Pledge event sparks OSC investigation

Penn's chapters of the Kappa Sigma fraternity and the Chi Omega sorority are currently under investigation for complaints about destructive behavior at a recent pledge event.

The Feb. 4 event -- a snow-tubing outing attended by approximately 120 members of the two chapters -- resulted in claims by the owners of Spring Mountain ski resort of disorderly conduct and damage to a restroom.

The Office of Student Conduct is looking into the allegations.

Neither the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs nor the individual chapters would comment on the situation until the investigation is complete.

Spring Mountain owner Gayle Buckman said that upon the arrival of the first bus of students around 7 p.m., it was immediately clear that they had been drinking.

"They obviously smelled of alcohol," she said.

Buckman said that she had warned the Kappa Sigma brothers -- who had made the reservation -- that no misconduct would be tolerated. She said she was wary of booking a fraternity in the first place due to problems with similar groups unaffiliated with Penn in the past. Kappa Sigma had assured her that there would be no problems.

Buckman said that the first group attempted to take soda bottles up the mountain with them. She forced them to dispose of the bottles before allowing them to proceed.

One of the initial problems, the owner said, was use of profanity by members of the group. She said that birthday parties were occurring simultaneously and parents were complaining to Spring Mountain workers. This led Buckman to send members of the ski patrol to stand with the students while they waited in line.

"They just didn't care," she said. "That was the most upsetting to us."

Buckman was watching the group from her window when she saw a member of Kappa Sigma attempting to ride his snow tube down the side of the mountain reserved for skiing -- an action she described as "basically suicide."

Although the individual was stopped before making it down the hill, at that point Buckman decided that the group was completely unfit to snowtube.

The first bus had been at Spring Mountain -- which is located approximately 35 miles from Penn's campus in Spring Mount, Pa. -- for about 45 minutes when the second bus arrived, after having gotten lost. At this point, Buckman refused to allow the second group to tube and asked the entire party to leave.

However, before departing, another member of Kappa Sigma asked to be shown to the restroom. While there, he reportedly ripped the lid off the back of a toilet and used it to smash the bowl, Buckman said.

Although Buckman said that some members of the group were snide and others were even angry, she did say that the leaders of Chi Omega and Kappa Sigma present at the event were "very apologetic and embarrassed."

Buckman reported the incident to OFSA soon after.

"We told them before that this was a family place," she said. "Not for fraternities."

Wharton junior and Chi Omega president Maria DeMuro said that neither she nor anyone else in the sorority was available to comment, other than to say the chapter was fully cooperating with the University to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Kappa Sigma president Joe Gay also said that the fraternity officially had no comment. However, Buckman did say that she received a letter of apology from Kappa Sigma, which the Engineering junior confirmed.

OFSA will not comment on the events or possible consequences until the OSC has completed its investigation and reports its findings. OFSA will determine appropriate punishments for the chapters if anything is reported by the OSC.

Greek organizations have faced a wide array of punishment in the past, from simple reprimand to removal from campus.

Most recently, the Penn chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity -- which was already on probation -- was shut down last spring following a rush violation that resulted in two students being sent to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania due to alcohol poisoning and various bodily injuries. This had been the fourth policy violation by ZBT in three years.

Comments (18)

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! Alan Thomas '81

This is just another example of the trash that fraternity/sorority life produces. These self-obsessed morons think they are masters of the universe. If their STDs, drunkeness, or arrogance won't kill them, their stupidity most certainly will. Hey, fraternity/sorority idiots, see how far your organization takes you once you're outside the Penn bubble. HAHA Penn Senior, Student Elitist Penn

Bitter anyone? Sounds like some a certain Penn Senior is still a little sensitive about not getting a bid from Delta Upsilon. Austin Flowers, Protector of the freedom of Greeks from all those aht would seek to destroy them to satisfy thier petty jealousy that they are either not that young anymore, or were never that cool. Kappa Espilon Gamma

