.
“tended only toward evil”: Ibid.
a stormy day with choppy seas: William C. Levere, “Death of DeVotie,” SAE Record 30 (1) (May 1910).
seventy-seven cases of beer: Alex Hickey, “IUPD Raids SAE Party; President Arrested,” Indiana Daily Student, February 5, 2002.
apocryphal story: Members tell many versions of the Paddy Murphy story. See Cole Garrett, “Legend of Paddy Murphy,” May 2015, USC Digital Folklore Archives, at http://folklore.usc.edu/?p=29677.
One of the movement’s fiercest advocates: For the life of William Levere, I relied on Joseph W. Walt, The Era of Levere: A History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, 1910–1930 (Evanston, IL: Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, 1972).
David Starr Jordan, another teetotaler: Syrett, The Company He Keeps, p. 177. Syrett also provided me with archival documents from his research at Stanford University.
equivalent of $6 million today: The Phoenix: The Manual of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 2012, p. 182. The building cost $400,000 when it was dedicated in 1930.
“underage drinking clubs”: Simon J. Bronner, Campus Traditions: Folklore from the Old-Time College to the Modern Mega-University (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012), p. 246.
“Kegs, party balls, beer trucks”: “FIPG Risk Management Manual,” p. 2.
College Alcohol Study: Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson, “What We Have Learned from the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 69 (2008): 481–490. See also Henry Wechsler and Bernice Wuethrich, Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses (New York: Rodale, 2002).
minors drinking themselves unconscious: University of California at San Diego, disclosed in public-records request.
more than 130 chapters: Sigma Alpha Epsilon website, 2010–2016, “Chapter Health and Safety History,” at www.sae.net/2013/pages/resources/2013-parents-chapter-risk-management-history.
falls from windows and porches: Caitlin Flanagan, “The Dark Power of Fraternities,” Atlantic, March 2014, at www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580.
surpassed all others: John Hechinger and David Glovin, “Deadliest Frats Icy ‘Torture’ of Pledges Evokes Tarantino Films,” Bloomberg News, December 30, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-12-30/deadliest-frat-s-icy-torture-of-pledges-evokes-tarantino-films.
became easier to sue: For discussion of liability and fraternities, see Kerri Mumford, “Who Is Responsible for Fraternity Related Injuries on American College Campuses?” Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy 17 (2001).
sixth-worst risk: “FIPG Risk Management Manual,” p. 2.
national fraternities came up with a strategy: See David Glovin, “Frats Worse Than Animal House Fail to Pay for Casualties,” Bloomberg News, March 28, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-28/frats-worse-than-animal-house-fail-to-pay-for-casualties. See also Flanagan, “Dark Power of Fraternities.”
Lee John Mynhardt, a senior at Elon University: Glovin, “Frats Worse Than Animal House.”
“risk-management” policies: Ibid. See also Flanagan, “Dark Power of Fraternities.”
Marie Lourdes Andre, Desdunes’s mother: For the heartrending account of a mother’s discovery of her son’s death, I relied on Michael Winerip, “When a Hazing Goes Very Wrong,” New York Times, April 12, 2012.
The court sealed the proceeding: Ibid.
confidential settlement: April 23, 2017, e-mail from Clark Brown, SAE general counsel.
Cornell Alumni Magazine: “Fraternity Man,” Cornell Alumni Magazine (November–December 2010), at http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=894&Itemid=9.
Barnum, the president of the chapter, and his parents sued: Eric Barnum, Mark Barnum, Sally Barnum v. Lloyd’s, London et al., New York State Supreme Court (2015), 153485/2015.
Chapter 2: Broken Pledges
In December 2013, I interviewed Justin Stuart for more than five hours, first on the campus of the University of Maryland and then several more times by phone. To document his account, David Glovin and I tried to speak with every fraternity member who could have been a witness. None of the pledges who joined would comment. A pledge who chose not to join, Max Kellner, confirmed much of his account of what happened during the first night in the basement. Stuart provided us with copies of text messages from members that confirmed his account. His father offered e-mails that detailed correspondence with the college administration. Through a public-records request to Salisbury University, we obtained scores of pages of records detailing Stuart’s report to the school and to the campus police. The disciplinary board backed his account. Some of the reporting for this chapter originally appeared in Bloomberg News: John Hechinger and David Glovin, “Deadliest Frat’s Icy ‘Torture’ of Pledges Evokes Tarantino Films,” December 30, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-12-30/deadliest-frat-s-icy-torture-of-pledges-evokes-tarantino-films.
“fagging”: Hank Nuwer, Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), pp. 100, 123, 238.
fraternities favored “tubbing”: Nicholas L. Syrett, The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), pp. 151–153.
“The practical joke is war…”: G. Stanley Hall and Arthur Allin, “The Psychology of Tickling, Laughing, and the Comic,” American Journal of Psychology 9 (Worcester, MA: Clark University, 1897–1898), p. 23. See also Michael Kimmel, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), which contains an excellent chapter on fraternity hazing and its use to enforce a certain vision of masculinity.
“horseplay” or “rough house”: Syrett, The Company He Keeps, p. 152.
an entire issue of the Record: I examined decades of issues of the SAE Record, SAE’s magazine, and the Phoenix, its pledge manual, at the library of Levere Memorial Temple, SAE’s headquarters, in Evanston, Illinois.
University of Maine survey: Elizabeth J. Allan and Mary Madden, Hazing in View, College Students at Risk: Initial Findings from the National Study of Student Hazing (Collingdale, PA: Diane Publishing, 2009).
