OU SAE To Sue The University And Possibly President Boren
After an emergency meeting was reportedly held by OU SAE current members and alumni, the decision was reached to hire power attorney Stephen Jones to represent them in a suit against the University of Oklahoma and possibly President Boren. The basis for this suit is unfair characterization and exploitation of the chapter as a whole.
From KFOR:
The local chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is planning to pursue legal action against the University of Oklahoma, and possibly OU President David Boren.
The group has hired high-profile attorney, Stephen Jones to represent them.
Jones told NewsChannel 4 the group is outraged over President Boren shutting down the fraternity house and branding all SAE members as racists and bigots.
Jones says the two students who were expelled because of the incident have apologized sincerely for their remarks, and now the incident is being exploited.
If you haven’t seen President Boren’s presser, of which much of SAE’s claim is in reference to, watch it below. He’s pretty salty..
[via KFOR]
Image via Google Earth
A huge mistake imo. Will only bring negative publicity and potentially expose other dark secrets of Greek life. I’m sure nationals wants nothing to do with this lawsuit. Take the loss of this chapter and move on.
11 years ago at 1:52 pmGreeks and other students are being attacked for no reason. Time for someone to fucking do SOMETHING, god knows that shithole university isnt.
11 years ago at 2:03 pmThey have no case. First amendment doesn’t protect hate and threatening speech. Threatening to hang a black man from a tree qualifies as hateful and more importantly, threatening. They are not protected by the first amendment.
11 years ago at 2:35 pmIt wasn’t directed at anyone you fuckwit. That’s like everyone who comments on a Tinder Moments thread and says something along the lines of “fuck that bitch” should now be arrested for hate speech. Now if you say something like i’m going to kill “insert specific person” to said person, then yeah thats probably hate speech. Quit being a fucking pussy.
11 years ago at 4:35 pmThis pussy and entitled mentality has permeated so deeply into society that I actually fear for the future of this country.
11 years ago at 8:17 pmSWAN RONSON!!!!! SWEET. BABY. JESUS. I TOLD YOU ALREADY. LET GO OF YOUR FEAR AND LIVE YOUR LIFE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7jS8bfScI
http://rapidlikes.com/exclusive-fear-quotes/
11 years ago at 6:52 amWhat they said was terrible, but by God do I hope they win this law suit
11 years ago at 3:29 pmYou guys bashed this fraternity as a whole until the two men in the video were identified for taking part in the chant which at that time, you decided to bash only the two men and seem to think that this fraternity should get a free pass. While it might not be right that the university acted so swiftly to remove the entire house it is pretty obvious that others were going along with the extremely racist chant. This chant was taught to these OU SAEs. I have no problem with the men who were not on that bus to be given back their house and letters. The problem I have is with the way TFM reported this from the get go. TFM was extremely quick to throw SAE under the bus but then it caught national media attention and shed negative light on the entire greek life community and then everyone changes their opinions on the matter and now they are trying to defend SAE because the University acted out of line even though when first reported, TFM wanted SAE brought down
11 years ago at 4:19 pmhttp://i.imgur.com/cG5EAxQ.gif
11 years ago at 4:21 pmAs an OU alum, I can say this: OU needs to shut the fuck up & man the fuck up. All of you pussies need to get back to class & get back to practice. Wearing all black & holding hands is well & good, but instead of playing the victims, just laugh at those insignificant fuck stains & move on. If you think that the SAEs are the only fraternity with silly, offensive songs or chants, then you are fucking morons. The First Amendment does not just protect speech that you like. The SAEs are douche bags. They were douche bags when I was there, too. They have the right to be douche bags. They have the right to say whatever they want, regardless as to how offensive it is. You have the right to find it reprehensible. That’s fine. But NO ONE has the right to squelch free speech. If you let the actions of a few little 20 year old snot-nosed frat boys paralyze you, then you are in for a SERIOUS reality check once you leave your sheltered existences under the canopy of the ivy covered, ivory towers of academia & venture into the real world. Jesus fuck–stand up, sac up, shut the fuck up & grow up. The real world sucks sometimes & there are JACKASSES everywhere. Get fucking used to it.
11 years ago at 5:29 pmExcuse the tangent — I go to UCSB and the reason top houses get labelled “douchebags” is because of weirdos like Elliot Rodgers who perpetuate these stereotypes because they wouldn’t be, or haven’t been given bids – and rightfully so. Not saying every geed hating on fraternities has the potential to be a mass murderer or that there aren’t any actual douchebags in fraternities: but there are a lot of untrustworthy people all over your campus and being a member of Greek Life at least establishes an initial but very basic level of trustworthiness. There are 20,000+ students at this university, I’m not going to go out of my way to be a douchebag, but I’m not going to assume you don’t have it in for me or my fraternity just because you have a smile on your face.
