WVU Professor Advises Parents Against Letting Students Go Greek In Mass Email, Compares Fraternities To Bestiality

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A controversial email is apparently making the rounds at West Virginia University. In it, an unnamed Engineering professor advises parents against letting their freshmen engineering students join fraternities or sororities. Below is the tip we received.

I am currently a junior at WVU. This email has sparked quite the controversy here on campus, and I believe this would make for a great news story. It was written by an Engineering professor here at WVU, and sent to all incoming freshmen. He has quite the opinion. Take a look.

“Academic suicide” and violent, physical assault are among the grave warnings the professor mentions. The kicker, however, is the comparison he or she makes between brotherhood among fraternities and bestiality. Bestiality is sexual relations between a human and an animal. It’s animal fucking, guys.

The following is the alleged, unedited email in its entirety:

Subject: Advice on fraternity and sorority rush

Parents, Next week is the start of fraternity and sorority rush. I strongly urge you to advice your son or daughter NOT to pledge a fraternity or sorority this semester. Sororities take a tremendous amount of time that women in engineering simply don’t have. They are also very expensive. Once women are in a sorority, they are pressured into living in a sorority house with all its distractions. The real problem is that our women students will find it hard to find any other women engineering students to study with in the sorority house. The one really bad thing about sororities is that they are expected to attend parties with fraternities. As a parent of a daughter and a grandparent of a granddaughter, I would be scared of ever having them attend a fraternity party. Fraternities are much worse. Last year, we had two of our freshmen students drop out of WVU because of all the craziness that goes on in the pledge process. They were actually afraid to withdraw from the fraternity and chose to withdraw from WVU instead. Very few of our engineering students who pledged fraternities survived the fall semester with above a 2.00 GPA. Joining a fraternity is academic suicide. One student was badly beaten last year in the hazing process. If the student had been smaller, he would have probably died. Fraternities say that the initiation process creates brotherhood. I say it creates beastiality. Fraternity and sorority membership becomes even more problematic in the junior and senior years when our students need to work with other engineering students on major assignments. At the same time, the sororities and fraternities are expecting them to devote a lot of time to their activities as well. This is just a lot of time management conflict that is best avoided. The fellowship of fraternities and sororities offer doesn’t come close to the bonds that our students develop among their classmates. Anything that a fraternity or sorority offers in personal relationships is more than available to our students who don’t decide to join a fraternity or sorority. I have parents tell me that they were powerless to keep their son or daughter from joining a fraternity or sorority. My suggestion is to pull all of their financial support if they join. This is harsh, but I hate to see you lose a lot of money as a result of the foolishness that comes with Greek life. Hope this is helpful. P.S. WVU is not different from other universities when it comes to fraternities/sororities. They are very hard to control. If you want to read more about this national issue, go to [The Atlantic] I think you’ll see why I’m so concerned.

“I strongly urge you to advice your son or daughter NOT to pledge a fraternity or sorority this semester.”

Yo, Teach, I strongly advise* you to TAP the motherfucking brakes this semester. Also, you might want to study up. Your figures seem a bit off.

      1. bignasty

        Yeah, let’s all show him how wrong he is about Greek life by acting like a bunch of immature fuck heads.

        10 years ago at 5:07 pm
    1. nobama08_12

      Got a 3.7 my pledge semester at a better engineering school. One of our alumni just got an engineering building named after him.

      10 years ago at 10:09 am
    1. Rob Fox

      Nope, it’s spelled bestiality. Accidentally click on it all the time when I’m trying to scroll to BBW I MEAN I LOOKED IT UP IN THE DICTIONARY.

      10 years ago at 5:20 pm
      1. SlapperFromThePoint

        I love shitting on Bacon (seriously it’s like over half of my input to this site) but when he says something funny, you gotta give him due credit. That way, it’ll hurt him a little bit more the next time somebody says it looks like he has Down Syndrome.

        10 years ago at 6:48 pm
  1. WuShock

    “As a parent of a daughter and a grandparent of a granddaughter”

    Jesus Fucking Christ shut the fuck up.

    10 years ago at 5:31 pm
      1. Fratmiral Nelson

        Are you purposely trying to rack up laps, or are you also a tool in real life?

        10 years ago at 2:52 am
  2. TGailGoodrichM

    I’d fuck the shit outta his, it’s an engineering professor so obviously male, daughter for a solid six seconds, then have his daughter take a rush boobs pic and email it directly to him. Then get an A in his class, fuck this prick

    10 years ago at 5:53 pm
      1. TGailGoodrichM

        Ignorance pisses me off, and the fact that the school would send this out in a mass email pisses me off more. I’m assuming their Greek system isn’t affiliated with the school if he can send this, but still. His ignorance is unacceptable

        10 years ago at 8:46 pm
  3. EatShitPitt

    Fuck him. I pledged and graduated with my BS degree in engineering from WVU. If you have your shit together then it’s easily doable and if you don’t, well then you fail. Look at it as a weeding out the idiots right off the bat.