“developed ‘pledge ass’”: Charles M. Blow, Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), p. 176.
blindfolded and forced to wear a backpack: Rick Rojas and Benjamin Mueller, “Defiant Baruch Fraternity Pledge Fought Back in Fatal Hazing,” New York Times, September 15, 2015.
shocked them with a cattle prod: Stephen Keller, “Former Fraternity Leaders Sentenced,” Daily Texan, April 29, 2008.
“Brown Bag Night”: John Hechinger and David Glovin, “Cal Poly Brings Back Freshman Pledging After Lobbying,” Bloomberg News, October 15, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-15/cal-poly-brings-back-freshman-pledging-after-lobbying.
a litany of hazing: Josephine Wolff and Matt Westmoreland, “In the Hot Seat: Hazing at Princeton,” Daily Princetonian, April 25, 2010.
kiddie pool full of vomit: Andrew Lohse, Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2014), p. 69.
consistency of “black leather”: Carrie Wells, “Hazing at Maryland Colleges Includes Humiliation, Coercion, Hospital Trips,” Baltimore Sun, November 22, 2014.
Chapter 3: Sexual Assault Expected
I attended Ethan Turner’s criminal trial on Friday, February 12, 2016, and from Tuesday through Thursday, February 16–18, as well as his sentencing on Thursday, April 7. The account of the SAE party and its aftermath relies primarily on court testimony. I also examined records related to the trial and criminal investigation, including statements by Ivan Booth and Evan Krumheuer. Through his lawyer, Turner declined comment. I was not able to secure an interview with Chaz Haggins. I interviewed his mother, who provided details about her son and told me she believed her son was innocent. I met Gabriela at the courthouse and later interviewed her by phone in February 2017. I offered to use a pseudonym, but she said she preferred to use her real name. After Turner’s sentencing, I spoke with Gabriela’s parents, who provided more details about her life both before and after the party.
most likely to be sexually assaulted in her first months: “Factors That Increase Sexual Assault Risk,” National Institute of Justice, October 2008, at www.nij.gov/topics/crime/rape-sexual-violence/campus/pages/increased-risk.aspx.
sexual assault represented 15 percent of liability losses: Mick McGill, vice president, client advocacy, Willis Group, August 12, 2011, presentation, claims 1998 to present.
one and one-half times more likely: Christopher P. Krebs et al., “The Campus Sexual Assault Study,” National Institute of Justice, October 2007, p. xv.
three times the risk of rape: Meichun Mohler-Kuo et al., “Correlates of Rape While Intoxicated in a National Sample of College Women,” Journal of Studies of Alcohol 65 (January 2004): 41.
indisputable link between alcohol and… sexual assault: Krebs and Lindquist, “Campus Sexual Assault Study,” p. ix.
one in five women: Christopher P. Krebs et al., “Campus Climate Survey Validation Study Final Technical Report” (Washington: Bureau of Justice Statistics Research and Development Series, January 2016), p. 73.
Stanford student named Brock Allen Turner: Liam Stack, “Light Sentence for Brock Turner in Stanford Rape Case Draws Outrage,” New York Times, June 6, 2016.
“No means yes”: Sam Greenberg, “DKE chants on Old Campus Spark Controversy,” Yale Daily News, October 14, 2010.
“luring your rape bait”: Janel Davis, “Georgia Tech Disbands Fraternity Responsible for ‘Rapebait’ E-mail,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 4, 2014.
members cheered on pledges: Tess Bloch-Horowitz, “On Living in Fear of Telling the Truth: My Experience with SAE, Retaliation and Title IX,” Stanford Daily, May 20, 2015.
“Freshman daughter drop off”: Elisha Fieldstadt, “Old Dominion University’s Sigma Nu Frat Suspended During Probe into Sexually Suggestive Signs,” NBC News, August 25, 2015, at www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/old-dominion-universitys-sigma-nu-frat-suspended-during-probe-sexually-n415056?cid=par-time-article_20150824.
“when I rape you”: “NC State, Pi Kappa Phi Decry ‘Unacceptable and Offensive’ Book,” WRAL.com, March 20, 2015, at www.wral.com/nc-state-fraternity-placed-on-interim-suspension-after-embarrassing-scary-book-found/14528066.
a member of SAE was expelled: Nicholas Syrett, The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), p. 177.
“considerable merriment in the fraternity”: William C. Levere, The History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Sons, 1911), vol. 2, p. 88.
double standard… “easy lays”… eight naked fraternity men: Syrett, The Company He Keeps, pp. 264, 280–281.
a woman on leave: Andy Merton, “Hanging on (by a Jockstrap) to Tradition at Dartmouth,” Esquire, June 19, 1979.
fifty such campus attacks: Julie K. Ehrhart and Bernice R. Sandler, “Campus Gang Rape: Party Games” (Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges, Project on the Status and Education of Women, November 1985), p. 2.
eight members of the Alpha Tau Omega chapter: Peggy Reeves Sanday, Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus (New York: New York University Press, 1990), pp. 38–89. Sanday, following the conventions of social-science research, doesn’t name the fraternity or college, but its identity is clear from contemporary news accounts. See Tamar Lewin, “In Short: Nonfiction,” New York Times, April 28, 1999.
In a variety of surveys: Joetta L. Carr and Karen M. Van Deusen, “Risk Factors for Male Sexual Aggression on College Campuses,” Journal of Family Violence 19 (2004): 279.
two studies… fraternity members are three times more likely: John D. Foubert, Johnathan T. Newberry, and Jerry Tatum, “Behavior Difference Seven Months Later: Effects of a Rape Prevention Program,” NAPSA Journal 44 (2007): 739; and Catherine Loh et al., “A Prospective Analysis of Sexual Assault Perpetration,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20 (2005): 1339.
