Prepular, A blog for frat boys and their fans

Is 10 year suspension too heavy a punishment for hazing? Sigma Chi decided to sue George Mason University, and to seek declaratory relief and money damages. The suspension was triggered not by a single by a series of events, which included alleged sexual assault on underage girls. The list of charge includes:

1) Hazing - 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2005, in the area of Fenwick Library on the George Mason Campus

2) Providing alcohol to minors – Sept. 7, 2005

3) Underage consumption of alcohol – Sept.7, 2005

4) Sponsoring a party under conditions that resulted in sexual assaults on a female guest - Feb. 26, 2005 and Sept. 7, 2005

As of now, the chapter is unrecognized by the university. The row continues online with Sigma Chi supporters leaving angry comments on the Broadside website.

Labels: college, fraternity, sigma chi, university

One very funny story about a fraternity guy and a "STD" girl...(via Pitt News)

Ah, the second semester of the year. Finally settled into dorms and apartments, the lines at the bookstore have dwindled down to the slacking few and students can be spotted nodding off in classrooms across campus already.

To the eager freshmen who survived their arrival here at Pitt in the fall, I commend you. You have passed your first test. No doubt your parents assisted you in this feat, your mother breaking down in tears as she made your bed, your father pulling you close for a warm embrace and asking if you need more money before they drove away.

Yeah, that'll change.

Entering my junior year, last fall I had the joy of moving into Bouquet Gardens. This time around, my parents slowed the car just enough for me to grab some of my belongings before tucking and rolling out onto the pavement as they flung the rest of my stuff after me, using the back of my head as a target.

But listen, my children, and you shall hear the embarrassing tale of my freshman year, and why this drop-off at Pitt was a welcome adjustment.

The braces had barely been popped off my teeth as I sat in the front seat between my parents, grinning idiotically at the big, bad world of the University of Pittsburgh as we entered what my parents still refer to as the "big city" of Oakland. After a mere hour or two of looping around Forbes and Fifth trying to find the Litchfield Towers - yeah, it was that pitiful - we pulled into a parking lot loaded with fraternity brothers in brightly colored Arrival Survival shirts.

My parents climbed out and I slid across the bench seat, stumbling out of the car, all the while staring at a fraternity brother who appeared to have a beautiful aura about him. The brothers pointed my mother and me toward the Towers to rent a cart, and offered to help my dad unload the car.

I walked to the lobby in a daze, fantasizing about the gorgeous fraternity brother offering his family's prize cow and $500 to my father in exchange for my hand in marriage. So this is what college was like. Life was beautiful.

Five minutes or so later, give or take 30 seconds, my mother and I arrived back at the car, rented cart and key to my room in tow. The fraternity brothers helped load my belongings into the cart and offered further assistance in helping us to my room.

Miracle of miracles, I ended up pulling up the rear with the love of my life, who turned to me in our first stolen moment of privacy and passionately whispered:

"So, you wrote a speech about sexually transmitted diseases in high school, eh?"

Followed by a snicker and an elbow jab to his frat buddy.

I was nothing short of mortified. In the five minutes that I had left my future husband, my father had revealed the dorkiest secret of my life: I had not only written a speech in high school about sexually transmitted diseases and the alarming prevalence among teenagers, but I also competed in public speaking tournaments with it. Why didn't my dad tell him I was captain of the Reading Team and led them to three consecutive first place wins in junior high while he was at it?

A sort of numbness took over my body. I know that my face must have been glowing the red color of the neon sign for the "O."

I barely noticed that my father did not allow anyone else on the elevator once we finally got one, manning it as though he were the Skipper on a private vessel to the 20th floor of Tower B. Or the fact that he tipped each fraternity brother a dollar for his help.

I'd like to tell you that I became a well-adjusted Pitt student following that tragic day, but it's simply not true. To this day, whenever I see a brother from that fraternity, he is sure to yell:

"Hey, STD girl!"

I swear a freshman that I have never met did it just the other day.

