Ousted Penn State quarterback coach Jay Paterno caught a lot of Democratic honchos off guard last week when the son of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno announced he would seek the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in May."
“However, student Eric Pauley said he would guess greek life restrictions have contributed to the possible lack of sexual assaults themselves.”
“If you look at previous numbers,” Pauley (junior-electrical engineering) said, “you can see that being a part of greek life significantly increases your risk of being sexually assaulted. So, it stands to reason that reducing their functions would reduce that.”
@Hanna But those are public buildings that can be “easily” funded to build replacements. While I agree it is soon to party at the house we can’t expect the Beta House Corp to tear the house down. Privately owned fraternity houses are very expensive and most of the time almost all the funding to build them comes from alumni donations. So I doubt it makes financial sense to tear down a perfectly good building. Chapter dues will only cover the mortgage is enough brothers live in so typically private support is what keeps the property going.
@Hanna “They did. Columbine tore down the library where most of the students died. Sandy Hook tore down the whole school.”
You are citing two examples of the hundreds of recent shootings. Most have not torn their facilities down. Sandy Hook did. Columbine only remodeled their library. Should the Beta house corp put in new stairs to appease naysayers?? If you search the number of colleges and high schools where violent tragedies have occurred, you would find that it is far less common for the properties to be torn down or mothballed. Life does continue despite tragedy.
When there are terrible accidents on the roadways should we close them for a year to give proper time for mourning? Or, do we allow those who lose loved ones to erect roadside memorials while the rest of us continue on our journey?
While my thoughts may be perceived as callous, that is the way we proceed as a society. It is far more common to leave buildings like VT’s Norris Hall than to tear down the Sandy Hooks. I believe that the Piazza family will still be grieving the loss of their son whether the Beta house is vacant or housing alumni.
@doschicos “I don’t think anyone here has proposed tearing the building down.”
If there are those who are offended by using the building to benefit those who own it, then what would the suggested/acceptable use for this property be? Is there a time frame that it should be left empty as proper demonstration for mourning? For those that disagree with the Housing Corp’s invitation to alumni, what would you propose?
Perhaps waiting more than 7 months. Aside from other reasons, it’s not good optics and PR on behalf of the fraternal organization. I bet any decent PR firm could have told them that. It comes across as callous, hence the dismay and disgust expressed here.
But again, no one posted here suggesting it be razed.
I believe giving a mourning period, with the house closed, would be the decent thing to do.
Having a party where someone died so little time ago is insensitive.
It’s not a matter of tearing it down - it can be repurposed in many ways, but there’s such a thing as a mourning period (it used to be two years.) It’s a matter of time frame. At the very least, waiting till the trial is over.
The way it comes accross for the fraternity is not good.
The fact a party -even as a fund raiser - is being held where an 18-year old died so little time after his death, that they could not do it at any other chapter but chose that one, is troubling. It reminds me of “I’ll dance on your grave”.
Yes they are probably sad they lost their chapter, but you can’t begin to compare that to parents losing a child. If they want to get together, there’s an Alumnus house on the campus, I believe.
The trial ended on Sept 1st. The Alumni had their 1st weekend party fundraiser on September 14th. Does the Frat ALum expect people to feel bad for them?
No, the trial(s) have not even started yet. It will likely be years until all legal action is concluded. There will likely be trials for many of the defendants–both criminal and civil.
“The chapters that lie, like in Penn State with Beta Theta Phi that had a great reputation, are more dangerous than the underground, where everybody knows they’re bad,” he said, because they are “doing illegal things behind closed doors but are doing so under a cloak of respectability.”
@tutumom2001 “I propose that Beta sell the house.”
I strongly suspect that will ultimately happen. However, with a pending lawsuit between a benefactor and the House Corp board over the house, that may be prohibited until the outcome of the case.