The Nevada Sagebrush

Hazing simply will cease to exist someday…. ATO understands this. But the University could educate ATO (which is the purpose of the school) by testing them and seeing how they can overcome and change. Rather, they are stangling ATO to death with a 2.5 year suspension without having to take the blame for completely killing ATO by a permanent revocation. ATO is capable of changing, and doing great things in the future. ATO should be given this chance.
ATO will be back.

this is a very simple story, ATO broke a rule. this rule is very simple; no hazing. since they broke the rule, the university is teaching ATO to never do this again. they are not “strangling ATO to death.” they are as Code Red put it “educating ATO.”

thanks for ATO’s negative opinion. I would say sorry and move on with bigger things.

So basically every time one breaks a rule, its automatic dismissal from the University? Don’t get me wrong, I am in favor of punishment, but this punishment simply kills ATO. Timothy, you wouldn’t understand, because you aren’t in a fraternity, but this is certain death for ATO. Probation, membership review, whatever would be more appropriate. This sentense is to severe. SAE got caught hazing last year, and they were put on a very strict probation. Now they have moved away from hazing, and are leading the greek system in community service, as well as have the highest GPA in the greek system. Wouldn’t you agree that that sort of punishment is better for everyone involved rather than what is happening to ATO?

This is an interesting predicament that ATO has found itself in. On one hand I wish that they would give them a chance like Code Red said but on the other hand I believe that hazing just can not be tolerated in any circumstance.

The hazing stuff happens far to often and sometimes an example has to be made of one of the organizations. Even though no body was seriously hurt in this incident (that we know of, I guess we dont know how serious the injuries were) they have to crack down on it so we don’t have an incident that goes to far and have another death like with the Manzanita lake incident on our hands.

The example has been made of ATO breaking the rules. I hope that they as well as other Greek organizations take this into consideration and realize that hazing will not be tolerated in any case.

What happened to SAE was a message to all Greek houses…
ATO chose to ignore the crackdown on hazing, now they’re paying the price.

ATO will survive, let’s all just hope their lifestyle choices will be less destructive when they do come back around. I remember seeing a group of ATOs at Mikey’s candlelight, passing around a flask of the very stuff that contributed to his death. I’ve come up with no reason to respect them since; they got bad grades, they drank like sailors, and they are bad at intramural sports (when they showed up); what did they do with their free time anyways?

This house was an accident waiting to happen.

If it were any other fraternity or sorority I’d be in favor of a less harsh punishment, but the bottom line is ATOs made the whole Greek system look bad, this is before coercing their pledges to eat raw chicken.

I feel that the punishment for ATO was a little severe. I would have been in favor of membership review and a 1 year suspension. Kick everyone out that gets below a 2.75, no campus involvement etc. What the University did to ATO does little to correct the problem. They can come back in 2.5 years and do the same things if they wish. What the University did with SAE was perfect. They are the first fraternity to get above a 3.0 in quite a while.

Fraternities constantly complain about lack of respect from the University, yet do nothing to promote themselves in a positive light. What happened with ATO sets back everything that we’ve done over the past year. Until we can prove that we care about graduating, then we don’t deserve anything from the University.

I’m Greek also and truthfully, the whole Greek experience is BS. All of the fraternities haze, it’s a giant circle jerk. It distracts people from excelling in school and having meaningful (i.e., not alcohol dependent) relationships with people. Greek claims of brotherhood/sisterhood and increased graduation rates not withstanding (probably not counting the massive attrition rate from fraternities).

If I could go back to the day I pledged I would and I’d never have joined. My GPA would be a bit higher. There are something like 60 (?) clubs on campus, there are enormous opportunities to be social with people that actually have a common interest. Good riddance ATO; here’s hoping the rest of the system falls soon under the weight of its hypocrisy.

As an Alumni member of the University of Nevada and a Fraternity on campus, this entire situation is abysmal and very disappointing to hear about. However, the comments on the topic are even more disheartening.

During my time at UNR and within my Fraternity, I grew to learn a lot about the different Fraternities on campus including that some hazed, and some did not – but none of that really mattered to me because through UNR’s greek community I was able to make lasting friendships with men from all the campus’ fraternities.

What bother’s me even more is what some of the various readers have commented on.

GreekIII says,
“I’m Greek also and truthfully, the whole Greek experience is BS. All of the fraternities haze, it’s a giant circle jerk.Good riddance ATO; here’s hoping the rest of the system falls soon under the weight of its hypocrisy.”

