U of M Fraternities Damage 2 Northern Michigan Resorts $50,000.00 Damages.

Submitted by sierragold on

I was a little shocked and so disappointed when I read this article. This is is not something I would ever expect from the Univeristy of Michigan Student Fraternities and apparently more than one Fraternity was involved with $50,000.00 in damages.

http://www.9and10news.com/story/27896861/university-of-michigan-fraternities-vandalize-two-northern-michigan-resorts

This is something we criticize MSU, OSU for when vadalism occurs after a hugh bowl win. What happened here? U of M has more class than this!

Wow - What is going on here?

I have personally stayed at these resorts had a great time, partied and we have never left damages in our wake of the groups I was with.

This is bad!

Edit: I am more surprised at some of the posts on here thinking that this is not University of Michigan or Mgoblog related. I have seen too many posts of stupid student activities of MSU and OSU starting fires, etc. after winning a bowl game and these same people on here believe that $50K in damages caused by Fraternities of the U of M is not worthy of being on the board and that it does not have an affect on the U of M. Hopefully not a lasting affect, but it does when it is highlighted in the news that these students are from the University of Michigan that caused this kind of damage to the personal property of Resorts in Northern Michigan and if you think that this will not be in the news nationwide you are under estimating social media.

 

 

jmdblue

January 21st, 2015 at 8:45 AM ^

kids get out of hand.  Kids damage shit.  It happens and we all have something in our past to be ashamed of.  That said, my expectaton would be that the disrespectful little dicks would be told to get back into daddies'  SUVs, roll back north, and clean their shit up.  Then get jobs at Moe's or Bivouac and pay for what they can't fix.  Won't happen, but that would have been the expectation for me.

Wendyk5

January 21st, 2015 at 8:48 AM ^

Frat boys will be frat boys, but this is a great time for them to learn to be accountable. Hopefully parents don't pay for the damages and sweep this under the rug. If my son was involved, he'd be paying out of his own pocket, apologizing in person, and taking any punishment that was coming his way with a smile. 

BayWolves

January 21st, 2015 at 8:36 PM ^

Absolutely. Sadly kids today would see this as child abuse and even at the age of 22 might call child protective services on you who would in turn call in a SWAT team who would in turn taze or shoot you and put your 22 year old in a foster home because you are such a bad parent.



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STW P. Brabbs

January 21st, 2015 at 8:50 AM ^

Every time I hear someone bitch about the incompatibility of big-time athletics and academics, I wonder why they're not focusing instead on shutting down the Greek system, which adds absolutely nothing of value to the university.

 

double blue

January 21st, 2015 at 8:57 AM ^

Really? Well, it's very evident you were not in on. The vast majority of fraternities do not carry out such destruction. They instead teach young adults how to live together, how to run an organization and raise philanthropic funds as just a few meaningful items.



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double blue

January 21st, 2015 at 1:02 PM ^

Yea, because living in an apartment w 3 others teaches you the same things. And naturally, every philanthropy rip undead would of course still be funded, not. I see a lot of apartments out there putting together fundraisers. The steward in our house was responsible for hiring a cook, managing the cook, planning all meals, ordering food and managing inventory. All this while appeasing the taste buds of over 30 people at a time. He was like a restaurant owner. That was just one type of job that was unique to a fraternity that a 19 year old was not going to get anywhere else. I hope you stereotype everyone else in life as well.



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STW P. Brabbs

January 21st, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

There are many, many other ways in which students can learn to take individual responsibility for all sorts of things, though maybe weekly catering is indeed unique to the fraternity system. 

As far as living with other people, there are of course dorms, which actually teach you how to live with people who might actually be a little bit different than you in terms of background and perspective.  (There's also co-ops, which are cool at least in theory. If you lived there, you'd have to do everything you'd have to do at a frat, only -- again -- with a much more diverse group of people.  Even members of the opposite sex!)

You joined a frat for the social aspect of it.  Or maybe for networking purposes, if you were particularly career-minded as a freshman.  But don't try to tell me you joined it for the philanthropic opportunities. 

Badkitty

January 21st, 2015 at 1:57 PM ^

LOL

 

That's like if Doctors Without Borders members saying, "Hey we fight Ebola and all sorts of nasty illnesses in Third World countries but we live in a really cool house!  And by the way, we need you to go through an application process to make sure you kind of look like us and are reasonably photogenic and 'fit in'.  We kind of would hate if you've got bad skin, wear coke-rim glasses, have a comb-over, even though you have the world's greatest surgical or diagnostic skills."

Badkitty

January 22nd, 2015 at 12:51 AM ^

How many guys with true disabilities do you have?  Goth guys?  Older guys trying to start a second career?  Guys from the military, not ROTC but who actually served?  If your fraternity is a meritocracy blind to everything but character, ambition, and ability, then I applaud you guys.

double blue

January 21st, 2015 at 2:02 PM ^

I didn't just join it for philanthropic reasons, that's a plus. Co-ops are not the same. Do co-ops have hundred year legacies. Do sons aspire to join the same co- op as their dad or brother. If you met someone from the same co-op 40 years apart would really have much in common. Again, it's not just catering- there are property management positions in a house. Learning to take care proper care of a facility from boilers to chillers to roofs and hvac. These are not learned in a dorm and rarely in an apartment or off campus house as you go to the landlord. I can go on and on, but you know everything there is to know about a fraternity so I must be wasting my time. Again, take your uneducated stereotyping and apply to all human groups - what a wonderful asshat you are.