“rape-supportive attitudes”: See R. Sean Bannon, Matthew W. Brosi, and John D. Foubert, “Sorority Women’s and Fraternity Men’s Rape Myth Acceptance and Bystander Intervention Attitudes,” Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice 50 (2013): 72–87.
“A 2016 university task force”: Harvard University Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Assault, Final Report, March 7, 2016, at http://sexualassaulttaskforce.harvard.edu/files/taskforce/files/final_report_of_the_task_force_on_the_prevention_of_sexual_assault_16_03_07.pdf.
“predictable outcome”: Elizabeth A. Armstrong, Laura T. Hamilton, and Brian Sweeney, “Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel Integrative Approach to Party Rape,” Social Problems 53 (November 2006): 483–484. For an eye-opening inside look at the college scene, see Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton, Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013). Following social science conventions, the book and study do not name Indiana University, but it has since become public.
23 percent of sexual-assault reports: “Community Attitudes and Experiences with Sexual Assault—Survey Report” (Bloomington: Division of Student Affairs, Indiana University, October 2015), p. 5, at http://stopsexualviolence.iu.edu/doc/climate-survey/climate-survey-full-report.pdf.
a member of Delta Tau Delta: Samantha Schmidt, “Accused in Two Rapes, Former Student at Indiana University Avoids Prison with Plea Deal,” New York Times, June 27, 2016.
Sociologists at Lehigh: Ayres A. Boswell and Joan Z. Spade, “Fraternities and Collegiate Rape Culture: Why Are Some Fraternities More Dangerous Places for Women?” Gender and Society 10 (April 1996): 136–138.
“the ‘rapey’ one”: Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, “Does Your Chapter Tolerate Sexual Assault? The Answer Is More Complicated Than You Think,” FRMT Risk Management Newsletter (Willis of Nebraska) 35 (Spring 2015): 3, at www.frmtltd.org/wfData/files/FRMT_Spring_2015.pdf.
at fifteen of 230 SAE chapters: This is a conservative number. I excluded some cases where it was difficult to determine the facts of the report.
“was charged with rape and assault”: Massachusetts District Court, criminal docket number 1662-cr-002604, April 19, 2016.
“I am directing you and members of your chapter”: University of Iowa, result of public-records request.
SAE member was handcuffed and arrested: Ibid.
five separate reports: San Diego State University and California State University, Long Beach, results of public-records requests.
longest trail of sexual-assault reports: University of New Mexico, result of public-records requests.
lawsuit filed by an eighteen-year-old freshman: Jane Doe v. Sigma Alpha Epsilon et al., U.S. District Court, New Mexico, June 22, 1999, CV 99–0693.
the initials A. O.: A. O. v. Phi Alpha Inc. d/b/a Sigma Alpha Epsilon-New Mexico Chapter et al., New Mexico District Court, County of Bernalillo, January 29, 2014, CV-2014–00836.
“This is where my memory stops”: Public-records request, University of New Mexico.
in the SAE chapter house at Emory University: SAE and Emory statements. In February 2017, Emory said, “the victim decided not to pursue criminal prosecutions.” Citing privacy rules, the school declined to release information about possible disciplinary proceedings. Clark Brown, SAE’s general counsel, said the chapter wasn’t found responsible for the alleged attack but underwent sexual-assault training.
according to her parents: Parents of an LMU Student, “First-Person Feature: Parents of a Rape Survivor Tell Their Story,” Los Angeles Loyolan, April 15, 2015. Brown, the SAE lawyer, said the chapter, which was a provisional “colony” was shut down soon after for alcohol violations.
“during his interview with detectives”: Transcribed DVD statement of Ivan Alexander Booth, November 2, 2014.
“It is beyond just alcohol”: “University Formalizes SAE Chapter Suspension,” Johns Hopkins News-Letter, March 5, 2015.
In a March 2015 editorial: “SAE Suspension Wrong, Requires Reversal,” Johns Hopkins News-Letter, March 5, 2015.
$2 million insurance policy: University Policies and Procedures, Insurance, Johns Hopkins University, at http://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/fsl/policies.
I based my account of SAE’s disciplinary hearing on November 13, 2012, on the results of a public-records request to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. It yielded the 175-page transcript of the proceedings, as well as the voluminous records of e-mails, letters, and documents related to the incidents, the investigation, and its aftermath. I also traveled to Wilmington from April 26 through April 28, 2016, to meet with Ian Gove and other fraternity members and alumni.
could pull off a purple seersucker suit: Molly Parker, “Sen. Goolsby Takes Last Lap with Eye on House—His Own,” StarNewsOnline.com, May 15, 2014, at www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20140515/news/605041629/WM.
“This is a kangaroo court”: Interview with Ian Gove.
college professors are more likely to be liberal: See Neil Gross, Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care? (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013), and Mitchell Langbert, Anthony J. Quain, and Daniel B. Klein, “Faculty Voter Registration in Economics, History, Journalism, Law, and Psychology,” Econ Journal Watch 13 (3) (September 2016): 422–451.
defining characteristic of the American right’s: Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (New York: New Press, 2016), p. 235.
judicial officer later sued SAE: David Fiacco v. Sigma Alpha Epsilon, U.S. District Court, Maine, September 15, 2005, 1:05-cv-00145-GZS. I relied mostly on records related to this case.
