160 CommentsMore news from the Brownstone Review Committee! The committee has announced the six finalists, who will present before the committee before the final deliberations take place. After “much dialogue and open deliberation” (it was not open), these are the final six:
- Alpha Chi Omega
- Alpha Epsilon Pi
- Lambda Phi Epsilon
- Manhattan House by NAC
- Pi Kappa Alpha
- Q House
Four of the six finalists are Greek organizations, and two of them (Alpha Epsilon Pi and Pi Kappa Alpha) were kicked out of the brownstones last year as a result of Operation Ivy League. Check Bwog later this week for statements from each group as to why they deserve the space, and how they would serve the community with it. For the full story read out first post. For scandal (!), read the second post, too.
(Quick recap: Community Development convened a committee—which is mostly Greek—to determine who gets the old drug bust brownstones. Thirteen groups applied, six moved on, and the decision will come down on November 30.)
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160 Comments
@Thank God I’ve seriously had to limit my coke with AEPi and Pike gone
@that guy PIKE, AEPi and all the others have degrading processes.
Let’s be real.
@McLala Yet again, another line straight from the MLIB handbook…thanks Van O!
@Ace Anonymous,you’re so right. I should not critique other people, even if I respectfully acknowledge that I have no problem with them as people, but disagree with their organization. I should lie. I should be silent, when people don’t promote campus community, act awful and stereo-typically judge women on their looks and so on. I have several friends who rushed for sororities and came back feeling awful and disillusioned and hurt. And still I should shut up and stand down. No one is speaking for them, no one cares about their feelings? Right anonymous? Look, actions have consequences and I’m not going to lie just to make some people feel happy for a short period of time and make everyone more unhappy in the long run. Fraternities/Sororities are often cruel, exclusive, and contribute to binge drinking and a lot of other stupid mistakes. I’m not going to sacrifice the happiness of most Columbians just so the 5-10 percent in a sorority or fraternity can feel better about themselves for 5 minutes. You, however, are perfectly welcome to lie to them.
@You continue to miss the point I don’t understand how you continue to hate on frats when everyone defending them says they PROVIDE the community at Columbia which you, apparently, lack. You want to deprive hundreds of people of their communities because their interests are different from your own?
@At last! “Vitriol”
@Anonymous in response to sorority girl
@Ace Sorority Girl, I’m sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. Yes, I realize that some of these sorority/fraternity people may be my classmates. It’s not a personal attack, it’s an attack on an organization which I steadfastly believe contributes to misery and loneliness at Columbia. You say the frats/sororities give back to the community, I have literally never, and I say this without sarcasm, seen frats/sororities do anything but throw parties. I think I might have seen one bake sale. Furthermore, the frats/sororities contribute to the nastiness and loneliness on campus. Instead of finding ways to communicate with each other, Greek life encourages us to drink our problems away. Instead of accepting everyone into whichever frat/sorority they wish to enter, greek life accepts a small percentage of people who apply based on looks/perceived coolness. How does this make our campus any less lonely? How does this make us come together as a community? Even within the Greek community, the silly antics of rival frats/sororities create more divisions than cohesiveness. I’ll stop speaking out against Greek life when I see it actually help Columbia instead of making life worse for me and everyone else. I’m sorry, sorority girl, you may be a nice person, but you and your fraternity brothers are making this campus a more dysfunctional, awful place to live. I will not lie to you. I will not flinch away from my accusations.Until you guys get your act together, I don’t think any Greek organization deserves brownstones at all.
@Anonymous I firmly believe that people who critique other people’s life/social decisions on Bwog are the some of those who are responsible for a great deal of the misery and loneliness on this campus. No one, when they are already feeling sad and lonely who is going on Bwog for some amusement likes to read that they are less important because they go to Barnard, GS, are in a sorority/frat etc. Don’t accuse someone to contributing to campus misery because they have found something that makes them happy.
@Anonymous You should probably look around more if you’ve never seen Greek life do anything but throw parties. Theta hosts Breakfast at our CASA to benefit court appointed special advocates, axo just held an entire week for awareness for domestic abuse, delta gamma just raised thousands of dollars to help the blind through their national organization. sdt just held eat your heart out and raised money for prevent child abuse america. pike just held their event “cycle for life” to raise money for leukemia research in honor of a brother who passed away from the disease. delta sig/ sig ep/ dg just held an event to benefit community impact.
The larger any group becomes, the more likely conflict is to arise, and the more likely it is that someone may do something bad. this is not exclusive to greek life. but big groups are also capable of doing great things. please stop being so myopic.
