Student's death sparks investigation into cheating ring - Sensationalist Headlines

Student’s death leads to investigation of possible cheating at G.. After a student took LSD, ran through a fifth-floor window of a residence hall at George Mason University and plunged to his death in September, campus police opened a death probe that quickly expanded, according to search warrants. A GMU police detective discovered George Mason exams on the student’s laptop, according to the newly unsealed court documents, and investigated the possibility that a school fraternity maintains and distributes a “bank” of such exams. No charges were ever filed, and the criminal investigation was closed. But university spokesman Michael Sandler wrote in a statement Tuesday that the school has launched an administrative investigation into the fraternity, which has been temporarily suspended, and GMU students involved. Court documents identify the fraternity as Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

What's the point of fraternities again?

To network rich families and keep the class distinctions

No way, Sigma Alpha Epsilon? Who would have thought! /s. Sig Ep and Pi Kappa Alpha are hives of scum and villainy. Fraternities should have been gotten rid of a long time ago.

Here comes the anti-frat hate train from people with only an outside view and mainstream media knowledge.

What frat are you in

Not SAE and not PIKE, Sig Ep, or Sig Chi. I built my chapter up day from 1, not gonna put my letters out there obviously, risk management 101.

So obvious bias basically

And you have an obvious bias and almost zero understanding of fraternities as an outsider who probably only digests the negative stigma we get. I can't help SAE is generally fucking stupid.

Someone doesn't have to be in a vulture capitalist organisation to be able to understand it's purpose or negative effects. Same thing about a lot of organisations. Just because there are a lot of small time frats that don't do much harm, doesn't change the overall affect of the big ones or even the initial purpose of frats at all which is:

Hey! It's my univ- Oh no, it's my university...

The initial purpose of frats was actually the complete opposite of what you listed, it was to bring honor and respect back to Greek letter organizations based off their deeds, not the names/money of those who were members.

Why are frats inherently deserving of honor and respect?

oh and drink, don't forget about drink.

Where did I say this in the quoted post?

or maybe some of us have been to colleges where frats have totally fucked up and overgrown their welcome. you only can stand for so many drunk riots on campus caused by frats for so long before getting jaded, especially when everybody else has to deal with the fallout

Fair, but they changed to be for the rich so damn fast that it might as well have been written in

I guess I will admit my bias here, I just hate to see what I've built on my campus give me a reputation of dickhead frat man. Shit sucks.

Your post says the purpose of frats was to bring honor and respect to frats (????). Why should we not criticize these at best useless and at worst actively caustic institution purely because they were originally established to bring respect and honor to themselves?

The original organization, Phi Beta Kappa, set up a list of rules and traditions that most fraternities, Honor or Social, copy to this day. I also said at the end of my post "cant argue they've changed." My post was in reply to someone else who said they were founded for rich doods and networking. PBK is seen as the turning point in opening Greek letters to men for their deeds not their monies, which then turned right around when people realized it could be profitable. Again, not arguing that fraternities didn't turn into rich dudes. Just giving out some history.

So, why exactly do frats exist nowadays?

My dad was in a frat and it was about the nerdiest frat ever, from what I've gathered. Decent frats exist. However, frats with a fair percentage of shitty people in them will tend to reinforce it in other members. Then you have frats that are basically full of dickheads, so it's no wonder that the perception of frats is that they're full of dickheads. People who just keep to themselves don't generally get noticed.

Can't argue there. I was on executive board for 2.5 years, it was hard to manage the "Cancer" in the fraternity, maintain a good social status, and be productive with the community. I really think the only way fraternities can survive is if programs like the one at my school spread to other schools. There is a force for good still in there.

Im my experiences there are 2 types. 1. Party all the time. 2. Help people with interviews and getting jobs. Actually somewhat decent

There are multiple types of fraternities and sororities. Some are shitty, some are not. Some party, some study, some are designed for networking, some offer opportunities for minorities, some are some combination of those four. If you think that all green orgs are bad or if you're asking why they haven't been shut down yet, then it's pretty clear that you've never spent enough time to understand what they actually are. Even more than that, how would you possibly shut them down? It's completely impossible to stop private organizations from continuing to exist if you're a University. They're off-campus and the uni has 0 jurisdiction over what happens across the street from it.

This just in, you're only allowed to have an opinion about something if you don't have experience with it, apparently? Probably worth noting at this point that I am not in a greek org, I just know people who are.

detective discovered George Mason exams on the student’s laptop, according to the newly unsealed court documents, and investigated the possibility that a school fraternity maintains and distributes a “bank” of such exams That sounds like a test bank of old graded exams. I know a lot of organizations that had those in college. This is a really silly investigation honestly.

A lot of schools will expell you for that which is fucking retarded but it's because many professors keep the same exam across the years

Yea after reading the article it does seem like that's the case. I had no idea it was so frowned upon - it was pretty common knowledge among my peers. For me, it was at my school's official organizations. And that is certainly true, there were broad examples of that. But professors also give sample exams / some past exams often in my experience, so it's kind of expected to know what mostly will be on the exam.

There's a difference between knowing what's on the exam and the exact questions on the exam. This is obviously cheating.