“I knew those men”: Pete Smithhisler, speech to Lambda Chi Alpha, published September 2014, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKclW4MoHX0. Smithhisler declined to speak with me.
make up about 40 percent of fraternity-related deaths: John Hechinger and David Glovin, “CalPoly Brings Back Freshman Pledging After Lobbying,” Bloomberg News, October 15, 2013 at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-10-15/cal-poly-brings-back-freshman-pledging-after-lobbying.
report, prepared by fraternity executives: Ibid.
Trinity College, a well-regarded: David Glovin, “Wall Street Pipeline Trinity Sees President Resign,” Bloomberg News, May 7, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-05-06/wall-street-pipeline-trinity-sees-president-quit-amid-frat-fight.
Wesleyan Student Assembly had conducted a survey: “Survey Data Regarding Greek Life and Sexual Assault,” Wesleyan Student Assembly, April 26, 2014, at http://wsa.wesleyan.edu/2014/04/26/survey-data-regarding-greek-life-sexual-assault.
saw a broader need to remake Greek life: “On the Record with President Michael Roth: Sexual Assault, Frats, Need Blind,” Wesleying, December 1, 2014.
“I think it’s a really tragic loss”: “Future of Wesleyan’s DKE Frat in Hands of Judge,” CBS News, April 29, 2015, at www.cbsnews.com/news/wesleyan-university-lawsuit-delta-kappa-epsilon-fraternity-accuses-school-of-discrimination.
re-examine the policy: Graham W. Bishai, Claire E. Parker, and Leah S. Yared, “Social Organizations Sanctions Could Be ‘Revised or Replaced,’” Harvard Crimson, January 26, 2017, at www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/1/26/sanctions-may-change-khurana-says/.
committee advocated: Hannah Natanson and Derek G. Xiao, “Faculty Committee Recommends Social Groups Be ‘Phased Out,’” Harvard Crimson, July 13, 2017, at www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/7/13/new-sanctions/.
“I sincerely hope”: C. Ramsey Fahs, “In Most Extensive Comments in Centuries, Porcellian Club Criticizes Final Club Scrutiny,” Harvard Crimson, April 13, 2016.
this $500-a-plate cocktail reception: I attended the early portion of the evening, along with Steven Churchill, president of SAE.
39 percent of senators: North-American Interfraternity Conference.
its share of kingmakers: Bruce D. Hornbuckle, “Brother Bill Brock: A Profile of the SAE and Republican Party Chairman,” SAE Record 99 (May 1979), pp. 2–14.
more than $1.3 million in campaign contributions: Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets.org, at www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000021992.
FratPAC bore down on US representative Frederica Wilson: David Glovin, “Mother of Golf Prodigy in Hazing Death Defied by FratPAC,” Bloomberg News, July 24, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-24/mother-of-golf-prodigy-in-hazing-death-defied-by-fratpac. In a February 2017 e-mail, O’Neill said of Wilson, “We have spent a lot of time talking with her and her staff about the most effective ways to combat hazing and to penalize those who haze students. Many other groups did so as well, and it was clear that crafting a federal anti-hazing law presents a number of challenges.” His firm is now called Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP.
The coalition spent $250,000 lobbying: OpenSecrets.org, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-24/mother-of-golf-prodigy-in-hazing-death-defied-by-fratpac.
“We believe our sisters”: Tyler Kingkade, “Alpha Phi Becomes First Sorority to Say It Doesn’t Support Safe Campus Act,” Huffington Post, November 12, 2015, at www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alpha-phi-safe-campus-act_us_56441c26e4b045bf3dedce0d.
an episode from 2008: Parks Griffin provided records related to the football game.
“Whoever’s able to hire”: Allie Grasgreen, “Students Lawyer Up,” Inside Higher Ed, August 26, 2013, at www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/26/north-carolina-becomes-first-state-guarantee-students-option-lawyer-disciplinary.
student right-to-counsel bills have been introduced in seven states: February 2017 e-mail from Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
“The real problem for the fraternity”: “Fraternity Suspension Hounds UNCW Chancellor,” 2014, WECT, at www.wect.com/story/25478372/fraternity-suspension-hounds-uncw-chancellor.
“a victim of North Carolina good old boy politics”: Kristen King, “Miller New Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay,” The Daily Clips, StarNews Online, June 3, 2014.
Chapter 5: Sing, Brothers, Sing
I visited the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman from November 4 through November 10, 2015. I pieced together the history of the song through interviews with several members: Garrett Parkhurst, Drew Rader, Sam Albert, and Jack Counts III. These University of Oklahoma students also offered details of the singing on the bus, as did their dates, Corina Hernandez and Lindsay Strunk. I met with Jack Counts Jr., who walked me through the chapter’s rich archival material and introduced me to other alumni who shared details about SAE at Oklahoma. The university’s Western History Collections provided valuable archives related to the chapter’s history—including photographs of its blackface party—and of the early history of fraternities on campus.
equivalent of $4 million today: The 1965 cost, $550,000, and other details of construction come from Jack Counts Jr.’s chapter archives.
largest networks of Ford auto dealerships: Fred Jones Family Foundation, at http://fredjonesfamilyfoundation.com/history.html.
“Singing Fraternity”: For lyrics, see SAE’s Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/notes/sigma-alpha-epsilon-fraternity/the-many-songs-of-sigma-alpha-epsilon-fraternity/88343331136, or to hear the songs, mthetgi.sae.net/TheTrueGentlemanInitiativeLibrary/81/Module?module=Songs.