@recent greek alum @Ace: I think most of the people hating on greek life would feel differently if they understood what greek life means to many of us who were part of it. It isn’t about parties at all. I stopped going to our own house parties after my sophomore year. It isn’t about superficial stuff like “looks” or “status”. I think most of people in my org are ugly as hell, and judging from the comments on bwog and spec, it doesn’t look like being greek is much of a status symbol at Columbia anyway.
For me, being greek was about the amazing people I met, befriended, and shared 4 years with – from the seniors and alums who mentored me as a first-year, to the freshmen who joined the house my final year.
Regarding drinking and parties, for me, drinking and partying was a completely inconsequential part of my experience as a greek. I barely attended any of my org’s own house parties, but I still found greek life to be an incredibly rewarding and amazing experience.
Regarding exclusivity, I can’t speak for other orgs out there, but we were selective because we wanted to AVOID the people who just wanted to join for superficial reasons. We tried to choose people who would voluntarily be there for us and the organization when we needed them, not just when there was alcohol or girls or parties. Was our selection process perfect? Definitely not. I can look back and remember so many great people we missed out on. I can also look back and remember many people we shouldn’t have bidded. But we try our best to get the right people.
Regarding cohesiveness and community, out of all the clubs and activities I joined (I joined a ton), I can easily state that the place I felt most comfortable was with my fraternity members. In no other campus groups will you find so many members who will voluntarily wake up at 5am to run an event or will readily stay up all night mentoring younger members or helping them with a difficult problem set. Unlike with other activities, there wasn’t any attendance or grade for doing this. It didn’t pad our resumes or help us find a job. We did it because we genuinely believed in our cause, and we truly wanted to help our community, our organization, and our members.
Your post states so many things that are completely incongruous with my own personal experience as a member of greek life that I cannot help but wonder what shaped your view of greek life. I hope my comments can provide you with some positive perspective on greek life.
@recent greek alum @recent greek alum: meh… messed up my post. oh well.
@shabbat shalom, motherfucker @Rationalist:
I disagree. Not a fan of frats, but we’ll trade you a brownstone for St. Paul’s Chapel.
@Anonymous Lambda also has the craziest/most degrading hazing program of any group on campus.
@true A freshman acquaintance of mine went through Lambda pledging last year, and if even a fraction of everything else I’ve heard about the process is true, it is truly disgusting and they should be let nowhere near a brownstone.
@Wait what? Erm, actually, the Lambda pledging process is relatively tame compared to some of the hazing that other frats do. Just the mere fact that their process is dry is indicative (not wholly though) of a different overall direction for their frat.
@Anonymous @Anonymous: No Lambda is still racist. The fact that all Asians aren’t the same doesn’t suddenly make them a bastion of diversity. All white people aren’t the same but if I started a fraternity that was blatantly geared towards only bringing together people of German, French, British, Russian and any other “Caucasian” ethnicity you can think of then it would be called racist.
Out of over 40 brothers Lambda has 1 token black kid, 1 token white kid, 1 token Hispanic and 2 Indians (aren’t they still Asian?). That’s it. Everyone else is Asian.
@The Beige Buttcrack Ya’ll need to calm down and find Jesus.
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@The Beige Buttcrack Wut?
@Sorority Girl I have to say, the vitriol and hatred directed towards Greek life at this school scares me. Honestly, do you guys not realize that the people you’re shitting on and saying awful things about are your classmates? How about, instead of treating Greek life like some evil entity designed to destroy Columbia, you realize that it’s an activity that some of your classmates choose to participate in and enjoy. And sometimes, you need to admit, they do give back to the community. Stop stereotyping people! Actually listen to what they have to say! A lot of times, people turn to Greek life because they’re looking for a community on a campus that can get really, really lonely. And in these comments, with all the hatred and nastiness, it’s pretty easy to see why. Everyone needs to stop shitting on what other people like to do on this campus. If it isn’t your cup a tea, shut the fuck up, and don’t participate. If you have super strong opinions on who should be in brownstone, maybe you should have applied to be on the committee rather than commenting anonymously on Bwog.
@Anon u mad bro?
@Van Owen Gay is so cliche. More beer less queer!!!
@Anonymous As an openly gay fraternity brother, I’d rather see fraternities get brownstones. Gays don’t need a safe space. We have NYC. What the hell is wrong with you? If you are gay and have not ventured off of campus, get on that stat. Much too much dick to be had, none of it at Columbia (let alone Morningside Heights). Get a fucking clue, people. Don’t advocate for a group that needs no advocating.
@Anonymous Q-House serves more than cis gay men. What about trans students? What about gender queer students? It’s great that you haven’t felt the need for a designated safe space, but don’t assume that your experience is everyone’s, especially for people who are trans, a group historically fucked over both in society in general and in gay rights movements.