So, congratulations well-adjusted freshmen. And remember to keep the tuck-and-roll drop-off in mind for next year. After all, it's never too late for a dad to mark you with a scarlet letter - or three.

Labels: college, dating, fraternity, hot men, sorority, university

I read something on Greek Chat today that got me thinking about in-group and out group behavior, and also the quality of greek meetings. A frat brother transferred from one chapter to another, and found that he had problem relating to more than 90% of the "native" members.

There are a few options available to him which include 1. Go with the flow. 2. Become inactive, and graduate as an alum in good standing. Or 3. Drop out.

The in-group / out-group effect in social categorization has long been documented by psychologists. We like in-group members much more than out-group members, the word"We" has positive connotations; "we" automatically activates positive associations. In many cases this liking depends merely on the knowledge of shared group membership.Not only that, people have a tendency to view all outgroup members as homogeneous.

Another member provided a very plausible diagnosis of the situation, which he believed that the apathy in itself is not the problem but a symptom of other problems. They may include overprogramming, events that are not of high quality and poorly-run meetings.

Have you ever been hated by our own frat brothers / sorority sisters? Please share it here.

Labels: college, dramas, fraternity, university

photo credit: L.G. Patterson / AP

Certain words automatically come to mind when we hear the word fraternity: party, quarterback, steroids, alcohol, hazing, servitude, dirty laundry. The Sigma Phi Epsilon brothers got into trouble last year with the university for hazing, a "kidnapping" incident so creative that got the campus police involved. Following this incident, the national group kicked out a few members and set new standards which included having a minimum GPA. Sigma Phi Epsilon now even has a "Balanced Man" intiative which add yoga, wine tasting and trips to Opera to its routine activities.

"It was kind of difficult for us," chapter president Keith Ziercher said. "It's been a hard transition."

Does a "more balanced" fraternity sound like something you would like to be part of? For those of us who have a frat boyfriend, would the current "taming" trend make your guys less attractive to you?

Labels: college, dating, fraternity, news, university

New Greek chapters are established every month! This is a guide to help you set up your chapter's website with minimal hassles and cash.

1. Choose a hosting service provider. It could be free (e.g. Geocities) or paid (Yahoo paid hosting, ipowerweb etc). A very limited national greek organizations provide web hosting for their chapters, it maybe worthwhile to check out the national site to see if this service is available. Since most hosting services only charge a few dollars per month, it is actually more desirable to go professional especially you want to be able to run scripts on your site (more of that later) Blogger.com or Wordpress.com is a good place to start your chapter's blog if you have a small budget and have limited technical skills, the ads are not as intrusive as other free service providers. Try to stay away from Geocities or Tripods as they usually come with an excessive amount of ads on the pages.

2. Create content. No one wants to visit your site unless there is something for them. No one wants to read a 10-page essay too. The most common contents may include event photos and stories. If you use Blogger or wordpress then you don't even need html skills, you can easily post photos, add yotube video. If you decide to create pages from the scratch using html, css etc, try the tutorials at HTML goodies , they cover topics like how to align texts, create columns etc. There are lots of free web templates out there that you can use too, just search "web template" in google and you shall find. If you host your own site, you can install novelty scripts such as dating, quotes etc.

Regardless whether you host your own site or use a free service, you can always find free, third party hosted forums and galleries to add to your site. Flickr.com is a good photo gallery provider. Don't underestimate how powerful photos are for promotional purposes, if your chapter is engaged in building a new house, hosting a charity event or even planning a co-ed sleep over party, the photos can easily attract prospective members and alumni to be involved in what you're doing.

3. Get free links. Make sure you ask your student body to put a link up from their site, usually under the clubs and society page. Some colleges may be willing to help you promote your chapter by putting a link up from their faculty website, provided your site is related (e.g. if your fraternity is Chemistry focused you may ask the Chemistry department to put a link up for you, try to approach the "student activity coordinator")

Labels: college, fraternity, how to create websites, sorority, university, websites