The song had traveled: University of Oklahoma “Investigation and Findings,” released under a public-records request, reported earlier by Tyler Kingkade, “SAE Fraternity Members Learned Racist Song at National Leadership Event, University Finds,” Huffington Post, March 27, 2015, at www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/27/sae-fraternity-racist-song_n_6956790.html. See also SAE’s statement on the investigation, at www.sae.net/home/pages/news/news-media-statements-oklahoma-investigation-findings.
had been a top golfer… Jesuit prep school: Faith Karimi and Justin Lear, “Who Are the Two Fraternity Students Expelled at the University of Oklahoma,” CNN.com, March 12, 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/03/12/us/oklahoma-who-are-expelled-students. I couldn’t reach Parker Rice for comment. Through a family spokesman, Pettit declined my request for an interview.
“To those who have misused their free speech”: David Boren, University of Oklahoma statement.
At Princeton University, three-fourths: “Report of the Working Group on Campus Social and Residential Life,” Princeton University Reports (May 2011) at www.princeton.edu/reports/2011/campuslife/obs-rec/fraternities-sororities.
found rigid segregation: Matthew W. Hughey, “A Paradox of Participation: Nonwhites in White Sororities and Fraternities,” Social Problems 57 (November 2010): 653–679.
“American apartheid”: John D. Sutter, “Are Frats a Form of American Apartheid,” CNN.com, March 10, 2015, at www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/opinions/sutter-oklahoma-fraternity-racist.
“racially isolating environments”: Julie J. Park, “Clubs and the Campus Racial Climate: Student Organizations and Interracial Friendship in College,” Journal of College Student Development 55 (October 2014): 641–660.
“ethnic clubs for White students” … “White victimization”: Jim Sidanius et al., “Ethnic Enclaves and the Dynamics of Social Identity on the College Campus: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87 (July 2004): 107.
more likely to report verbal and physical assaults: Nella Van Dyke and Griff Tester, “Dangerous Climates: Factors Associated with Various Racist Hate Crimes on College Campuses,” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 30 (July 2014): 290–309.
many previous episodes: See Tyler Kingkade, “SAE’s Racist Chant Was Not an Isolated Incident,” Huffington Post, March 10, 2015, at www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/10/sae-racism_n_6831424.html; Jake New, “Deadliest and Most Racist?” Inside Higher Ed, March 10, 2015, at www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/10/several-sigma-alpha-epsilon-chapters-accused-racism-recent-years; and Tasneem Nashrulla, “A History of Racism at Sigma Alpha Epsilon,” BuzzFeed News, June 29, 2015, at www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/a-history-of-racism-at-sigma-alpha-epsilon?utm_term=.lm5AvNb35#.cp618g7qX.
Halloween party at Yale’s SAE chapter: Jon Victor and Joey Ye, “SAE Denies Charges of Racism,” Yale Daily News, November 2, 2015. See also Susan Svrluga, “Students Accuse Yale SAE Fraternity Brother of Saying ‘White Girls Only’ at Party Door,” Washington Post, November 2, 2015; and Monica Wang and Joe Ye, “Investigations Yield No Disciplinary Action,” Yale Daily News,” December 9, 2015.
two white SAE members at the University of Texas: Cassandra Jaramillo and Mikaela Cannizzo, “UT Students in Racially Motivated Assault Appeal University Disciplinary Process,” Daily Texan, March 29, 2016.
the University of Wisconsin at Madison suspended: Results of a public-records request to the university. See also “Timeline—Sigma Alpha Epsilon,” The University of Wisconsin website, May 17, 2016 at http://news.wisc.edu/timeline-sigma-alpha-epsilon.
plotted to tie a noose: Charlie Campbell, “Ole Miss Fraternity Chapter Shuttered After Racist Prank,” Time, April 18, 2014.
spray-painted racial slurs: Jacqueline Palochko, “Lehigh Launches Survey Linked to Racist Graffiti,” Morning Call, October 13, 2015.
the Bizzell Memorial Library stands: Anne Barajas Harp, The Sooner Story: The University of Oklahoma, 1890–2015 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015), p. 77.
$75 million dorm: Jason Kersey, “Oklahoma Athletics: What’s It Like to Be a Non-athlete in Headington Hall?” Oklahoman, July 12, 2014, at http://newsok.com/article/4988418.
family of one of Rader’s pledge brothers: “OU President David Boren Announces New Seed Sower Society Members at Regent Meeting,” OU Daily, March 9, 2016.
pleaded guilty in 2014 to a misdemeanor: Jake Trotter, “Joe Mixon Reaches Plea Deal,” ESPN, October 30, 2014, at www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/11790146/oklahoma-sooners-running-back-joe-mixon-reaches-plea-deal-case-punching-female-student.
allowing them to withdraw: Telephone interview with David Boren, March 2017.
“Since we know we all have said things”: Maria Dixon Hall, “A Teachable Moment: How OU Failed Transformation 101,” Patheos, March 10, 2015, at www.patheos.com/blogs/mariadixonhall/2015/03/a-teachable-moment-how-ou-failed-transformation-101.
“All the apologies in the world”: Robert Wilonsky, “Highland Park’s Levi Pettit Apologizes for Role in Racist SAE Video, Says It Was ‘Disgusting,’” Dallas Morning News, March 24, 2015, at www.dallasnews.com/news/news/2015/03/24/levi-pettit-the-highland-park-hs-grad-seen-on-racist-sae-video-to-publicly-apologize-wednesday.
“I admit it likely was fueled by alcohol”: Bill Chappell, “Two Oklahoma Students Seen in Racist Fraternity Video Apologize,” NPR, March 11, 2015, at www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/03/11/392279208/apologies-emerge-from-two-oklahoma-students-in-racist-sae-video.