@Anonymous My question is, why are there so many gay subcategories? I think we need to stop defining people’s differences and ascribing some label to them. What the hell is gender queer? That doesn’t exist. This is what’s wrong with liberals: they feel the need to make up these, more or less, excuses for a man putting on panties or liking cock. Whoever says gay conservatives are traitors is wrong. We just don’t want any part in this name game. There is no need to create this otherness through this constant categorization of this guy or that. Can’t gay just be “gay”? Furthermore, I have never seen a tranny on campus, nor have I seen one be socially abused. Transgender peoples are a minority–of COURSE they’re going to be discriminated against. Yet here I am, a Hispanic, openly gay, first generation college athlete who is in one of these fraternities. If you knew the overwhelming support that I got from my brothers when I came out last year, you would be singing a different tune. Fraternities are not evil. There is nothing wrong with participating in any Greek letter society. If anything, going Greek teaches you how to strive for success as a communal entity. In a city that is so lonely, it’s nice to know you’re never alone. There is no need to punish sixty-some odd men just because one, unbeknownst to the rest of the brotherhood, was a bad apple. Having dealt with Operation Ivy League personally, I’ll have you know that we were just as incredulous and unaware of these shenanigans as anyone else was. The house is rightfully ours. It should have never have even been taken away from us to begin with. The nerve of you people–sitting here behind your computer screens, judging a situation of which you have little to no knowledge. Shame on you.
@Ace Honestly, I detest the fact that the frats will get these brownstones. These brownstones could be used for so many other better things, to have special housing for pre-med students for example, give the brownstone to the Q house, a debate brownstone or maybe an interfaith brownstone where Jewish people, Muslims and Christians could all live together. All of these would promote more campus community than giving the brownstones to a bunch of frats who will literally use the brownstones to get drunk, rape a couple of women ( consent isn’t that sexy) and lay waste to the brownstone in general. I mean the fraternity/sorority culture incredibly exclusive/superficial. Even more sororities judge women by their beauty in order to grant them entrance. Worse the actions of fraternities and sororities are completely out of step with the actions of the university at large. Columbia is filled with a lot of stressed, high achieving, studying , type-A people. Maybe 10-20 percent of us ( large estimate) are out partying that much. It doesn’t matter how much the frat/sorority has ostensibly done to clean up their image ( i.e. holding stupid ass bake sales and pretending that they really cared about shit besides partying). the truth is frats and sororities do nothing for our campus and shouldn’t have brownstones at all.
@I wish one house could be a half way house for people returning from medical leave. I and people like me are completely disconnected from the campus community which is a factor in relapse.
@anon In all sincerity, have you thought about forming a campus support group? I know I have a couple of friends back from medical leave who feel the same way. I feel like everyone staying in the same house would leave too much of a chance for people to sequester themselves into a support bubble and actually *lessen* their desire to reintegrate themselves back into the community, but a support group could really help…
@Anonymous What uninspired choices.
@Anon I motion for us to just burn the brownstones to the ground and build a playground with a big slide in their place. Would be a lot better than any of these options for the school community!
@CC '13 give this (wo)man a box!
@Anon That’s the only thing you could pick at? You must’ve been working hard to come up with that one, but then again it seems like “working hard” doesn’t mean much anymore.
@Just an observation I, like most of the community, do not care what happens here. However, I’m pretty sure it is illegal for Columbia to provide housing to special interest groups on the basis of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation under title VIII and possibly under title IX. Wouldn’t that disqualify many of the other organizations? Fraternities and Sororities are exempt from title IX regulations, which would make them the only entities that Columbia can legally provide special interest housing. But then again, we have Eric Holder in our back pocket, so we’re all good.
@anon Pretty sure Eric Holder has some problems of his own to deal with right now.
@Anon No my patience for bullshit is.
@Anon this was for the person who asked if my capslock was broken.
@Anonymous lol AEPi got over 100 votes in the span of like 30 minutes. Rigged AF
@Anon They sent out a message on their listserv. Not like this poll means shit anyways.
@Anon CAN YOU PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME WITH WHAT PIKE AND AEPI DID? I’M SO SICK AND TIRED OF PEOPLE SAYING THEY’VE WORKED HARD TO GET THEIR HOUSING BACK. WHAT THE HELL COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE DONE IN TWO YEARS TO GET YOUR HOUSING BACK?
RAISE MONEY? – CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE A LARGE ALUMNI BASE.
HOST A LARGE EVENT? – CONGRATULATIONS ONCE AGAIN YOU ARE A MAINSTREAM ORGANIZATION WITH ENOUGH MEMBERS TO FILL ONE LARGE EVENT.