    10 years ago at 6:10 pm
    1. DarkoM

      Yet here you are as a post-grad perusing a website for college kids. Dream big.

      Your personal anecdote does not make what he said false. First off, Greek members are completely underrepresented in engineering schools because they can’t hack it with the social calendar. Fact: engineering GPAs of fraternity and sorority members are lower on average to GDIs. Furthermore, with regard to engineering, you see the Greek community typically get involved in less competitive aims in engineering. The Greek community at most schools has turned into middle class kids, with soft majors, raging their balls off as they try to keep up with carefree wealthy kids who can “afford” to party because they already have jobs waiting thanks to nepotism. You middle-class wannabes are too fucking stupid to look at the big picture: you are trading a few years of raging for a shittier GPA, a less competitive major, less involvement in your department, etc. which in turn produces shitter letters of rec, less competitive internships, shittier grad school exam scores (GRE, MCAT, LSAT), full-time offers and lower lifetime earnings. You’re not fooling anyone, especially at public colleges, we know 90%+ of you aren’t rich; there’s not a $100,000 offer waiting for you to cash in as you limp out with a C average. In 2014 it’s harder than ever to jump a social class, and most of you short-sighted morons are giving up on the idea of ever being wealthier than your parents because you want to drink Natty and bang a few orange skinned fake baking skanks. The professor is accurate.

      Sidebar: any fraternity man who would let their daughter go Greek needs their head examined.

      10 years ago at 9:00 am
      1. Ticklemyfrock

        I am post grad and I also read stuff on this site. I don’t do engineering but I make more money than you Darko! This was because of the connections I gained in my fraternity. In fact being in a fraternity has turned out to be more valuable than my degree. It’s also more valuable than an engineering degree based on their salary on glassdoor. Moral of the story we can read what we want, Fuck you.

        10 years ago at 8:07 pm
      2. DarkoM

        “This was because of the connections I gained in my fraternity.”

        Talking about lifelong connections to frame fraternities as something more than partying and getting pussy. TFM. Actually needing the connections of a fraternity to land a job. NF. I’m glad your bro could come through with that cold calling sales gig. So clutch.

        10 years ago at 2:48 pm
  4. ccariell

    I had class with this fruit loop. I e-mailed him…and his response was equally ridiculous:

    My name is XXXXXXX. I graduated in December 2012 from the College of Engineering at WVU. I would like to address the e-mail that you sent to the student body regarding fraternities.

    Let me start by saying that I have enjoyed great success in the past two years. I hold WVU’s college of engineering with the highest regard. My degree in Civil Engineering has moved me rapidly up the professional ladder. I have modernized facilities for wounded veterans at Walter Reed Medical Center, built numerous SCIF (secure compartmentalized information facilities) for Lockheed Martin, built a 9/11 memorial, and most recently commissioned a 300 million dollar chemical weapons facility at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Needless to say, things are moving along quickly. I list my success not as a bragging right, but as a means to stress an important matter to you. None of this would have happened without my fraternity, TKE.

    I may have never set forth on the path to this success without my fraternity. My first career move out of college was with Whiting-Turner, a position which was brought to my attention by a fellow fraternity member. My career in general contracting and consulting was launched using one of the most valuable tools I attained in college; the same tool you condemn to the families of new engineering students.

    While pledging is not the easiest thing in the world, it teaches you responsibility and respect. It is and should be every students choice as to how they want to pursue their college career. I set rules for myself, and treated my classes like a 9-5 job. I stayed true to these rules during my 4 years at WVU. Additionally, while joining my fraternity, I met a fellow engineering major. We studied together throughout college, and ended up tutoring fellow classmates in classes such as differential equations and dynamics. We, the fraternity members, were tutoring the independent students in the most difficult classes WVU has to offer. So, I do take a degree of personal offense to the condemnation of Greek life to new students families. These are families who only want to see their children succeed. It is very easy to mold any parents perspective as they are about to send their child off to school. I can assure you if my mother read your e-mail, that I would not have been allowed to join a fraternity. I would be missing some of the greatest bonds I have formed in my life.

    I urge you to please re-think your letter and your opinions of Greek life. As I write this, I have been sharing my thoughts with my co-worker who is an alumni of the Virginia Tech college of civil engineering. He too was in a fraternity and also graduated with honors from VT. I can assure you that fraternities and sororities do not equate to the automatic demise of an engineering student. Responsibility and perseverance are the foundation of what makes a student successful…both of which were demonstrated to me during my active tenure in Tau Kappa Epsilon.

    I hope this helps you understand Greek Life in a more positive manor. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

    Respectfully,

    XXXXXX

    P.S. I took your Enge 199 class on how to be responsible as an engineering major. You did not speak of Greek Life in this class. I would think that if you believed that Greek Life was this big of an issue you would have addressed it to the freshman students instead of stressing that playing too many video games was the reason freshman fail. Please weigh in on Greek Life during this class, and not to the parents of incoming freshman. After all, that is why we spent an hour of our Friday’s with you.

