Nat'l Council voted to close Penn State chapter
 

Got a letter yesterday that said the chapter was being closed because it had been suspended by the university and lost student organization recognition for four years.

It was a strong chapter, but campuses are cracking down on underaged drinking so much harder than in the old days, so out we go.

I was sorry to see ASA lose this chapter. As long as I have been around, the Penn State chapter has been very strong! I know they were receiving support, but things weren't going in a good direction. It's sad.

I completely believe this is all Penn State pushing it and HQ was forced into the situation. The university is using Greeks as a scapegoat for everything and are going to look super stupid when it turns out that eliminating Greeks does not eliminate bad behavior. They’re also going to be 100% on the hook if there is no national organization to take part of the fall.

I’m curious how this all shakes out. Ten years down the line, does anyone really picture GLOs sitting around having tea and biscuits? I think a lot of schools will see a change in their bottom lines if the shuttering continues at this rate.

Don’t get me wrong, some have earned their suspensions at PSU and other schools and anyone involved in episodes like the Piazza tragedy should be prosecuted. But knee-jerk reactions rarely achieve the desired effect. Insanely short (TXST is down to 4 weeks) or non-existent new member programs have not helped. Universities, GLOs, and chapter advisers could use a reasonable pledge period for good. A drinking age of 21 does not equate to sober collegians any more than an absence of condoms equates to celibacy.

Especially in this case, the university has closed, I think it’s 15 GLOs in the space of 6 months. That’s 15 organizations that can’t participate in THON (the ASA chapter was consistently one of the largest fundraisers) and guess what? The amount raised next year will most likely be down.

The Piazza matter is Penn State’s second black eye in a short period of time and rather than the administration looking in the mirror and figuring out how things got to that point, they’re acting like children and blaming everyone but themselves. They lauded Beta as a “model” fraternity and were duped, so now they’re lashing out.