GET SOME RECOMMENDATIONS? – CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE BROTHERS THAT MIGHT HAVE SMOOCHED THE RIGHT PEOPLE OR WORK IN OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ASIDE FROM YOUR FRATERNITY.
DOING WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING FROM THE START IS NOT WORKING HARD, IT’S LEARNING YOUR DAMN LESSON.
@Anonymous Caps lock broken?
@CC '13 I completely agree! I’m seeing all these posts on how PIKE and AEPi have worked hard to clean up their image and quite honestly I have no idea what events, projects, etc they’ve had since Operation Ivy League. On the other hand a group like SWP has been super-active on campus actually doing things that benefit the community yet they’re not even finalists!
@cc 2014 it seems to me that a lot of the fraternities and sororities on campus contribute more to our community than most other clubs. even if their main priorities and reasons for joining are social, who cares?! they contribute often and extensively to the columbia and morningside community, which is what counts in my book.
and sure, SWP has a great mission statement, but i’ve been less than impressed by their output so far…
side note: achieving a greek 5-star ALPHA standards rating is quite an impressive feat. greek chapters are required to host a minimum number of solo philanthropic events, combined philanthropic events with other organizations (greek and non-greek), provide members with health and safety awareness trainings, maintain a minimum GPA, run events for their national philanthropy partners, not to mention maintain the high standards set by their national offices.
examples?
–sororities: DG’s pool thing, SDT’s cupcake event, AXO’s domestic violence week, Theta’s breakfast, etc.
–fraternities: delta sig halloween with little kids, sig ep/sig nu/DG 113th street block party for community impact, PIKE’s cycle for life, AEPi’s pie throwing thing, etc.
–all: relay for life is dominated by greeks EVERY YEAR. shame on the rest of us for not keeping up. we should follow their lead.
@CC '13 preach
@A Spectator Meanwhile, in the Beta House…
@Anon you must be in Pike or AEPi
@HAHAHA pi delta psi nowhere near us (lambda bros)
@Anon Way to promote greek unity asshole. (Not PDPsi).
@anyone but pdpsi
@Anonymous If you’re a non-lambda just trying to troll us or make us look bad, that’s petty AF.
Like, what are we? In middle school?
I’m pretty sure none of our brothers would be stupid enough to trash talk another greek organization, much less an MGC one, on an article about our being among the final six brownstone applicants.
Also, we usually refer to ourselves simply as “lambdas,” I haven’t heard any brother refer to us as “lambda bros.” Not that it’s grammatically incorrect, just makes me doubt you’re someone very knowledgable about our organization.
@Anonymous Just in response to both comments above. I seriously doubt that someone from any of the organizations applying for a brownstone would post either those comments. (The one castigating Pi Delta Psi and the one deriding the poster of the former.)
Obviously, anonymity makes it impossible to discern who actually posted what, but let’s be honest, you can pretend to be whoever you want to be in the comments. I could have easily been AXO, Pike, Q House, or any of the other finalists and bash on another organization. I would hope no one takes these comments too seriously.
@Anonymous Facts:
IRC is a non-Greek brownstone. It’s members were chosen and supervised by university administrators. One of their members was arrested in Operation Ivy League. The IRC was not removed from its housing. There is no established process or system that oversees merit for brownstone occupancy for anything other than Greek organizations. Greek life has a well-organized judicial board and set of councils that help regulate, reward, and punish Greek organizations.
Greek life has established and practiced recruiting methods that ensure lasting high membership numbers. The nature of Greek membership generates independent alumni participation in the advisement and success of undergraduates.
Opinion:
Many people have strong negative opinions of Greek organizations because of stereotypes and a narrow perspective. The hatred expressed towards Greeks is plainly wrong, over-generalized, and misguided. Every organization, Greek or not, is susceptible to a few bad apples. It’s important to evaluate the systems in place that hold organizations accountable for these bad apples and their actions. I, for one, would rather have a group of my peers judging whether an organization has held to its principles and is deserving of maintaining housing privileges than turn over the reins to the whims of the university powers that be. I think we stand to benefit more from encouraging Greek organizations to engage with the larger community more actively than we do from trying to reinvent the wheel. The 5-star system is a good start to that process, but its just starting. Those who are successful should be rewarded and those who are not should be punished. It probably does more long-run harm than good to the community to promote unregulated specialized housing than it does to take an existing regulated system that promotes holistic personal growth and pull it back to center instead of forcing it to run for cover.
With great brownstone comes great responsibility.
@Twitch That’s actually a great point to pick up: only two of those kids were in either AEPi or Pike. Two of them were not living in fraternity houses.
