@bester1 Two lines from the article that you shared stand out to me:
“Yet he did nothing. Somehow, he convinced himself that “protecting” the institution by sweeping the issue under the rug was more important than protecting young boys.”
And
“At the end of the day, the deadly culture of silence always starts at the top. The leader has to make clear that the institution has a primary responsibility for integrity, not just doing what is lawful (which may not have occurred here) but also for doing what is right (which almost surely didn’t happen here).”
These sentiments certainly apply to the Sandusky case, about which they were written, and what happened at Beta Theta Pi. It is evident that real leadership is lacking here and I agree that PSU deserves better.
I find it extremely hard to believe he could have been asleep during a fraternity pledge activity where heavy forced binge drinking was involved.
Most college students who drink heavily are very loud. It was a constant issue where a friend lived in the Boston area as he was smack dab in between two universities’ frat areas.
It was only after the Boston cops cracked down hard after numerous complaints that he and his neighbors didn’t have to endure sleepless nights on accounts of those parties/initiation activities.
This was also around the time several nearby bars which didn’t enforce ID checks strictly(they accepted university IDs as if the possessor was 21+) were shut down by city authorities.
“I wonder if bringing them back as a requirement would solve a lot of the problems we see at fraternities that are almost non-existent at sororities. Take dozens of young males living in a house together with no adult supervision, throw in alcohol, and you’re bound to have problems.”
Fraternities had house parents through their whole 20th-century history of hazing and carousing. Adult presence, in and of itself, doesn’t mean anything. You need supervision, and with teeth: i.e., supervisors willing to call police and rat out the undergrads when necessary. That’s not easy to maintain.
"- Fraternity members donate more of their time and money (to non-profits) than non-fraternity members (among males). The same can be said for sorority vs. non-sorority women, but nobody is clamoring for all sororities to be shut down, so…
Fraternity members fill more leadership positions (per capita) than non-fraternal members. Clearly, fraternity members are picking up skills that industry and government find valuable.
Freedom of association
Fraternity members make more donations to their schools than non-members.
We only hear the negative stories. If you want to believe all fraternities are like this or are overall harmful, that’s your prerogative, but you would be misled."
There are PLENTY of colleges and universities without greek life that manage all these aspects just fine - philanthropy, leadership, alumni donations. After a few years of griping from a small segment of students/alums, the frats would not be missed at all.
The IFC letter is appalling and very representative of their position over the years. It was sent to Pres Barron between the time Beta was banned for 3 years and permanently barred and the house vacated – before charges were filed.
I don’t see any constructive changes left to make, and given IFC’s lack of regard for other students, their ironclad insistence that THON washes all their sin away, and the perpetual belief that college life can’t exist without frats, I think we’ve come to the end of this “modify the system” road. Just close them. Or most of them. Look at the students in the cases across the country — do we really think more rules will help?
The adult living at BEta is not an assistant athletic director. He’s the assistant TRAiINER for the football team. Has been for such a long time that I expect he will retire this summer, quietly.
I am profoundly disappointed in PSU. Clearly, they are going to stick with “not under our umbrella” which is technically, legally, true. Such a lack of backbone and innovation is a shame; it burdens all the great students who are a credit to the school. They deserve better from their admins, and from IFC.
@greenbutton: actually Bream was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director, Sports Medicine Support Services in March 2015. His current title appears to be Assistant Athletic Director, Athletic Training Services.
ETA: I don’t think he will survive this incident though.
I don’t think Tim Bream’s involvement in the case will be as open and shut as it seems right now. If he was in the house (which he was that night), they’re going to look into what his job required and was he willfully ignoring his duties going to sleep on bid night – after presumably having seen case after case of alcohol come into the house on previous days and thus knowing it was a big party night.
Beyond that though – he’s a trainer for PSU football. Anyone in that area who knows PSU football (which many of us do bc we follow it) realizes that by Feb., winter workouts had become for the team – and those occur at like 5-6 am. And typically the trainer attends them. Even if he isn’t attending winter workouts, that coaching staff talks openly about how they do early morning staff meetings 6-7 am and coach Franklin does say in interviews often that they got a report from Tim Bream on this kid or some other kid’s status. So did he have a workout/meeting that morning? Likely yes so he wasn’t asleep until 10 am when Tim was taken away. Did he come downstairs at 5 or 6 am? Did he see Tim? Tim had moved around the house a bit in the early morning and fallen each time. I realize it’s likely a house where drunk guys are laying around all the time. But did he walk by Tim after he had bashed his head on a railing and fallen in the hallway? Or after he had tried to get to the front door and fallen in the lobby? If so – did he look at him? Step over him to leave? He isn’t 21 – he’s in his 40s and a trainer, by looking at him and hearing him (bc apparently he was making some noises - prob from the pain) – did he think, here’s a kid who didn’t just have a few too many and maybe I should call someone? I think these will all be relevant questions at least in the civil case but maybe in the criminal case too if there’s superceding presentment.
And to add to my anger at these 18 brothers – there was a freaking trainer sleeping upstairs? If anyone cared one iota or was even a decent human being and suspected that Tim needed help but didn’t feel like they had the balls to call 911 or didn’t want to over react by calling 911 just in case they were wrong – couldn’t they have gone upstairs to Tim Bream, woken him up, and asked him to come downstairs to take a look? I realize a trainer isn’t an MD but they do have some medical training and in things like football they see concussions often and are trained to recognize head injuries; I feel like by looking at Tim’s coloring and his lack of responses to things like a sternum rub, he could have been the adult in the room, recognized an emergency and called for help – the frat be damned . . . .
It would be interesting to know if advisor quarters had a separate entrance or not. It is a big building although I am not going to believe that he didn’t know that partying went on regularly.
637 -- I don't think the DA is being charged -- what the article reports is that BETA has asked the court to charge her with contempt because she won't return the original security tapes to them. I'm not a lawyer, but it doesn't seem unusual to keep the evidence rather than hand it back to the accused. Also, Beta Pi's lawyers are betting that the general air of grievance about the DA ( she is a controversial figure, locally, but an accomplished prosecutor) will come in handy. Becuase, it is just too much to hope that Beta national's apology would extend to not dragging the Piazzas through every possible legal manuever. Rotten from the top down. They should be busy cleaning house, not finding a way to avoid responsibility.
Local paper had an excellent piece about all this, I will try and find a link.