Fraternities Go Underground to Defy College Ban The students meet surreptitiously at a restaurant off campus or for drives in the countryside. The arrangements, one participant says, would never be made on a campus telephone.
They are outlaws. If the college finds out, they face suspension.
They are fraternity brothers.
Single-sex social organizations have been banned at Middlebury College, so the brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon have gone underground. No boisterous beer bashes with their Greek letters prominently displayed. Indeed, they are barred from using their own house. All they have are furtive meetings, and a will to keep the Dekes alive.
"My fraternity brothers have been my closest friends," said Michael, who graduated from Middlebury in May. "Most of my great times at Middlebury have been with Delta Kappa Epsilon and not Middlebury. It's a tradition that shouldn't die."
The Case Against Fraternities
Not everyone agrees. To some students and college administrators, fraternities are inherently sexist institutions associated with alcohol abuse and dangerous hazing requirements. Five of New England's most prestigious private colleges have banned fraternities outright.
At Middlebury, where fraternities led the college's social life for generations, a 1989 study concluded, the fraternity system was incompatible with student life at the liberal arts college.
College trustees voted unanimously in 1990 to ban single-sex social organizations. Students can belong to a fraternity, but cannot participate in any fraternity activity, even off campus on their own time.
Delta Kappa Epsilon alumni own a campus house that student members had used for parties; now, only alumni can use it. Students cannot go on the property.
It varies how harshly these colleges deal with fraternities. Some have a don't ask, don't tell policy. Don Wyatt, Middlebury's vice president for undergraduate affairs, said that anyone caught violating the rules faced immediate suspension.
'Totally Different Experience'
In response to the ban, some fraternities dissolved; others opted to admit women and became part of the college's new social house system.
Delta Kappa Epsilon refused. "We know men," said a national representative of Delta Kappa Epsilon. "We don't know women's issues. It would be a totally different experience."
The Dekes fought the ban in court, and lost.
This has not deterred the underground fraternities at Middlebury. Pockets of resistance seem familiar to neighboring New England colleges that have banned fraternities.
William R. Cotter, president of Colby College in Waterville, Me., which banned fraternities in 1984, said, "We expected there would be underground activity, and there was." But he added that the influence of the secret fraternities was waning.
Chris Mastrangelo, a Colby graduate, spent his undergraduate years as an underground member of Delta Kappa Epsilon there. He said there were now five fraternities and several sororities operating secretly at Colby.
"You find people in underground chapters who take their frats very seriously," Mr. Mastrangelo said. "In a school where you know you can potentially be expelled, you have to be dedicated."
At colleges where underground life is strong, fraternities have found ways to bring in new members and carry out secret initiation rituals.
Lives Ruled by Fear
Fearing expulsion, no member of Delta Kappa Epsilon who planned to return to Middlebury this year was willing to talk.
Nationally, fraternities are healthy. Jonathan Brant, executive vice president of the National Interfraternity Council said he did not regard the restrictions and bans as "a major threat to the fraternity world in general."
And fraternity supporters say the colleges underestimate their perseverance. At a football game last fall, a plane flew over Middlebury's stadium, towing a banner that read, "Deke Lives."
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Stumpos Raiders disbands
The group ceased all formal activities, such as holding parties, and then informed USC.
Published: Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Updated: Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Students suspected by USC administrators of being members of the Stumpos Raiders group said they disbanded and ceased all formal activities after the university threatened to suspend or expel anyone affiliated with the group, USC officials said. The question is whether they complied.
The group agreed in late September not to hold any formally organized parties, to drop new friends and to cut formal contact with their members, said Sean, a member speaking on behalf of the group who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"When they asked for specific limits, I declined to provide any because they simply need to cease all operations as an unrecognized group," Denzil Suite, assistant vice president of Student Affairs, wrote in an e-mail.
The notification of the disbandment was casual because "there was no formal group so there was no formal closing … it was like 'OK, we can't have parties'," Sean said.
Representatives from the group notified Panhellenic Council sororities and Interfraternity Council of their breakup, Sean said.
In an open letter published in the Daily Trojan Sept. 27, Michael L. Jackson, vice president for Student Affairs and enrollment services, wrote that student "participation in Stumpos Raiders, or any group that has been banned from the campus for cause, is grounds for suspension or expulsion from the university community."
Group concerns
The main concern with underground groups such as Stumpos Raiders is they are operating without the oversight that university-recognized organizations have, Suite said.
There have been rumors of serious misbehavior by some participants including a cocaine dealing but there is no report of the group coming under prosecution by legal authorities or university disciplinary action beyond the ban on continued activity.
Currently, members of the group "are afraid of suspension" because "they don't know the boundaries right now," Sean said.
