The Mississippi Theta chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Mississippi State University will serve two years social probation after an Interfraternity Council judicial board handed down the sanction for a December incident involving alcohol and underage drinking on campus. According to a statement released by university relations, the 114-year-old chapter was charged with violating MSU’s alcohol policy during an official function in the fraternity house. Dean of Students Mike White told university relations that the event involved the formal introduction of new members, or little brothers, to upperclassmen role models called big brothers.
Probation will keep the fraternity from socializing within the chapter, with other fraternities and sororities and from holding parties in the summer to help boost enrollment during fall rush, which is when prospective members formally visit all the fraternities in order to seek membership.
“In being placed on probation, Sigma Alpha Epsilon may continue to function as a campus organization but may not sponsor or hold any social activity of any kind between now and the beginning of the 2004 spring semester,” White said. “This means that, while the organization can hold rush activities at its campus house, it may not give summer or other pre-semester rush parties. It also may not sponsor any social event during the semesters.”
“I think this sanction is appropriate for the situation,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Roy Ruby.
However, Ruby’s opinion is not shared by the chapter or its president.
“These sanctions do not take into consideration the extensive risk management activities our fraternity has voluntarily undertaken in recent years,” chapter president Will Choate said in a statement. “The men of Sigma Alpha Epsilon are very disappointed in this decision, and we are considering our appeal options.”
White said the sanction handed down was based on the fact that this is not the first time the fraternity has been caught violating state law and MSU policy.
“Over the past three years, SAE has committed three alcohol violations, two of which were serious enough to merit probation periods,” White said. “If the chapter commits any further violations during the current probation, it will face additional sanctions up to and including closure.”
Ruby said it is important to remember that the fraternity was not handed a sanction for hazing, only alcohol.
“While their actions didn’t cross into hazing, they skated quite close to the line,” White said.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, or SAE, is the second fraternity to go before a judicial board on charges of violating MSU’s alcohol policy. However, being the second fraternity to be punished did not add or take away from any possible sanction.
“Each case stands on its own,” Ruby said.
SAE is nationally an older fraternity, and it is one of the oldest chapters still on campus at MSU. The Mississippi Theta chapter opened its doors seven years after Mississippi A&M opened its doors in 1878. The first chapter was founded nearby at the University of Alabama in 1856.
The fraternity’s national Web site provides links to chapters and mottoes fraternity members are told to live by.
According to their Web site, “The True (SAE) Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his work; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue is safe.”
Keeping Greek organizations from following in the steps of violating MSU alcohol policy and breaking the law is a tough job, according to Ruby.
“We have a lot of education programs to prevent these occurrences,” Ruby said. “But, it doesn’t seem to sink in for all groups.”
The fraternity must petition in January 2004 to have social privileges returned. Ruby said that at that time, the fraternity’s probationary period will be considered. But, White warns that privileges are not always automatically returned.
“No one associated with the organization should believe that a grant of approval will be automatic when next we visit this matter,” White said.
“The Mississippi Theta chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon understands the seriousness of these sanctions, and we will be working diligently to correct our actions and be reinstated to normal status with Mississippi State University,” Choate said.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon National Fraternity communications director Chris Mundy was unavailable for comment.