“It’s sad that it’s 2015 and stuff like this”: Sterling Shepard on Twitter, at http://twitter.com/sterl_shep3/status/574734237733023744.
“shaking our hand, giving us hugs”: Maxwell Strachan, “Oklahoma Linebacker Eric Striker Shares ‘His Thoughts on Fraternity’s Racist Chant,’” Huffington Post, March 12, 2015, at www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/10/eric-striker-oklahoma-football-racism_n_6838804.html.
University of Oklahoma’s Student Affairs Office surveyed: March 2017 interview with Clark Stroud, dean of students. At traditionally white fraternities, 2.56 percent of members were African American; 10.14 percent, American Indian; 4.42 percent, Asian American; and 7.78 percent, Latino. An additional fraternity with only four students had no black members.
“hedonistic fantasy”: Will James blog post, “There Will Never Be Another Black S-A-E,” at http://betweenthenotes.me/2015/03/09/there-will-never-be-another-black-s-a-e.
“I wouldn’t even hesitate for a split second”: CNN video, March 11, 2015, at www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/03/11/cnn-tonight-jonathan-davis-ou-sooners-racist-song-sae-fraternitywilliam-bruce-james.cnn.
More than a dozen universities: Rachel L. Swarns, “Georgetown University Plans Steps to Atone for Slave Past,” New York Times, September 1, 2016.
Chapter 6: Discriminating Gentlemen
I based the account of the 1951 Sigma Alpha Epsilon convention in Chicago on a transcript in the library of Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s headquarters in the Levere Memorial Temple, Evanston, Illinois: “Ninety-Fifth Anniversary National Convention, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Supplementary Proceedings,” Chicago, Illinois, September 2–5, 1951.
swayed to the Latin rhythms: Don Gable, “Ninety-Fifth Anniversary Convention: Chicago Makes Historical Strides,” SAE Record, November 1951, p. 118.
“SAE’s governing laws”: At the library, I reviewed copies of SAE laws dating back to the 1900s.
lead financier of the fraternity’s headquarters: Joseph W. Walt, The Era of Levere: A History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, 1910–1930 (Evanston, IL: Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, 1972), p. 561.
research on the Tuskegee syphilis experiment: Donald H. Rockwell, Annie Roof Yobs, and M. Brittain Moore Jr., “The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis, the Thirtieth Year of Observation,” Archives of Internal Medicine 114 (6) (1964): 792–798.
“Who made it a bad word”: Interfraternity Conference Minutes, National Interfraternity Conference, 1947, University of Michigan, digitized October 12, 2007, p. 124.
“The world was different then”: March 2017 telephone interview with G. Holmes Braddock. I also spoke with Samuel G. DeSimone, the Pennsylvania judge who was on the panel proposing the law change. “I don’t remember any of that,” he told me. The other members at the convention have since died.
a descendant of French Protestants: William C. Levere, “The Life of DeVotie,” SAE Record 26 (3) (September 1906): 247–251.
Staunch believers in slavery: Ibid.
“To the young white men of the South”: William C. Levere, The History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, vol. 1 (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Sons, 1911), p. 108.
“the best colleges and universities”: Ibid., vol. 2, p. 197.
outsiders began to form their own organizations: Craig LaRon Torbenson and Gregory Parks, eds., Brothers and Sisters: Diversity in College Fraternities and Sororities (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2009), p. 39.
wrote a novel set at his alma mater: William Collin Levere, Twixt Greek and Barb: A Story of University Life (Evanston, IL: William S. Lord, 1900), pp. 97–112.
Yale, and Princeton changed their admissions requirements: Jerome Karabel, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006), pp. 115, 133, 367.
“alien and unwashed element”: Ibid., p. 112.
Princeton admitted its first African American: Ibid., p. 379.
a 1936 Ohio State University catalog: Ohio State University Archives.
doubling of college enrollment: Roger L. Geiger, ed., The History of Higher Education Annual 2002 (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2002), p. 95.
incorporated racially tinged themes: Anthony James, “College Social Fraternities, Manhood, and the Defense of Southern Traditionalism, 1945–1960,” in White Masculinity in the Recent South, ed. Trent Watts (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2009).
performed in blackface: Charles Tucker, ed., The History of Oklahoma Kappa of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1959), p. 263: Carroll L. Lurding Library of College Fraternity and Sorority Materials, 1834–2014, Lilly Library Manuscript Collections, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, box 17.
a 1949–1950 SAE scrapbook: University of Oklahoma, Western History Collection.
Amherst College in Massachusetts decided: Nicholas L. Syrett, The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), pp. 248–250.
“He was the first black man”: Daniel Sheehan, The People’s Advocate: The Life and Legal History of America’s Most Fearless Public Interest Lawyer (Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2013), chap. 5.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon held its June 1969 convention: SAE Record (February 1969): 5, Levere Library.
Steve Walker, a consultant to the national SAE office: Transcript, 1969 convention, Levere Library.
One piece of news would have especially interested alumni: Thomas M. Rigdon, letter to Eminent Supreme Recorder, April 23, 1970, Levere Library.
a collection of oral histories: Clarence G. Williams, ed., Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941–1999 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003), p. 377.
became an emergency-room physician: Tasneem Nashrulla, BuzzFeed News. The article, which alerted me to his account and Sheehan’s, included an interview with Salih.
Chapter 7: Old Row
I reported at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa from October 20 to October 23, 2015, visiting the SAE chapter, interviewing students, and researching SAE’s early history at the University of Alabama’s W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library.
onetime “segregation academy”: Gavin Wright, Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013), p. 168. John McWilliams, associate head of the school at Montgomery Academy, told me the school enrolled its first black student in 1972 and African Americans make up 7 percent of the student body. “One of our core values is we believe in sustaining a diverse school and community,” he said.
