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I wonder if 2 or more members of a Dormitory or perhaps the Sociology Department were found to have used drugs whether SMU would shut them down. I find SMU's approach very troubling rather than effective enforcement against the guilty parties. I think if I had joined a "Boy's Club" like SAE or ATO or Kappa Alpha rather than THE Fraternity on campus I probably wouldn't be too happy about these events. Why are we [deleted] off substantial groups of our alumni rather than dealing with individuals. I think more should speak out about SMU's approach.

I suspect that a number of SAE alums have no use for brothers taking Fentenol or alcohol and prescription drugs. Several of the houses closed down by the University were joint efforts of the University and the alums of that fraternity. Apparently, drug use at the SAE house was not isolated to a couple of kids and that is why the University is stepping in. We were all hearing about the drug problem on Campus for the last couple of years. Sooner or later the school needed to deal with this in a tough way. What better way than to clean up the fraternal and panhellenic institutions first to reduce the peer pressure to use drugs which can very easily kill you or merely ruin your life. Hillary Clinton was apologizing to Mexico for our drug consumption. This is a problem that no longer can be handled by looking the other way.

The real question is "why were they mixing that many drugs?" Everyone knows you don't mix substances like that - way more dangerous that normal drug use. Always seemed fishy to me.

I am glad to see the University take action. This isn’t a harsh penalty and it can have some meat if the fraternity screws up (which I predict they will) and doesn't fulfill their obligations (KA got kicked off campus recently for violating an off campus party band if I recall correctly).

It appears that not all kids can be a Lambda Chi like Stallion and need some controlling authority in their world. I hope this allows the non drug using frat members some cover to take action in regards to the drug using frat members.

It is a good thing to make the kids take an intervention course. Most kids feel they will live forever and none are trained to recognize problems and even less training in how to deal with identified drug problems. A little education may just go a long way. And I hope the attention brought by the university will give parents pause and start questioning their sons' about the Boys Club they joined.

The fraternity has been placed on deferred suspension until Nov. 1, 2009. During this time the organization may not hold any social events, with or without alcohol, on or off campus. The group must participate in a community service project as well as pay to have its members take a "Training for Intervention Procedures" class, according to SMU officials.

If SAE fails to meet the requirements of the suspension, it will be subject to removal from the university.

I would hazard to presume that come November 2, 2009 SAE will be renamed MIA!

Stallion wrote:I wonder if 2 or more members of a Dormitory or perhaps the Sociology Department were found to have used drugs whether SMU would shut them down. I find SMU's approach very troubling rather than effective enforcement against the guilty parties. I think if I had joined a "Boy's Club" like SAE or ATO or Kappa Alpha rather than THE Fraternity on campus I probably wouldn't be too happy about these events. Why are we [deleted] off substantial groups of our alumni rather than dealing with individuals. I think more should speak out about SMU's approach.

I agree with Stallion

a little more information from dmn

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... b206b.html

fivemon wrote:a little more information from dmn

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... b206b.html

And people complain that the DMN doesn't give us enough attention.......

ponydawg wrote:

fivemon wrote:a little more information from dmn

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... b206b.html

And people complain that the DMN doesn't give us enough attention.......

I would say the DMN has great selective reporting

It took them 2 years to come to this conclusion? I don't know all the facts, but that seems protracted to me.

George S. Patton wrote:It took them 2 years to come to this conclusion? I don't know all the facts, but that seems protracted to me.

It takes them two years to decide whether or not to eat lunch out or bring their lunch.

The parents:

"However, we don't understand why SMU has not aggressively investigated the case and has not been forthcoming with the media and our family. All we ask is that the university discloses the truth and that those involved in our son's death be held accountable."

I find SMU's conduct a lot more suspect in this case-and I've read just about every article - than the 98% of SAEs that weren't involved. Perhaps they didn't want to discipline through their own institutional due process because they really don't want to the facts to become public knowledge. It just easier to blame a fraternity-we all know that's a cop-out-these were individuals-perhaps a group of individuals acting on their own and not in any way in a legal sense on behalf of a fraternity. I could almost understand if a kid dies as a result in some logical way from an out of control fraternity party ie. the ATO who passed out after the House party before the fire that destroyed the House, or a rape of a student at a mixer but I just don't see the connection between private individual action and fraternity responsibility.

SMU’s response to Tom’s demand for information came in a terse letter from S. Leon Bennett, the general counsel and vice president for legal affairs and government relations: The university would not release the police report. The investigation, he wrote, concluded “that Mr. Stiles’ death was not a result of any other person’s involvement, directly or indirectly.â€

Let's say that you are a member of a fraternity and one of your brothers has a serious drug problem or has a serious psychological problem like depression, and you can't help but know it. What do you do? Do you ignore it? Do you try to get the guy to get help? Do you talk to the VP of Student Affairs about the kid? I guess one of the ideals of a fraternity is that brothers watch out for each other and that at least indicates some level of caring. Or are fraternities just about getting drunk, having a test file for the profs, and getting chicks? I think the University is at least trying to get the fraternities to at least think about being "brothers" as opposed to just a bunch of guys who share expenses of having parties.