11 years ago at 8:14 pmEasy, Sparky. I AM a Greek, was an officer & lived in our house for 2 years. I am speaking from experience. The SAEs were douche bags when I was in school at OU and so was the alumni advisory council for them. And no one has it in for you. You’re not on anyone’s mind. Trust me–you’re not that important.
11 years ago at 8:40 pmAccording to me I’m pretty important.
11 years ago at 5:32 amyeah, but nobody is going after Swan Ronson. Nobody wants to get you. Let go of your fear Swan Ronson and live your life, sweet baby jesus!
11 years ago at 6:45 amSince the University of Oklahoma is a public college which receives government funding to subsidize tuition and costs it makes no sense for them to have the power to limit free speech. You cannot expel someone from a public school or refuse someone a drivers licence simply because they are racist and have shared their beliefs vocally. People have a right to believe whatever they want and to voice those beliefs even if they are archaic and illogical. What if in 15 years people will be expelled for saying I dont want to be close friends with any transgender people? Does that create a hostile learning environment? Hell yes. But remember this is country was based on not having beliefs of others shoved down our throats.
11 years ago at 5:50 pmThe saddest fact of this entire thing is the application of double standards. The girl at the rally in front of Boren had a shirt that said “Black By Popular Demand.” What would have happened if a white kid had shown up in a shirt that said, “White By Popular Demand” or “I am White & Proud”? That kid would have been run out of the rally & off of campus & labeled a racist for the rest of his life. Did the black student in the “Black By Popular Demand” shirt get expelled? Excoriated? Excommunicated? No. She got a pass. Why? You figure it out.
11 years ago at 5:53 pmI hope the chapter comes back strong and still holds top tier, fuck Levi Pettit and whatever the other kids name was but the chapter doesn’t deserve to get kicked off. Hopefully when SAE wins the lawsuit Boren resigns, as he said, SAE would never be back on campus while he was there. Phi Alpha
11 years ago at 9:17 pmI feel a bit like old balls here, but there are a few things that may be beneficial to some guys on here — especially actives at any university of college in the country. I started on this site when it was merely scantily clad gals and passed out bro’s with dicks drawn on their faces haha — nice to see how far its come. But this issue at OU affects all chapters and our livelihood as fraternity men at large. I was president of my Chapter in 2005-2006 at KU and we had the pleasure of having our Charter suspended due to hazing allegations. The university was a nightmare, but we had more issues with nationals. Last year, my Chapter was accused of sexual impropriety with some coeds — this time, nationals was reasonable and the university went ballistic. No criminal charges were filed in the latter case and our Charter remained intact. 100 years ago, when most major Chapters were chartered, the national fraternity was the hurdle, not the local university — that has reversed. And some vital lessons have been learned from both an operational standpoint (I sit on the corporation board for my Chapter still) and administratively from the university’s perspective. There reality is as follows:
These universities and colleges do not abide by any rules — whatsoever. There are by-laws in place and operational guidelines, but they are administered by second year grad students (almost always minorities) who are over their head and have the task of juggling university responsibility with personal identity. Further, these guidelines are softer than a pledge’s standards at their Bid Day party and they are something to which are never adhered. Beyond that, there are no repercussions for violating guidelines, by-laws or procedural normalities. So its fair game. No due process, no right to discovery, no right to a fair hearing.
Second, the rights of recourse are severely limited by a Chapter. You have to prove you complied with every document request (of which records are conveniently misplaced), prove that you exhausted every administrative process (which can take years) and prove that your Chapter provided 100% compliance with every interview requested (which never takes place — and even if it did, they will cite out of house members who are now studying abroad and count that against you).
Third, free speech has absolutely nothing to do with this. Universities fall back on their Code of Conduct for every disciplinary action. That CoC has such breadth, that they can expel you for shanking a guy on Mars. Their jurisdiction spreads to every student, at any place, at any time they are enrolled. That is the hammer for which their discipline is enforced. It is a Leviathan that leaves no student untouched. There is no recourse, it is 100% subjective and has no bounds to its limit of enforcement.
The rights of Fraternity men in the realm of Due Process are being violated on a daily basis across the country, and I sincerely believe our Orders will perish in their current form in my lifetime (I’m 32). This fight against OU will lose in my opinion, but this must not be the last frontier. If we go underground or act autonomously, the duty upon us is to maintain our rituals, maintain our spirit and retain our esteem amongst our peers. If there was ever a time, it is now.
11 years ago at 12:46 amWell there goes my transfer request to OU.
11 years ago at 12:42 pm