First of all. don’t call yourself greek if you think the entire process is BS. You don’t deserve to and I don’t know why you would in the first place. And Kudos for hoping that the entire Greek System falls – a system that works hard for the good of the University and the Reno community, as well as it’s less fortunate,

Second, all of the fraternities on campus do not haze and they do not distract students from excelling in school – In fact, I credit my fraternity experience with much of my success in school and now, my professional life. I was able to learn skills through my leadership positions in my fraternity that otherwise, I might never had, and I have also made some of the most meaningful and lasting relationships in my life.

Many other successful men have been products of Nevada Fraternities as well – NV Governor Jim Gibbons (SigmanNu), Washoe District Attorney Dick Gammick (SAE), Former U.S. Senator Richard Bryan, and NV Senator William Raggio (ATO).

Greek Man says,
“ATO will survive, let’s all just hope their lifestyle choices will be less destructive when they do come back around. I remember seeing a group of ATOs at Mikey’s candlelight, passing around a flask of the very stuff that contributed to his death. I’ve come up with no reason to respect them since; they got bad grades, they drank like sailors, and they are bad at intramural sports (when they showed up); what did they do with their free time anyways?
This house was an accident waiting to happen.

If it were any other fraternity or sorority I’d be in favor of a less harsh punishment, but the bottom line is ATOs made the whole Greek system look bad, this is before coercing their pledges to eat raw chicken.”

I would really like to know who you are because either, A.You probably have no idea what your talking about, or B. You have some seriou issues with some members of the house

The truth is no fraternity would likely survive and come back from the proposed punishment. Logically, ATO’s youngest members who might decide to go through the process of recolonizing again in 2010 will be half way through their Senior years when they have the option to do so.

And to comment on a group of fraternity brothers passing around a flask at a vigil after one of their best friends had passed, seems harshly judgmental. I don’t recall hearing about any drunken frat boys at that vigil, do you? And I don’t remember them as a group of people who drank like sailors – granted, many people drink their fair share in college. The circumstances of that incident were horrible, sad, and I think could have easily happened to a lot of different people on a lot of different occasions during their time in college.

Why do you say if this was any other house you would be in favor of a lesser punishment ?

Bottom line, ATO is guilty and deserves to be punished harshly and fairly, but this suspension seems too harsh. A period of UNR’s history will come to an end when an example could have been made of the fraternity in a much beter way.

Now that the punishment has been set and the issue is no longer under an appeal, I have decided to come forward and address this article. I am one of the ATO’s that has been involved in this recent investigation. To rid the rumors that have been spread on campus, I want to say that we never fed our pledges raw chicken. We never did anything to intentionally hurt or cause the sickness of our pledges. We believe that one of our active members may have undercooked something but it was never intended to cause potential harm. We take responsibility for what we did and are not trying to dismiss the fact that we partook in the alleged hazing activities. Through this whole experience, we have been made aware of our ignorance and lack of understanding of the entire situation. We were told that if we were truthful, the university would work with us. We agreed to change and wanted that change not only for the fraternity but ourselves as individuals. We came up with a proposal which was hardly considered by UNR. We worked with the National Chapter to find a way to rid ATO of the bad eggs and start fresh but we were never given the chance. The University feels that if they completely start over that it will rid the chapter of such ignorance. I completely agree with the Greek board but on the other hand I want to express that there are a lot of good guys in our chapter that would do anything for anybody and wish we were just given the opportunity to prove ourselves. In two years we will be back with all new members and I look forward to helping build this new, stronger fraternity.

I was a pledge member at ATO a few years back and I cant believe that anyone would accuse ATO of such crimes. I was asked if I wanted to be branded with the mark and I chose not to. I did not receive any backlash for not wanting to do so, it was totally an option to every one of us pledges. Sleep deprivation was never the case. We did everything that any other pledge would do at a reasonable time and were never forced to stay up. I actually got plenty of sleep when I wanted it, and they still left us time to do our HW without being too exhausted. Uncooked food would definitely not fall under hazing since the cooking was done with our fellow pledges and Im sure there was no reason we would wanna get each other sick. It was a brotherhood and everyone took care of each other and did not look to harm one another. I cant believe that they are being accused of these charges. ATO members were my brothers and I never ended up joining cause of the fact I was leaving the school. But I had the best time of my life with ATO and learned many things from them. I especially was never harmed or hazed by any members. I hope that they soon return and get the respect back that they deserve.

GadflyNevada

http://unrrapesstudentsrights.blog

go ahead an censor me Sagebrush