IRC (which has just as many members on that list as AEPi or Pike) still has its house. The EC suitemates received no punishment–when the fraternities were collectively punished regardless of whether they lived there. In fact, the more you think about that list of names, the more it seems like the university CHOSE to frame the issue as being about the fraternities. We could have talked about how tragic it was that our students needed to turn to drugs to pay for school, or how there was a network of us that were breaking the law. I guess to minimize the involvement of the rest of campus, people conveniently forget that the police broke into EC and the IRC as well.
Stop talking about Operation Ivy League like a frat thing. It wasn’t. It was only the punishment that was.
@Twitch That was supposed to be a reply to the “they already have five stars” comment, but the captcha response got the damn thing messed up.
@CC '13 yeah, it was a joke. don’t get your panties in your bunch.
@CC'14 thank you. finally some perspective and a semblance of objectivity. we as columbia community members are scarily quick to jump the gun on greek life.
@Anonymous BWOG, show some class. The term is “FRATERNITY,” not “frat.”
@ANON show some class. The term is “Bwog,” not “BWOG.”
@Adolf Bollinger Yes, dear sir, and that is why we are going to congregate them all in one house. Post-“showers”, the house will be then occupied by the Columbia Aryan Society, formerly known as Saint Anthony Hall.
@Van Owen We have our own house…sorry. Delta Psi, biatches!!!
@Anonymous By the pigeonhole principle
@Anonymous Why are these disgraced, ousted, drug den frats getting their houses back so quickly?
@Anonymous @Anonymous: “drug den fraternities” = 1 person selling adderall in pike? OooOOooOOOO send em away!!! DISGRACE
@Anonymous HAHAHAHAHAH HOW IN THE SHIT IS LAMBA MULTICULTURAL? HAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
@cc15 if brownstones have to go greek, i would rather it be to axo (because they seriously deserve it at this point) and lambda phi epsilon (because they’re multicultural and not as creepy as AEPi brothers).
and if q house doesn’t get one, i swear to god there will be a riot.
@AXO? everyone knows that sororities don’t use their brownstones at all. has anyone ever than a sorority girl been into one of their brownstones?
@Anon they can’t because of some bullshit law that prohibits a certain proportion of men and women to be in the same building or else it’s considered a brothel
@lamba must be multicultural after all HAHAHAHAHAH HOW IN THE SHIT IS LAMBA MULTICULTURAL? HAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
@Anonymous 1. This is very narrow-minded and racist if you consider every Asian culture “the same”
2. I’m pretty sure they have many brothers who are non-Asian too
@Anonymous This is Bwog, not College ACB in case you didn’t notice.
@AEPi BUT THEY’RE ALL BORING AS SHIT!!!!
@Anonymous If AEPi is so interesting I’m not sure why its at the bottom of our polls..
@Anonymous I’m pretty sure a lot of other fraternities and sororities have 5 stars…
@CC '13 AEPi and PIKE have 5 stars alright: Stephan Vincenzo, Chris Coles, Harrison David, Adam Klein, and Michael Wymbs
@sd fgh congrats you can name 5 people out of maybe 200 people in those frats combined
@Actually Chris Coles was from the IRC, but they never got in any trouble.
@CC'14 The reality is PIKE and AEPi are the only 5 star rated frats on campus. They had an unbelievably unfortunate incident that occurred 2 years ago, but they’ve both made massive strides to improve their statuses on campus. Considering none of the members in the frats who will live in the house were even initiated brothers at the time of the tragic occurrence of Operation Ivy League, and with their contributions to campus, I believe they both deserve to reestablish their brownstones on campus.
I hope Q House gets a space too!!!!
@Rationalist To me, the fact that AEPi was even considered reflects the Jewish-oriented bias present at Columbia, and indeed all Ivy League schools. Of the 42% caucasians at our school, over 20% are Jewish. Everyone complains of the underrepresentation of blacks and hispanics and the overrepresentation of high-achieving Asians. Nobody cares when qualified Asians get turned down because there are “so many of them,” but Jewish people, who make up about 1% of the US population, account for 20% of our school community. If this doesn’t scream New World Order, then I don’t know what does.
@anon Nazi (sry you had it coming)
@Adolf Bollinger Yes, dear sir, and that is why we are going to congregate them all in one house. Post-“showers”, the house will be then occupied by the Columbia Aryan Society, formerly known as Saint Anthony Hall.
@Remember when there was a cap on Jews admitted here? HAHAH WE’VE SUFFERED ENOUGH LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE
@More Rational ~20% of all Nobel laureates are Jewish, too, even though Jews represent less than 0.2% of the world’s population. With that in mind, I don’t think that %20 figure that you mention is so unreasonable at all. You need to consider the possibility that these students have gained entrance on the basis of their credentials and happen to be of a similar religion (or ancestry).