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Badkitty

January 22nd, 2015 at 12:40 AM ^

So let me get this straight, and correct me if I'm wrong.  The fraternity brothers learn the intricacies of an HVAC or the electrical system or they learn how to let's say, put up ceiling tile or do woodworking/furniture-making.  And then they become certified repairmen and/or craftsmen able to repair these things and they do it themselves.  If your fraternity does that, well, I commend you guys.

I seriously question that 's the case in those fraternities that were caught destroying those resorts.  Because if someone knew the hard work and effort that took to make or fix something, they wouldn't be trashing someone else's work like they did in those resorts. 

 

MaizeNBlu628

January 21st, 2015 at 9:33 AM ^

This is absurd, please do not over-genralize like this. There are 66 different chapters of Fraternities/Sorrorities on campus. Nearly all of them take a "fun" trip like this sometime throughout the year. Just because we hear someone like this happen from time to time, does not mean they add absolutely nothing of value to the university. 

There are endless philantropic activies each chapter participate in, from individual events to Dance Marathon groups, Greek Week, and organized ASB trips. Go to Ele's Place (a local charity for grieving children) and ask them if they think the UofM greek system is worthless, I think you will hear something very different.

There are always bad apples, people act horrendously when drunk, and especially when with a large group peers. But it is insulting to those of us who have given back to the university, community, and our fraternities to say that we added no value to the university. You can say we "bought" our friends, but I say that's money well spend. I met my now wife through my fraternity's mixer with her sorrority. We have a beautiful family, and still live in Ann Arbor because of our love for the area and university. 

hailtothevictors08

January 21st, 2015 at 9:47 AM ^

Nothing like calling the largest umbrella student organization on campus worthless, A couple thousand U of M undergrads are Greek. There are 60ish chapters, Combined, they blow every other student group out of the water in fundraising (as long as we can count the Greek Life kids in dance marathon which we should seeing as it is very Greek.) Not to mention, it generally teaches students how to be men and women.

 
These guys (and the girls that were with them) messed up in a bad way and will have consequences for that. Life lesson, pay up, move on.  

STW P. Brabbs

January 21st, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^

We're counting Dance Marathon as Greek? That wasn't my experience at all. I thought about pledging a frat freshman year, and was invited to rush one (Alpha Sigma Phi), but I realized I would probably fail classes if I did. It was still a lot of fun to party there, though. Especially during the quest of four of the older guys in the frat to drink 100 beers on St. Patrick's Day (they finally did it, even though one of the four bowed out at 16 -- gave him plenty of shit for being out-drank by a freshman GDI in yours truly.) Fraternities and sororities exist, fundamentally, as social clubs (to be slightly less charitable, as drinking and partying clubs.) You're blowing smoke to pretend differently. For any of the positive activities they engage in, there are myriad other outlets at the university - outlets that do not separate a sizeable part of the student body from the rest, nor foster any of the negative cultural outgrowths that fraternities tend to.

OMG Shirtless

January 21st, 2015 at 8:51 AM ^

You never make the reservation using your organization's real name.  You pick a club that you know is going to be somewhere else and will have plenty of proof of their whereabouts should anything happen.

You might still end up with a huge bill for damage, but you won't end up with this kind of PR.

pdgoblue25

January 21st, 2015 at 12:35 PM ^

You should know that and not throw out a blanket statement.  My PIKE chapter was nothing like you describe.

BETA was the chapter like that at my school, but I know they aren't like that everywhere.

My brother's SigEp chapter at KSU was crazy, but they the university's poster child where I went to school.

Ivan Karamazov

January 21st, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^

most likely followed your advice on the reservations.  That's why in theOP's link they are unnamed.  Everyone involved, the resort owners, employees, and journalists, know they are from a frat at Michigan because those dots aren't hard to connect.  Like you said though the damages still get paid for, but no bad press for your chapter.

cGOBLUEm

January 21st, 2015 at 8:55 AM ^

I live only a few minutes from Boyne Highlands. This is very disappointing to hear. Vandalism is never ok, but it is especially painful coming from students of the University that I love so much.



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The_Mad Hatter

January 21st, 2015 at 9:37 AM ^

A number of times in my life.  It never occurred to me that I should destroy someone else's property for entertainment.

assholes.

 

EDIT:

Two downvotes so far.  Is someone that destroys a hotel room not an asshole?

sierragold

January 21st, 2015 at 10:01 AM ^

I have received alot of down votes for this myself. Not really understanding why unless it is from the ones that happend to feel it is okay to destroy private property of others because hey they are young students, a little too drunk and because of that this that makes it okay.

No excuses for this behavior, if you can't control yourself and show respect for the property of others, maybe they should consider not drinking.

The_Mad Hatter

January 21st, 2015 at 10:20 AM ^

the people trying to justify their behavior.  I go to places that have large, drunken crowds on a pretty regular basis.  I've never seen someone in a nightclub, much less a large group of people, suddenly decide that it's ok to start smashing up the place.

danimal1968

January 21st, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^

and didn't see anyone really trying to justify their behavior.  Mostly people flabbergasted at your shock that UM students were capable of such things.

Mix 18-21 year old guys in large numbers together with alcohol and bad things can happen.

Google the media coverage of the way people acted after UM won the basketball championship in 1989 as just one example.  A police car was rolled through the front window of the First of America (I know its something else now) branch at the corner of South U. and East U., among many other things.

Ivan Karamazov

January 21st, 2015 at 9:09 AM ^

yesterday discussing this trip.  Given the amount of alcohol they claimed was consumed I'm not suprised that this happend. That of course doesnt excuse the damages but I'm suprised that someone didn't say, "Maybe 40 handles is too much...lets go with 30."