Discipline and Punish

by Benjamin Oren

In 1990 a group of students drove an hour away from campus to Grange Hall in Cambridge, Maine, their trip shrouded in secrecy. They couldn't let anyone know what they were doing because if they did they would get in trouble. But when the State Police raided the new member initiation ceremony conducted by the brothers of Colby College's Lambda Chi Alpha, the jig was up.

The men in blue were lenient with the boys, only asking them to break up the party and head home- there were no arrests. No citations. Just a warning. But Colby College wasn't as lenient.

When the dust finally settled on the night in question over fifty students received punishments ranging from suspension to lengthy hours of community service.

You see, at Colby College fraternities are illegal and an intense war is being waged against the underground Greek system — the administration is slowly winning, but not without some causalities along the way.

In 1984, the trustees of the college decided to abolish fraternities and sororities and replace them with a residential commons system citing “with great conviction” that they “no longer serve an overall constructive role at Colby, and that, on balance, their continued presence is both detrimental and divisive.” By banning the Greek system, the college effectively criminalized a 139 year tradition, and perpetuated the urban myth of elitism and sexism within the fraternal orders of the college.

In fact, the administration showed great insight with their explanations of the decision. The school's chief physician said, “I'm sure it was a favorite tactic of the frats to serve the (alcoholic) punch and take advantage of the girls.” Then Amherst President G.A. Craif voiced his support, stating that “In some fraternities you'll see several hundred people standing wall to wall drinking beer and inhaling God knows what chemicals.”

Despite these compelling arguments, there were still widespread protests by students and alumni alike, but this could not budge the trustees' decision. However no simple college legislation could squash the fraternities— they just decided to move underground instead.

Greek organizations continued their activities and the college issued weak warnings, but no actions were ever taken until the Lambda Chi incident six years later.

Under the leadership of president William Cotter, a new social system was initiated which centered upon campus-wide social events where the school provides alcohol to its students for only a nominal fee. Set up like a high school backyard kegger, five bucks gets you a 12-ounce cup and all the beer you can drink.

Theme parties became the rage as well, with one of the most recent ones being a “Semi-Naked” Party which definitely helped to break down the gender walls that had been erected by the old Greek System.

After all, there's nothing like a little nudity to spark intellectual discourse on sexism in America's higher education system.

Parties tended to move off campus as well. However, at these events, hard alcohol played a much greater role in the Colby students' drinking habits. The specter of the college does not hang over the heads of the partyers, and drinking one too many is not watched over by any monitors of any kind.

Students stumble out into the streets, zigzagging around on the sidewalks, trying to find their way home. They usually are able to get back to campus in one piece, but on a rainy October night in 1998 one girl never made it to see the next morning.

Last October 15, nineteen-year-old Rosamond Huntoon walked a couple of blocks off-campus to attend a party thrown by Ryan Hambleton, a senior at the college. Mr. Hambleton reportedly served Ms. Huntoon several drinks throughout the night and when the party ended, Ms Huntoon walked back to her dormitory alone.

She was later found on the pavement outside of her dorm. It appeared as if she had fallen three stories out of her window, suffering injuries so serious that she slipped into a coma.

Mr. Hambleton was quickly arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for furnishing a place for a minor to consume alcohol.

Last January, the Maine court system punished Mr. Hambleton by mandating that he work as a counselor at a summer camp without pay for nine weeks starting this June. Furthermore, he must refrain from drinking alcohol through this September. Ms. Huntoon is still in a coma. It appears as if Colby's fifteen-year experiment is a failure; Students are still joining fraternities and still drinking alcohol despite the school's resolution — only now they are doing it recklessly.

Greek prohibition has only uncovered the authoritarian leanings of President Cotter and the Colby administration.

Unfortunately, the courts seem to be in the pockets of these men as well. The Lambda Chi brothers contested their punishments all the way to Maine's Cumberland County Superior Court, citing that their basic civil rights were being violated by their denial of them being allowed to associate with the fraternity of their choice.

Judge Donald Alexander, however, would hear none of it, issuing the ruling, “All (the evidence) suggests that this case is more about traditional college discipline than it is a civil rights manner.”

With this decision, Colby College reaffirmed its right to be the pure and truthful Elliot Ness in the dirty war to rid its pristine campus of the evils brought forth by the Capone-tinged Greek System.

A representative from the college spoke about what a tough choice it was for administrators as well. “We didn't [suspend the students] happily. It was like punishing your own children. It was done after some real soul searching. But it had to be done.”

However there are some who are worried that this is only the beginning of a greater trend of thought-policing our nation's students.

Robert E. Manley, a lawyer and contributor to the journal Fraternal Law argues that there is something innately wrong with the school's ban on fraternities. “The colleges are telling students that if you go to a meeting off campus of a private association that happens to use Greek letters in its name, you will be expelled or punished, but if you go to a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan, you won't be thrown out of school.”

“It is amazing that in this day and age, when everything is tolerated that these colleges won't tolerate a mainstream social organization.”