As a former President of Delta Kappa Epsilon, I am very concerned with the administration of sanctions and discipline regarding Greek Life.
It is a stark deviation from the tenets instilled while I was a student and active Interfraternity Council (IFC) member.
After arriving at Union College, the new Director of Greek Life Sunni Solomon II said that he would “allow for greater relationship building, increased leadership development opportunities, and the creation of a cohesive Greek Community”.
In one of his first opportunities to take action on his own mission statement, Mr. Solomon chose to completely skip the IFC judicial process, ignore the involvement of the Greek community, and become the judge, jury, and executioner.
Instead of working to build student leaders, he decided it would be better to sanction a fraternity until they can no longer exist.
Why, you might ask? Several alumni visited their old chapter house in the beginning of the school year and brought beer to the house. The beer they brought violated the new alcohol policy. That’s it.
In turn, Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity was slapped with nine points, one years probation, and the loss of their house starting in the winter term indefinitely.
The fraternity had no other violations during the academic year and recently received their renewal in good standing.
Then these sanctions were handed down without due process, and without fair warning or proper communication with any Greek members of the student body.
When I was a student, I was able to grow and become a leader because I had the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. I am a better person now because of it.
These current students are not being afforded that opportunity. As a result, a man who compares his guiding philosophy to that of a driver’s education teacher is robbing students of their education.
The question is, how long will it be before he gets scared and attempts to press the “emergency brake” on Greek Life as a whole?
Michael Dolinger ‘10,
M.B.A.
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Binghamton part 2?
Blaming the new director instead of the couple of Deans that are responsible. I guess that’s cool, DKE.
Nice try, Sunni
Yea, you’re right UC Senior, because Sunni wasn’t the one who dispensed the 9 points without a hearing passing DKE over the heads of the IFC? The Deans are just cleaning up his garbage job running the Greek system. Maybe he should go back to Binghamton…oh wait…
This comes down to the sanctions of the Deans. Dean Leavitt has been trying to kill the fraternities since he stepped foot on this campus. The man has not sipped alcohol in his entire life. He had a brain tumor during the Psi Upsilon sanctions and barely remembers the entire thing. He has no intentions but the destruction of fraternities. This man will stop at nothing to crush greek life. The sanctions on DKE are absolutely out of line, DKE is an outstanding fraternity that does nothing but build character, friends and a lifelong bond between students that choose it as their home. Two Kegs got them thrown off campus. TWO KEGS! instead of buying 36 24oz beers they chose to save their money and buy a keg. They were not forcing anyone to drink it, they are simply trying to have a social event or whatever they were doing and have a supply of alcohol. Not having beer at fraternity parties simply causes kids to over drink in their dorm rooms with hard liquor because they are afraid of being found with a few beer cans. A bottle of liquor is way easier to hide and the new policy is only causing an increase in hospital transports. The school is doing everything wrong and Dean LEAVITT is responsible. How can someone who has no experience make such harsh calls. The new director is simply playing by the rules, something Tim Dunn refused to do, which is why he was asked to leave his position. Union’s endowment hasen’t increased in 3+ years. The reason? The biggest donors (greek alumni) refuse to donate to a school who is trying so hard to get rid of everything that made their college experience better. Stop being cheap Union and start making decisions that are right for the student body and not at the expense of the social life. Long Story short. Fire Dean Leavitt
Lol. The endowment has very little to do with donations to the school. Donations to the school go into the annual fund which supports the campus directly. The endowment is an investment fund. The reason it hasn’t increased in three years is because the country has been in a recession for three years. Pretty much common sense…
What’s funny is that the deans are about to meet to discuss whether Sunni’s sanctions are justifiable or not. So yeah, why should an alumni attack the deans when he clearly knows more about the situation than you, UC señor
My heart has been twisted n left bent. I owe this to our School president. I told him I was willin to double my tuition, if he let me stick my keys in his ignition. He said no, n I said please; which then caused the VP to get off his knees. As he stood to speak, I saw it drip, it was some creme hangin from his lip. When in walked a nice lady from Reamer, so they started to double team’er. When she got to the top of nott, she readied herself up 4 the money shot. But right as the prez started to rev it, he turned around and gave it to leavitt.
I don’t know who you are “Classic” but you have literally responded to all of these articles. You seem to have a general sense of these proceedings and of the sanctions imposed on DKE. You also seem to have a pretty good sense of Union College… well everything. Whether you’re correct or not, I couldn’t imagine a student feeling so impassioned with the Minerva system to defend them, the school and administration so much. It’s easy to see why Greeks and independents would support the Greek position. Greeks know how to foster a sense of community. This is what Minervas have been trying to do these past few years but have failed to do so. So it makes me wonder… is there really a student a student so in love with administration and the Minerva system? The answer is pretty clear. No. I am friendly with many council members and a few council presidents and even they do not care this much about promoting or protecting the Minervas. I just can’t help but think this is someone from the administration that is responding.
I would hav to agree with “Reply to Clasic.” “Clasic” sounds like a adminestrator or something. def not a student. they shouldn’t be allowed to comment like that it makes it seem like they are a student agreeing with the adminestration when its really just the adminestration
As a super senior, I’ve seen both extremes in regards to Greek life at Union. Granted I am not in a frat or a sorority, but from the outside looking in it seems that Sunni has come in with no prior knowledge of or experience with Union College history and labeled everything either black or white. What he doesn’t understand is that the school has imposed an extraordinarily steep transition period on Greeks over the past 2-3 years, and with all transition periods, there is a whole lot of grey. I think this letter written by Dolinger is classy, factual, and avoids needless claims or insults, and that it will serve Greeks well to continue to follow this lead during this period.
Tim Dunn did things right. He was primarily concerned with the safety and well-being of the Greek community and student body as a whole.