@Anonymous Nope, please check before making statements like that:
http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/sites/dsa/files/handbooks/April2012_0.pdf
@Anon Pike and AEPi are NOT the only fraternities (not FRATS – it’s not The Office of Frat & Sorority Affairs) with 5 stairs. Get your facts straight with your president and realize that there are more than 4 fraternities on campus. You are your brothers keeper and if your brother made you lose your house, even though you were ONE OF A NUMBER of fraternities with 5 stars, then that’s tough but it happened.
@Anon stars*
@CC'14 the reality is PIKE and AEPi are the only 5 star rated frats on campus. They had an unfortunate incident that occurred 2 years ago, but they’ve both made massive strides to improve their statuses on campus. Considering none of the members in the frats who will live in the house were even initiated brothers at the time of the tragic occurrence of Operation Ivy League, and with their contributions to campus, I believe they both deserve to reestablish their brownstones on campus.
@AEPi BECAUSE THEYRE NICE AND WELCOMING AND JEWISH AND DON’T TREAT ME LIKE SHIT!!!!!
@Anon I believe your reality is skewed, CC ’14
Many other fraternities also obtained 5-stars ALPHA standards
@Anonymous This is simply not the reality at all…last year Delta Sig and Pike were the two 5-star fraternities.
@Anonymous You should get your facts straight. There were 9 orgs that got 5 stars: Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Gamma, Delta Sigma Phi, Lambda Pi Chi, Lambda Phi Epsilon, Kappa Phi Lambda, Pi Delta Psi, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Delta Tau
@Anonymous My bad, I was thinking of Most Outstanding and Most Improved chapter awards. Still, the OP was wrong.
@CC'13 What is a 5-star rated frat? I’m curious; have never heard the term.
@anon In your poll, Lambda Phi Epsilon is NOT Fiji. Fiji = Phi Gamma Delta.
@Peter Good catch. We’ve corrected it!
@Strapping on my fanny pack It’s not a good catch. You just didnt do your shit.
@Anon Just like PIKE and AEPi didn’t do theres and so shouldn’t get houses.
@Anon theirs*
@Anonymous Does Fiji have a house? IIRC they were in Hogan…if they actually don’t, then I think they’d deserve (using that word loosely) a brownstone more than either AEPi or Pike. I’d understand if most of the organizations cut were relatively small (and thus be unable to use the space to its full potential) but the selection seems pretty haphazard.
@anon Fiji doesn’t have brownstone, the applied for one but didn’t make it into the final 6. I believe they were kicked out of their housing in the 90’s and haven’t gotten it back since. Which makes it even more impressive that pike and AEPi are in the final 6, seems like they’ve worked pretty hard to bring back their reputations
@Anonymous The actions of individuals in the past do not reflect the actions of groups in the present. Pi Kappa Alpha has, since their scandals, worked incredibly hard to improve their reputation on campus and to be a useful community within Columbia. They have done an incredible amount of community service, and their philanthropic contributions should be greatly considered before deciding to write them off for individuals who are no longer a part of their community.
@anon Nice try, Pike.
@Anonymous I am in no way affiliated with Pike
@BC '12 I have to say, since even before the drug bust, Pike was working hard to reform their image. I know they’re constantly referred to the ‘rape frat’ or the ‘roofie frat’, and I’ve joked about it myself before, but they started putting effort into reforming their image and being a positive contributor to the Greek and Columbia community before there was anyone watching their every move. The drug bust set them back a lot, which is really unfortunate, and I’m sure now their reform efforts are only regarded as pandering, but I gave them props then and I’m mentioning it now so they know that those efforts didn’t go entirely unnoticed.
@So if Q House houses straight people.... can Manhattan house have non-indigenous people? Just curious, how big, in fact, IS the native population at Columbia? Enough to fill the house? Is the same 1/4 family heritage rule going to apply?
@Anonymous @Correction: no one gives AF
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@Music house Would have been sick. Don’t know how someone thinks these are more valuable.
@THANK YOU for mentioning the Music House. does nobody realize how much potential that had?
@So ridiculous That we’re just going to see a bunch of frats in these buildings again. What do frats provide to the community other than parties that often result in rape investigations/drug arrests? Maybe two philanthropic events per year? These buildings should just be put into the lottery and given to students. Frats are nothing but trouble.
@Anonymous you sir, smell like a bumhole
@MGC Some of the MGC fraternities/sororities on campus have held more than two events per year, rather a numerous amount during the semester. They have done it with various culture clubs, other political/activist clubs and minor student groups. Its just that the columbia campus doesn’t really know about it even with large amounts of flyering and/or publicity. This is how its been for a while.
