University Of Tennessee Greeks Are Under Siege By Administrators, Fighting Back

Harrison Lee11 years ago

This morning, we received an anonymous tip from someone who shed some light on the ongoing issues between Greeks, campus police, and administrators at the University of Tennessee. Allegedly, thanks to a loophole in an existing rule, campus police are now pinning the blame on a chapter for drinking incidents off campus at, say, an apartment or a house. Suddenly, every Tennessee Greek’s place of residence is considered a fraternity house in the eyes of the administration. This might be the biggest abuse of power I have ever seen pulled by campus administrators — and I’ve seen some shit.

Here is the tip:

The University of Tennessee has decided that they want to enforce our “dry campus” policy to its literal interpretation, so any fraternity that has a party at this point is pretty much fucked. Not in like your typical “we were already in shit and knew this wasn’t the best idea” kind of way, because it gets much, much worse. The administration has found a loophole so that if any registered campus organization that has a “wet” event on or off campus, the organization is liable for the event rather than the individuals who own the house/hosted the party. This means if we take parties OFF campus, UTPD still ties it to the chapter and we all get fucked. A drunk sorority girl could tell a cop that it was an “Alpha Beta Whoeverthefuck” party and it’s all over. It would be different if this were just in extreme cases like sexual assault or serious injuries, but they’re pushing it as far as underage consumption. This action began last Thursday, and since then they have hired 40 more campus police officers. Since the infamous Pike incident, things have been a roller coaster ride here on Rocky Top for all of us in the Greek system. Things got really bad, then they got better. Now, and seemingly out of nowhere as there have been no major infractions by our chapters in quite some time, the administration and the police have us in checkmate. We can no longer drink in our houses, we can’t send out Facebook or GroupMe party invitations, and worst of all is that if I were drinking with 10 of my brothers on the front porch of our off-campus house and we were approached by police, chances are there would be someone there underage and our entire chapter would suffer. On the bright side, there is a rogue group of students within IFC and Student Council that are researching and analyzing statistics from other universities, mainly SEC schools and other universities with similar enrollment and Greek systems. This initiative, which is quickly gaining momentum and support from students, faculty, and even some of the reasonable administrators (that aren’t dipshits and realize that pushing us further away only increases the likelihood of trouble/accidents) developing a case to present at the next Board of Directors’ meeting; Their ultimate goal is to make this a wet campus. (Because the university sells tailgating space for football with fully stocked bars, yet they raid fraternity houses on a weekly basis and are willing to take us down for empty beers in the trash can) Expect to hear BIG things out of this over the next month or so, because things are going to get ugly. They want someone to blame for the stupidity of a few idiots’ actions, so once again the Greek system is getting boned.

If true, this is the biggest load of bullshit. By the university’s logic, a non-Greek member who is caught drinking underage should be associated with the university, and the university should be in trouble themselves. Of course, administrators won’t look at it that way, because they are spineless cowards who are apparently on a mission to bring down the Greek system.

It’s funny that the apparent increase in campus police of about 40 rent-a-cops is designed to scare fraternities and sororities. But prohibition simply does not work. The 21st Amendment tells us that. I have a strong feeling that the numbers will show that turning wet is a huge benefit to all parties involved. It would be a huge win for Greek life across the country, not just in Knoxville. Keep fighting the good fight, Vols.

As the story develops, we will update more — hopefully with the good news that the campus is no longer dry.

We have learned that the movement to make the campus “wet” is for certain key areas. These areas include: fraternity park, Neyland stadium, and Thompson Bowling Arena.

We also received some funny pictures of what was painted on “the rock” after the greek crack down.

There is some major news to update you guys on. I received an email from a concerned sorority member at Tennesse who informed me that their chapter has been advised to take major precautions such as being advised to stay away from parties on fraternity row. Here is some of the other things she said:

If approached by an officer and asked if we are in a sorority, we are instructed to lie. This being said, we can not wear our lavalier necklaces when we are out. If an officer asks where we were, we should only say, “a friend’s house.”

That’s some ridiculous shit.

I also received a link to a petition to make campus wet. I highly suggest signing it and taking a stand for Greek life.

Sign the petition HERE..

Image via YouTube