This was followed up by a CLA (Dallas) to CLA (Irvine) Hangout on G+ with several people joining in from as far away as Birmingham AL. Positive responses from everyone I talked to in Dallas about the use of video chats w/multiple feeds for AVCs, mentoring from a distance, and other ideas.

The latest Op-Ed piece from "The Vermont Cynic" - the student newspaper...
http://www.vermontcynic.com/opinion/from-foolishn...

(Hint: They don't like us very much)

It is a done deal. Fair or not, UVM chapter is closed.

* SigEp HQ official statement: http://sigep.org/news/VermontStory.asp
* S&P Blog story: http://www.sigepblog.org/2011/12/vermont-fraterni...

Sadly, given the impact this story has had, simply saying "this doesn't look like something we would do" is not enough. Somebody did it. If that person or persons is not held accountable then the entire chapter, and by extension all of SigEp , will be tarred with the "Frat boys are rapists" brush. It makes no matter that such a statement is wrong, simplistic, incorrect, ad hominem, and oh yeah, false. It fits on a sign, it makes a good sound bite, and it is easy for the media to use as a story lead. Kind of like the original "who would you rape?" question that got all this stirred up in the first place. It does not help matters that a national survey released a day or so ago found that 20% of all women have been victims of sexual assault at some point. Coincidence? Maybe. Damaging? Almost certainly.

The UVM chapter, the alumni volunteers, and the HQ staff who are on site need to get to the bottom of it soonest. If the specific culprit is not found then the entire chapter will bear the blame and HQ will have little choice but to pull the charter. It sucks, but that is life in the age of viral outrage.

This is(was?) a BMP chapter and I know this behavior is not consistent with the BMP. What is missing that chapters can stray so far from the core ideals we espouse?

The short version is "Probably most of them". Though I don't have fist hand knowledge I have had informal conversations with members of other fraternities and most if not all of them had founders who were Freemasons, and thus presumably drew from a familiar ritual.

When I became a Freemason there were enough points of similarity that I was not totally surprised, though to be sure there are no exact matching items of either action or recitation. All I can say on that point.

Thanks Bill.
I am testing a new comment app (IntenseDebate) and this is the first round