By holding events directly on 114th in the brownstones where large amounts of students will passby/see, it will be a great way to open the multicultural committee and groups to Columbia. Not only do the events have to be held there but large banners (like a lot of the sororities/fraternities already do on 114th) will bring the publicity needed.
Behind the scenes, a lot of co-sponsorships and planning do go on for these events. I hope you realized that and realize what it’ll mean for the multicultural groups on campus to have a chance at directly entering the Columbia scene.
@Anon Pike and AEPi are not MGC…so they shouldn’t be on this list.
@Anonymous Why are you so down on community service? It is always a good thing.
@Anonymous @Anonymous: Check your privilege. How community service is carried out matters.
@Anon @Anonymous: Hitler youth was doing community service. Do you think Hitler youth is a good thing? You bastard!
@You don't know anything Pike (45 brothers) raised $25,000+ this year at Relay for Life. SigEp and DG came in second, with the combined power of both houses (100+ people). This is not even including Cycle for Life and other smaller community service projects throughout the year.
They ARE the top philanthropic contributors to the community by far. Go look up the numbers yourself.
@alum AXO should be given one of the brownstones they have a clean record on campus plus do a lot of programming on campus plus they are one of the largest brownstone finalists
@Anonymous they sure are one of the *largest* brownstone finalists
@Anonymous @Anonymous: was that supposed to be funny?
@CSC We support Lambda Phi Epsilon’s application for a brownstone! We hope the committee listens to all the asian interest groups endorsing Lambda.
@Anonymous what? asian interest groups supporting lambda? who would have known?!
@Anonymous If you guys get the brownstone, who will get your EC space?
@Anonymous “you guys” meaning Lambda, not CSC.
@Anonymous Q house definitely deserves this brownstone. To have a safe space would be awesome for all the things the Q community already does, just a floor in ruggles definitely isn’t enough. These groups already have their shit together and are ready to upgrade, and I think the need is much more prevalent than any Greek life claim.
@Anonymous they don’t even have a floor. it’s a single tiny suite.
@gop A safe space for queers?! Where is CUCR when you need them???
@Anonymous I like Q house, but I feel like the argument they really need a safe space on Columbia’s campus is pretty weak. Way more people here hate greeks than gays.
@Anonymous This is fucking bullshit.
@The Dark Hand i agree we are again denied a house by the powers that be (aka spec) here at Σpec Σucks *dot* ωordpress *dot* com
@Cloaked Proctologist You seem to have deep pent-up anger for these people. Lettuce help you relax at the Colorectal Associates of New York (colorectalassociatesny.com) with acomplete colonic message that will make any sane human lose their reason in ectasy while our knowlegable staff then decides which organs to remove to sell on the blak market. You will be less a few kidney and gall stones, part of our inclusive treatment to ensure your well-being.
@The Cloaked Mask We are trying to run a respectable alternative news source you fukkers, so dont pretend to be the cloaked masc when there is only one true masked man on this campus. You idiots tarnish the integrity of the blog that we have worked decades to establsih. You should be ashamed you nut-humping fishj-wiping cheesecloths! Next time try to respond integlligently instead of upsuriping the name of the dark schlong and tainting the pristine name that is spφcksucks.wφrdpress.cφm. If I ever see you on this blog again, I will find you and give you free ginger ale laced with blowfish since you blow so much shit out of your ARSES.
@Truth This is what you get when you have a committee that Community Development allowed to be controlled by Greeks. At least one house is now guaranteed to go back to the closed-door, party-hard, do-charity-to-make-up-for-your-fuck-ups model that we know and love as our fraternity and sorority culture at Columbia.
@Anonymous This is ridiculous. Greek life is a legitimate part of campus. Any group is allowed to enjoy college. It appears that you’re speaking from the outside, which suggests that your opinion isn’t informed. Find me a group on this campus that has no members who have ever “partied hard.” And no matter what you believe the motivation for community service is, it’s always a good thing. Don’t hurt the less fortunate because you don’t like the people who are attempting to make a difference.
@Kant I beg to differ about your point about community service. Intention matters a great deal.
@anon I felt like it was really obvious from the start that the three brownstones would go to two Greek organizations and one token special interest organization to prove that the committee wasn’t biased. Right now, it is SO transparent that that’s going to be the case. The ration is exactly the same. But I was hoping to be proven wrong.
@anon ratio*
@Anonymous Keep the Brownstones in the general lottery for all. They will be destroyed by the frats.