Goodwyn escorted his girlfriend: “Southern Debutante Cotillion Holds Its Annual Ball,” Montgomery Advertiser, July 26, 2014.
A former Alpha Omicron Pi sister: Interview with Yardena Wolf, who was a member of the sorority.
fees can be competitive: For on-campus room-and-board fees, see www.ua.edu/about/quickfacts. For average fees for members of the Interfraternity Council, see http://alabamaifc.com/financial-information.html. It’s hard to make an exact comparison because fraternities also charge initiation fees.
the “Machine”: The machine has long been an open secret at the University of Alabama. The Crimson White, the student newspaper, has done impressive reporting on its workings. See also Philip Weiss, “The Most Powerful Fraternity in America,” Esquire, April 1992, pp. 102–106. A website, called WelcomeToTheMachine, keeps an archive on decades of reporting, at www.welcometothemachine.info/index.php.
known on campus for his seersucker suits: “Getting to Know the Man Behind the Bowtie: SGA President, Hamilton Bloom,” Odyssey, April 20, 2014, at www.theodysseyonline.com/gettingto-know-the-man-behind-the-bowtie-sga-president-hamilton-bloom.
An Alabama political science professor: Interview with Norman Baldwin, professor at the University of Alabama.
For a study published in 2012: Rashawn Ray and Jason A. Rosow, “The Two Different Worlds of Black and White Fraternity Men,” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 41 (2012): 66–94. As is the practice in sociology studies, the authors decline to disclose the identity of the university, but it is clearly Indiana University based on their description, the institutions involved in funding, their location as scholars at the time, and a subject quoted who gives the street name of one row of fraternities.
a rare glimpse of Greek demography: Under a public-records request, the university provided only a chart, so I could make only broad estimates. Two small fraternities, including a new Lutheran sorority, had no minority members, and a large Jewish fraternity appeared to have less than 1 percent minority membership.
“elitist social hierarchy”: “Vision for the Ideal Fraternity and Sorority Community,” Indiana University, September 2016, at http://studentaffairs.indiana.edu/doc/sll/greek-vision/vifsc-strategic-plan-final-for-provost.pdf.
“admirably suited to give large houses”: “The Indiana Plan of Assistance to Fraternal Organizations at Indiana University,” March 1962, Fraternity House Plans Committee, University Archives, Indiana University Libraries.
45 percent of those elected: Kallen Dimitroff, “Greek Students Are Overrepresented in UT’s Student Government,” Daily Texan, September 23, 2013.
“a dynasty out of a democracy”: Suchi Sundaram, “This Year, Make Student Government Representative of All UT Students, Not Just the Greek Community,” Daily Texan, February 11, 2014.
“People like people who are like themselves”: Max Abelson and Zeke Faux, “Secret Handshakes Greet Frat Brothers on Wall Street,” Bloomberg News, December 23, 2013, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-12-23/secret-handshakes-greet-frat-brothers-on-wall-street.
more likely to get higher-paying jobs: David Marmaros and Bruce Sacerdote, “Peer and Social Networks in Job Search,” European Economic Review 46 (May 2002): 870–879.
received an e-mail: Abelson and Faux, “Secret Handshakes.”
12 percent of undergraduates: This figure and others in the paragraph are from the University of Alabama website, at www.ua.edu.
have spent more than $200 million: Jay Reeves, “’Bama Greeks in $202M Building Boom,” Associated Press, November 9, 2013.
“apologists for apartheid”: Ben Gose, “U. of Alabama Studies Why Its Fraternities and Sororities Remain Segregated by Race,” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 5, 1997.
“It is appropriate”: Stephen Nathaniel Dethrage, “Witt Defends Traditional Greek System,” Crimson White, September 15, 2011.
The Crimson White ran a story: For the recounting of these events I relied on the student newspaper’s extensive reporting.
internal university documents: I am including only members of the Interfraternity Council, which represents historically white fraternities.
“Even in the age of Obama”: Lawrence Ross, Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015), p. 13.
“never gave up his quest to ‘keep ’Bama White’”: E. Culpepper Clark, The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation’s Last Stand at the University of Alabama (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 140.
men in white sheets: Chuck Whiting, “Crosses Burned After Election,” Crimson White, February 10, 1976.
Chapter 8: The Phoenix
I attended SAE’s biennial convention, held in Newport Beach, California, from June 18 to June 20, 2015. I based this account on observation and interviews, as well as a review of a transcript.
he once suggested: Cohen told undergraduates at a seminar held in his cabin aboard the leadership cruise in August 2015.
He once brandished: Cohen made these comments at a regional leadership conference held at the University of La Verne in California in March 2014. It was his first public appearance after announcing the fraternity ban.
Its claims plunged 90 percent: Phi Delta Theta statistics.
“If your founders were in this room”: Transcript of SAE’s 2013 convention at the Hotel InterContinental in Chicago, Levere Library.
He was sixteen and a high school junior: Part of this chapter is based on material that originally appeared in an earlier article: John Hechinger and David Glovin, “Fraternity Chief Feared for Son as Hazings Spurred JPMorgan Snub,” Bloomberg News, March 27, 2014, at www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-27/fraternity-chief-feared-for-son-as-hazings-spurred-jpmorgan-snub.
“the deadliest fraternity”: John Hechinger and David Glovin, “Deadliest Frat’s Icy ‘Torture’ of Pledges Evokes Tarantino Films,” Bloomberg News, December 30, 2013.