Another concern is that the group of friends will be held accountable for individual behavior, he said.
The current Stumpos Raiders organization is not a formal group, but a large group of more than 50 friends, Sean said.
Most of the friends are USC students and alumni, but a few students from Loyola Marymount University and local junior colleges are also in the group, said Sean, an alumnus of LMU.
Also, many in the group grew up with each other or played high school sports together, Sean said.
The group also includes former Stumpos Raiders members from the formal group, which disbanded in January 2005, (after being, ahem, accused of various infractions.)
Jackson's open letter also said the underground group was running under the names of "RS Entertainment" and "Kappa Alpha Iota" or "KAI"
Sean said shirts were handed out at a past Stumpos Raiders party with the letters "KAI" on them, but he did not know why those specific letters were chosen for the shirts.
"RS Entertainment" is an event-coordinating company that is a branch of Real Sounds Entertainment, a consumer electronics company.
The recent informal group of Stumpos Raiders did not conduct fraternity operations such as collecting dues or paying for insurance, Sean said.
But they held parties whenever friends were willing to pitch in money, he said. About two or three parties were held since August and one of those possibly occurred during rush week, Sean said.
Members were unaware that they were doing anything wrong, Sean said.
Recruiting practices
Earlier in the fall, there were incidents of visible recruiting and also a fight involving members from the group and another IFC fraternity, IFC President John Ellis said.
No problems with the group have occurred since they disbanded, Ellis said.
"The initial problem I had in the fall with the unauthorized group was that they were causing trouble within IFC chapters," he said.
The group is not under the jurisdiction of the IFC because it is not affiliated.
Members from the group were on The Row recruiting on a fraternity house lawn while the fraternity was at an off-campus rush event, Ellis said.
"They were showing guys that they were another option, when they are not another option," Ellis said.
Members who were on The Row were only watching sororities perform porch songs and dance, not recruiting, Sean said.
The group never actively recruited students, he said.
Brandon Jones, president of his fraternity and last spring's rush chair, said some rushees told him last spring they attended Beta parties during rush week.
Members of the current group are still unfairly designated to be Stumpos Raiders or former Betas and therefore are seen in a negative light, Sean said.
The current group does not pose a threat, Jones said.
"I think most of our main problem is the potential for them to make our fraternities look bad" because students do not differentiate between disbanded and university-recognized fraternities, Jones said.
Greek notification
A representative from the group came to a Monday night dinner held Sept. 26 and notified many sororities, such as Kappa Alpha Theta, that Stumpos Raiders had disbanded.
A representative who came to the sorority house said there will be no more formally organized parties by the group and members of the former group should no longer be called Stumpos Raiders, said Lindsay Bowman, president of Kappa Alpha Theta.
The representative also said to not send deliveries to members of Stumpos Raiders, and members of Stumpos Raiders will not send deliveries to sororities, Bowman said.
Deliveries, which are gifts given during Monday night dinners, are informal and not limited to houses on The Row, PHC President Sheroum Kim said.
Ellis said he was notified of the disbanding by Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards, IFC adviser Suite and people he knew within the group.
IFC fraternity chapter presidents were also notified of the disbanding, Ellis said.
Background
A formal group, which operated between 2003 and January 2005, ran under the name "Stumpos Raiders of USC," had officers and collected dues from parents of Stumpos Raiders members, Sean said.
The group was started by the members of the disbanded and offshoot Beta Theta Pi fraternity who continued to have social events and philanthropies such as blood drives and beach cleanups, said Ryan Tuverson, a 2005 alumnus and a former Beta Theta Pi member.
The group did no active recruiting, but people came to members of Stumpos Raiders by word of mouth, Tuverson said.
In 1996, Beta Theta Pi was put under a three-year suspension following an incident where a fraternity member was hit in the head with a keg, said Ken Taylor, then-director of the Office of Residential and Greek Life. The chapter had been put under severe sanctions for two previous conduct violations a few years earlier, including limiting membership, Taylor said.
Beta Theta Pi was officially disbanded in 2003 by the national chapter because of university policy violations and national chapter rules, Suite said.
Active members registered with the national fraternity were given "early alumni status" in 2003, said Judson Horras, Beta Theta Pi's director of chapter services from the national organization.
But university officials confronted members of the disbanded fraternity about underground activities a year later, Suite said.
National chapter officials also confronted the group for illegal use of fraternity imagery and rituals, Suite said.
After the confrontations, the members wrote a contract in January 2005 stating they would cease all formal activities, Suite said. The contract did not specify the possible consequences if the contract was broken, Suite said.
The rechartered Beta Theta Pi on campus is not involved with the former rogue groups and independent groups that sprang from the fraternity in the last two decades.
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