@Anonymous however, the frats will actually use them rather than just passively occupy them
@Greek Yeah, for parties. But will they use it for anything substantial? Aside from ONE event that they might decide to cosponsor with the other fraternities each year.
@CC'14 how about philanthropy events, awareness events, community meetings?
it’s such a shame that columbia rejects the values of a strong greek community. i guess we’ve really lost the war on fun.
@Anonymous “how about philanthropy events, awareness events, community meetings?”
lolololololol
@Anon These are all imaginary events I assume? I have seen more activity (not all parties) and openness from Greeks without houses than those that do.
Let’s face it, you all got complacent and now that shit got real you want to pretend like you’ve all had a change of heart. So we should reward you because there’s a sudden change of heart? Fuck that. Reward those that have been true to the mission of their organizations and have included the rest of the community.
@Anon Community meetings? Do you really want to pull that card? Parties are not community meetings and neither are chapter meetings – that’s why they’re called CHAPTER meetings and not community meetings. Fraternities in brownstones don’t include the outside community, in a school where space is more expensive and difficult to find than gold, except for parties – and that’s just for recruitment and for the brothers to have a good time.
@anon fuck this
@Anonymous when have any of those things ever happened
@Ditto The amount of ignorance in this thread is revolting. I’ll show you some events:
http://www.facebook.com/events/484798861553762/
http://www.facebook.com/events/448585148517078/
http://www.facebook.com/events/261979667256978/
There are three non-party, open to the community, intellectual, at the house events that have happened in this one month. And there are plenty more to come I assure you. Don’t talk shit about something you have not the slightest clue about.
@I don't understand @Anonymous:
I don’t understand why no one wants to live on a normal college campus with fraternities and sororities that want to serve the community and have an awesome time. Do you hate fun?
@Correction Oops I meant (not Lamda)
@CU Senior You spelled epsilon wrong
@Correction Lambda Phi Episilon (not Lambda)
@what the fuckkkk Who the shit is sleeping with people on this committee? Freaking Pike is in the top 6? Not only did they have the whole rape scandal, but they JUST lost their house 2 years ago for drugs. AND Alpha Epsilon Pi just lost their house two years ago too!! Freaking Student Wellness Project and other groups aren’t in the top 6, and 2 frats who lost their house 2 years ago are? what the fuck.
@completely agree While I get that frats can use the houses most traditionally, if Columbia truly wants to improve student life then they should be assisting groups like the Student Wellness Project. This sucks.
@disagree with you, but only because I don’t think the SWP should have a brownstone. Not that I don’t like puppies and candy, but their op-ed yesterday was seriously lame, and I don’t think they’ve done anything for our community but provide side-show entertainment to students. And what’s the deal with their preferential treatment by admins? They haven’t even been a group for a full year, but they get money and cosponsorships from all over the place, and now they want their own housing?? I guess that’s what happens when über connected people decide to take advantage of an actual problem.
@Anonymous well first of all, the puppies were not by swp. those were planned by a separate group of students called the puppy coalition.
also, as an RA who has worked w/ the SWP, i can assure you they are one of the most hard-working groups on campus in terms of putting pressure on administrators when it comes to improving student life. back in january, the division of student affairs held a division-wide training session where they taught admins how to be conscious of student mental health – that was b/c of swp. i know because there was a student panel in that session, which has never happened before. second, the dean is paying attention to student well-being in a way that previous deans haven’t – that was also largely b/c of swp. not to mention the whole issue of campus mental health is less stigmatized for us to talk about now – also partially thanks to swp.
it’s more than the councils have ever done, at least.
@anon The cute events you see are the byproducts of their Projects committee, which put on monthly fun activities to allow students to de-stress and have fun, but they have other committees working on policy change; ensuring a constant dialogue with the administration over the needs of the student body, collaboration with other wellness-oriented groups on campus, and more. They’ve working with most of the student government groups and pushing for long-term changes, the fruits of which will probably not be seen for years. But just because you haven’t seen SWP eviscerate the culture of unwellness in under a year doesn’t mean that they’re not working hard to make it happen.
@BC 2013 What rape scandal? And say what you will, but I think both of those frats have made notable strides in getting their acts together. That said, I think it’s a shame that SWP isn’t on this list.
@CC'14 100% bullshit rape scandal. That’s just silly. That rumor started at other Pike chapters in the country and just “stuck.”
Also – couldn’t agree more with BC’13 – Pike and AEPi have clearly worked hard to give back to the community in the past few years. Their philanthropy events, especially Pike’s cycling one, are great, and I always see them promoting other groups’ campus events. Columbia needs to support groups like that.
@BC “rape scandal?” Let’s remind ourselves what libel is…