The $94,000 fraternity party

The University of Wisconsin chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon has been leveled with $94,000 worth of fines resulting from their Halloween party. According to several reports – as nicely highlighted by this Wisconsin State Journal article – the house managed to exceed its legal capacity six-fold and operate as an illegal tavern. (The latter offense comes because their guests were hardly guests at all - $15 a head was the going rate, and that made them customers.)

SAE has always had a decent reputation on Langdon Street and, by my estimation, some of the finer leaders on campus claim allegiance to the fraternity. The notion of its entire membership consisting of bad apples with a wanton disregard for the law is absurd.

And the fraternity's pledge booklet reads like the manual of a truly upstanding organization. (Or at least I think it is their pledge booklet – there are some bizarre references to UW-La Crosse in it, but it is hosted on UW-Madison RSO web space.)

However, that said, this qualifies as a monstrous error on the part of SAE's leadership. The police report doesn't appear to be trumped up – credible rumors of this bash gone awry have been working their way through campus for a while.

Just how monstrous? According to the Wisconsin State Journal article, 50 gallons of vodka and rum, along with 1650 cans of beer, had been consumed (or at least dispensed) by 10:30 PM.

To put that figure in perspective, my fraternity – Zeta Beta Tau – normally can't draw a crowd until well after 10:30 PM.

Time aside, is it a normal party scene for a Madison fraternity?

I ran risk management for ZBT for the better part of two years. I've represented my fraternity in front of the school's Greek judicial board, I've been the sober guy chatting with police on the sidewalk in the aftermath of a weekend party, I've thrown people out of our events and I've shut parties down.

Maybe I was good at my job. Maybe I wasn't. But neither while I was in charge of safety or during the reign of any of my successors, have we ever come near to placing that much alcohol in the house. Nor have we come within striking distance of that sort of fire code violation.

We weren't perfect and I doubt we are now (truthfully, I am rather removed from the fraternity these days). But I know with risks we took, weight was assessed. To whatever extent we may have flirted with pushing the envelope, it was with an appreciation of what could possibly go wrong. $94,000 worth of fines was never even in the right zip code, let alone on the radar screen by my estimation.

SAE is apparently claiming that their bust was a witch hunt. I personally resent the notion because I know there were no triangular hats at my fraternity on Halloween.

But I suppose the more important question to ask is if it really was a witch hunt, wouldn't they have escaped unscathed unless some brooms and magic spells were found in their house?