    10 years ago at 6:12 pm
    1. ccariell

      PROFESSOR BYRD’S RESPONSE: How can you condone rape, public sex ,near death hazing, rampant drug use that is part of fraternity life on campus today? I deal with a lot of freshmen who joined fraternities and are in serious academic jeopardy. That’s well over three fourths of them. Their parents are very upset and the students lose all of their financial support. Students need to know the real story. I’ve had nothing but positive comments from parents including several that considered joining the Greek system to be the worst college decision they made.

      10 years ago at 6:13 pm
      1. ccariell

        MY RESPONSE: I absolutely do not condone rape, public sex, near death hazing, or rampant drug use and neither does my fraternity. In fact, I remember a few times where we expelled members for drug use…and that was only after making every attempt to help those members rehabilitate. That is much more than the university offers for drug users. I don’t ever remember the university offering a student help for drug use…only reprimanding or dismissing them. I have sat in on many judicial hearings that we hold internally with our brothers, and I can tell you that in 4 years in greek life at WVU I never had to deal with rape, excessive hazing, or a public sex case. If I can only imagine that if my fraternity knew one of their members was conducting such activity, it would be dealt with at the highest level with the University. No such activity has even been deemed acceptable.

        It is ludicrous to insinuate that issues like rape and drugs are limited to Greek life. Those issues are rampant everywhere. I knew plenty of freshman in academic jeopardy outside of Greek life. Active members must maintain a minimum GPA, and we as a group made sure to enforce the fact that school is a students first responsibility. Joining a fraternity/sorority is a choice that students should be able to make on their own. And yes, I do believe those students should consult their parents first. I believe your e-mail is completely off base and damaging. If you believe Greek life is so damaging that is your opinion. However I believe over the next few weeks you are going to receive quite an influx of e-mail proving just the opposite…and I can assure you they are not from rapists, wife beaters, and drug addicts. They are from successful alumni of WVU who have been thoroughly offended by your e-mail which is now circulating Facebook.

        Please be respectful to the alumni who proudly graduated from the WVU school of engineering. Greek life is something to be proud of.

        10 years ago at 6:14 pm
      2. Fratasaurus

        Very well written and that should put him in his place. However liberals seem to deny facts so I’m just gonna offer some advice to really make him see the error of his ways: point out the Greek and non Greek GPA’s at WVU. Let him know that whatever % of CEO/senators/etc are fraternity members. Also, E Gordon gee (the wvu president) is a Pike. Keep up the good work.

        10 years ago at 9:11 am
      3. Nice Try

        This professor seems really unprofessional and biased. The school should put him under review

        10 years ago at 10:09 am
      4. Nice Try

        First, his job is to teach, not make life decisions for his students. Second, he is in a position of power over students. He has vehemently and repeatedly stated that he disproves of people in fraternities/sororities. That makes me question his impartiality when dealing with students. Third, he uses very emotional language and has a lot of preconceived notions (cites an Atlantic article as proof and thinks frats rape etc), so obviously very biased.

        10 years ago at 1:21 pm
      5. Bowsntoeties

        Tke – WVU are you serious, you’re the one of the few frats that condone drug use and the use of rape to equate women. Don’t be such a hippo-crate in the eyes of the peers that you seem to hold so dear. TKE at WVU you are the one of the many reasons why, “Don’t go greek, Go tke,” is known throughout all of greek Life. Don’t speak as if you are so abide by the rules, ahaha. You’re foolishness and attempts offend me, as I enter my internship in DC under legislative lawyers, I laugh at all your cargo short wearing, wife beaters and DC shoes that you still and always are currently wearing. Please do us a favor, and the 1 brother out of TKE, that made it, while the rest of you live in a trailer put your self in good lighting. You are more of the problem than actually to what you commit to as addressed to you’re professor.

        10 years ago at 11:01 am
      6. C Roy Fratkinson

        “Can’t go Greek? Go TKE” was actually created because of our lack of a discrimination policy decades ago. So people who were not allowed in most Greek organizations could actually join TKE. So please, keep saying it, I’ll take it as an honor. Meanwhile, you’ve made a complete ass out of yourself. You seem like the kind of person who disgraces the whole Greek system.

        10 years ago at 2:47 pm
      7. FrattyTrappings

        How is “drug use” a GDI trait? Few things compare to skiing slopes with some brothers before a theme party.

        10 years ago at 10:26 pm
  5. mosthonorableactive

    Engineering (and really any math-heavy degree) washes out tons of freshmen every single year. Guarantee those kids weren’t cut out for it regardless of whether or not they pledged.

    10 years ago at 6:25 pm
    1. JustForTheStory

      The fact that he teaches at West Virginia would seem to indicate otherwise.

      10 years ago at 8:03 pm