Nah, frats are lame. I could have gone there wasted with a few friends and we never would have gotten kicked out. But when you haul 120 Greek Ladies and Gentlemen, everyone's gonna act like an asshole and then no one has fun. Case in point in this article... If the only way you can have fun in college (especially in a place like Philly) is by wasting your time in a "special house" for "special kids" who went through plege events, you're just lame. You may be a "special" kid, but you're still lame. That said, I enjoy mooching alcohol off the greek houses when I'm in the mood. Keep up the good work, Kappa Sig. S, Student Penn

First of all, Penn senior is a bitter moron, and completely oblivious to the fact that fraternities and sororities are fantastic for personal and professional networking after graduation. Secondly, this lady, Gayle Buckman, must be borderline retarded, and she has painted quite a hilarous caricature of herself in this article. If her self-righteous and virginesque ski resort is in fact for "families", not fraternities, and if she has had problems with similar groups in the past, why on earth would she allow 120 greek college students to come to her mountain?! Oh, they promised her they wouldn't be drinking. Mrs. Buckman, are you on crack? Are you seriously this far out of touch with reality? Of course 120 frat guys and sorority girls are going to be drinking before going snow tubing. If these 120 people had in fact showed up sober, it would have been nothing short of a miracle and contradictory to every bit of common sense most adults have concerning the behavior of college students. Gayle, you have no sympathy from me. Sure that guy shouldn't have broken your toilet, but I would have been pissed also if some middle aged, holier than thou, supposedly innocent woman kicked me and my friends out of her resort because we were being noisy! It's 120 college students out for a good time and snow tubing! Maybe it wasn't such a bright idea on your part to have scheduled the greek event on the same day you're having a toddler's birthday party, you naive wench. Mike, student

Everyone's lame except for me and my 18 inch wang. well endowed eeyore4232@aol.com

Frats are full of bad people. Let's snowtube...drunk! Wow great idea. I refer everyone to the episode of Aquateen Hunger Force entitled "Frat Aliens". This gives a fair depiction of the typical frat brothers at Penn. I dont know much about sororities, other than there are few (if any) guys in them, and all the sisters love to wear baseball hats...ALL THE TIME. tip, Defender of the Faith 8th and I, Washington, DC

18 inches! 18 inches of what? Garden Hose? I find the 18 incher claim impossible because watering my pansies takes at least 26 inches of hose. Unless, I fertilize heavily in which case, my pansies can grow big and strong and I only need 21 inches of hose. But anything less than that will not satisfy me and my 18 inch wang. Shocked and Appauled Iladelphia, PA eeyore4232@aol.com

wow, "Penn Senior" is one bitter dude . . . i can recognize both the positive and negative in greek life, but to say it gets you nowhere outside of college . . . both of our presidential candidates were in a fraternal society, did you like either of them? or didnt you vote cause it's cool to be apathetic? look at the the other feedback "Penn Senior" bestowed upon us . . . the kid hates the world: "Penn women are not worth the dirt on my shoes . . ." i read a biography on the unabomber and you sound a lot like him. you mention STDs so much that it makes me think that you probably got burnt the one time you got laid. better wrap it up next time, son! wow, chillin my place

While there are many kids in Kappa Sigma who are douchebags (everyone knows this), to blame the entire Greek system for the actions of some is an unfair judgment. Should we blame all blacks because a disproportionate number of them commit crimes? Both of these groups have very fine members, yet their images are clouted because the critics only speak when something goes wrong (when it�?s most convenient). I challenge you to find an organization on campus that has done more for the university in terms of philanthropy, social, community service, and university recruitment than the Greeks, yet their critics only come out to pick on them when they are down. Where are these critics when senior societies haze publicly or athletes trash hotel rooms (as the US Hockey team did during the 1998 Olympics)? To all those critics of the Greek system, I feel bad for you because you are not fortunate enough to be apart of what is overall an outstanding organization. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests - we did. But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America." Otter