A drunk SAE member… a drunk freshman: David Glovin and John Hechinger, “Fatalities in Michigan Spotlight Deadliest Fraternities,” Bloomberg News, January 31, 2014. See also Laurence Hammack, “Drunken Driver in Crash That Killed W&L Classmate to Serve Three Years,” Roanoke Times, January 15, 2015.
Scarborough had nominated: Transcript of the 2009 SAE convention at the New Orleans Marriott, Levere Library.
For this chapter, I traveled twice to Ohio State University in Columbus. I interviewed SAE members and attended the Monday night chapter meeting on November 2, 2015. I also watched the dedication of the lions on April 30, 2016.
On the day of its installation: William C. Levere, The History of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, vol. 2 (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley and Sons, 1911), pp. 159–162.
best known for throwing beer bottles: Ohio State University press release, November 2001, University Archives, Ohio State University.
called its behavior “inexcusable”: Nick Proctor, SAE adviser, letter to Bill Hall, interim vice president of student affairs, January 9, 2001, University Archives.
“Do not be an idiot”: Bowen speech at dedication ceremony for the lions.
a member told Moore in a text: Moore shared with me the written results of his internal investigation, which are the basis of this account. The accused student did not return messages.
One student had suffered: Early one morning on the leadership cruise in August 2015, members, requesting anonymity, shared these stories with me.
the event raised a record $175,000: See www.pghdonutdash.org.
His SAE brothers helped him raise money: Alexi Sciutto related this story to me during the March 2014 leadership conference at the University of La Verne in California.
In the 1870s, chapters at the University of Vermont and Wesleyan: “A Brief History of Phi Beta Kappa,” at www.pbk.org/imis15/PBK_Member/About_PBK/PBK_History/PBK_Member/PBK_History.aspx?hkey=44391228-bb7c-4705-bd2e-c785f3c1d876.
“Why discriminate because of sex?”: “Leadership, Friendship, Service: Pledge Manual 2015–2016,” Alpha Phi Omega, p. 14.
Phi Tau broke away from Phi Sigma Kappa: Samantha Stern, “Greek Houses Adjust to New Concepts of Gender,” Dartmouth, May 19, 2016.
Zeta Psi withdrew: Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, “A Woman of Honor,” Brown Alumni Magazine (May/June 1998). See also “Zeta Delta Psi: Our History” at www.zete.org/home.
earliest and highest-profile campaigns: For the history of Williams and its impact on other New England colleges, I relied on a comprehensive account by former Williams president John W. Chandler, The Rise and Fall of Fraternities at Williams College: Clashing Cultures and the Transformation of a Liberal Arts College (Williams College Museum of Art, 2014).
“satisfied” or “very satisfied”: Joshua Miller, “A Decade After Frats, College Houses Evolve,” Bowdoin Orient, October 12, 2007, at http://bowdoinorient.com/bonus/article/2869.
a lawyer and campus free-speech advocate: Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate (New York: Encounter Books, 2012), p. 19.
one president, Robert Carothers, decided: Carothers’s efforts are chronicled in Henry Wechsler and Bernice Wuethrich, Dying to Drink: Confronting Binge Drinking on College Campuses (New York: Rodale: 2002), pp. 228–231.
A 2009 study: Mark D. Wood et al., “Common Ground: An Investigation of Environmental Management Alcohol Prevention Initiatives in a College Community, Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 16 (July 2009): 96–105.
“If in the next three to five years”: Matt Rocheleau, “Dartmouth Bans Hard Alcohol, Forbids Greek Life Pledging,” Boston Globe, January 29, 2015.
a group of more than one hundred college presidents: John Hechinger, “Bid to Reconsider Drinking Age Taps Unlikely Supporters,” Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2008.
alcohol consumption has declined: Anne T. McCartt, Laurie A. Hellinga, and Bevan B. Kirley, “The Effects of Minimum Legal Drinking Age Twenty-One Laws on Alcohol-Related Driving in the United States,” Journal of Safety Research 41 (April 2010): 173–181.
fallen by half… saved more than 26,000 lives: “Benefits of Higher Drinking Age Are Crystal Clear in Study After Study,” Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute, December 27, 2008.
drink more than their peers who aren’t enrolled: “High-Risk Drinking in College: What We Know and What We Need to Learn: Final Report,” Task Force of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, at www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/media/finalpanel1.pdf.
Conclusion
and look to abolish them: “Dean Wormer’s Favorite Editorial,” Bloomberg View, January 7, 2014, at www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-01-07/dean-wormer-s-favorite-editorial.
consider a proposal: 161st Anniversary Convention, July 6–8, 2017, Boston, “Report to the Fraternity Convention, Permanent Committee on Fraternity Law,” Proposal 13, at http://data.sae.net/docs/LawProposals.pdf.
A grand jury indicted: First Centre County Investigating Grand Jury, Findings of Fact, May 5, 2017.
Penn State’s president demanded: Eric Barron, “An Open Letter to Penn State’s Greek Community,” Digging Deeper: A Blog by Dr. Eric Barron, President of Penn State University, April 10, 2017, at http://diggingdeeper.psu.edu/2017/04/an-open-letter-to-penn-states-greek-community/.
Economists and public-health scholars agree: Mark Goodchild, Anne-Marie Perucic, and Nigar Nargis, “Modelling the Impact of Raising Tobacco Taxes on Public Health and Finance,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 943 (April 2016), 250–257.
2017 convention: I attended two plenary sessions of SAE’s biennial convention, which was held at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The first vote on the discrimination clause occurred Friday afternoon, July 7, 2017, and the second, the following morning.