Snowtubing while drunk is stupid. Using intemperate language around kids is bad form. Destroying property is a criminal act. However, if a group of undergrads from the same floor in a Penn dorm did the same stupid things, would Penn Senior employ the same vitriol against them? I think not. We ALL did stupid things as undergrads. I'm not excusing the actions of a few, but let's not paint the entire Greek system with that manure-covered brush. Greeks make up 14% of Penn's undergraduate population. Confirm this stat with the Development Office: nearly 50% of all donations to Penn are from former Greeks. They must be doing pretty well after graduation. Perhaps Penn Senior should lighten up. David Stella, CPA Philadelphia

FYI Otter, Greeks do little to nothing in terms of community service. West Philly Tutoring, to name one of about 50 groups on campus that do more for the community than the entire Greek system, which has convinced itself that having each frat do one one-time service event each year constitutes meaningful service. You're kidding yourself. Your also unoriginal by making half your statement a quote from a movie. Also, I hope you're that guy I cut out today twice while driving to work, then when he zoomed passed me I turned at him, smiled real big and waved. He was pretty pissed after that, it probably ruined his day. That's why I hope it was you. I stand by my original statement: everyone's lame except for me and my 18 inch wang. well endowed

it seems like all penn students are assholes. concerned, outsider

I can confirm that all penn students have assholes. I've checked myself. However, I can not confirm that they are all assholes. All I can confirm is that the Guggs is fat and I'll be at Uncles at 2:00. well endowed

I met a young man in line at the dining hall who had not one but two assholes. But I also met an unfortunate young lady who was cursed with a rear end swollen with poo from the first 19 years of her life. I am assuming everyone who is reading this string of messages will have met this two young anomalies and I am also assuming you have averaged the 2 assholes with the zero assholes to come to the solid number of 1. I have seen the pansies Mr. Shocked is speaking of and I must say they are the prize of the town. He and his pansies makes the girls in pink look just dreadful. However, his tulips and roses leave something to be desired. Mr. Peanut

Dear Mike, For you to attack Gayle Buckman for expecting guests to her resort to act as normal human beings is pretty lame. Saying that 'common sense' says that intelligent young people coming snowboarding will be drinking and acting completely out of line is demeaning. Why should she have expected anything less than responsible behavior from paying customers? No, most adults, especially ones who don't live on college campuses and experience the behaviors of frat kids, would expect that a large group of smart young adults could behave themselves in a respectful manner. I would want her to think no less of me and a group of my friends OR fraternity brothers (yes, I'm in a fraternity). Also, to condone such behavior is rediculous! Even if you're going to get a little tipsy before going on an event, there is NO reason to make it so obvious! Putting yourself in danger by trying to tube down a ski slope is stupid, not fun frat behavior. And being loud and disrespectful in front of other customers? Come on. Didn't you learn how to control yourselves while drunk in high school? If not, these kids need to learn to handle their liquor. There's no reason why they couldn't have gotten a little drunk, gone tubing, had a good, safe time, and not caused any sort of disturbance. This is called the art of SHADE. These kids need a lesson in being shady for sure. And don't blame the poor woman for actually having faith in the youth of America. I wish those kids would have proven her right, instead of wrong. It makes things harder on us all when kids act stupid. frat girl

First off, "frat girl" if you care about your fraternity you won't be uncouth and use the term frat...kthxbye. I agree that Gayle Buckman is an idiot. She said that they've had bad experiences w/ college groups before, why would she overlook that and take another one? Well my dears, because this group was from Penn and she assumed they'd have lots more $$$ to spend. If they'd been from Cheyney, she wouldn't have even taken their phone call. Susan C, alumna PA

I can't believe that the whole Greek system would have acted this way. Otter, why are kids in Kappa Sig douchebags? BTW - Penn Senior, membership in a fraternity will take you pretty far outside the Penn bubble. Trust me. S. C. Philadelphia

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