CollegeACB and the University of Maryland

In the midst of all the controversy surrounding CollegeACB.com, university officials and Greek students have attempted to curb the malicious effects of the site.

The Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life at UMD

While administrators at the campus’s Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life admit to never reading CollegeACB, Panhellenic Advisor Liz Brown has seen the effects firsthand.

“It causes a lot of hurt and increases the competition between houses, the same houses that compete in spring recruitment, fall recruitment, Greek Week and Homecoming,” Brown said, adding, “But it also brings people together to fight the awfulness cross the line and say very malicious things.”

After reaching out to other universities to see what they’re doing about the site, Brown reports that one chapter’s idea was to post a chapter’s creed or motto on a particularly mean posting, to “balance the good with the bad.”  Other chapters have hosted antibullying campaigns, like the Kind Campaign, to encourage members to ignore the site.

Inside DFSL

One sister of Alpha Chi Omega at the University of Richmond can attest to the site’s widespread popularity.  Junior biology major Liz Pavesich says that unlike the University of Maryland, Richmond’s small size (only about 4,500) contributes to the rumors because everyone seems to know everyone.

“It’s hard at Richmond because it’s such a small school,” she said. “When people specifically call people out, I can recognize the name or at least recognize the face if I look them up on Facebook.  For some people it doesn’t seem that harmful, but ACB can be harmful to other people.  Things put up as a joke can ruin someone’s college career.”

Brown agrees.  “It’s so much worse because it’s a public forum; if it’s an organization that you stand for, and its publically attacked, it hurts that much more,” she said.  “I understand the reason it’s up—the intent was great, but how it’s carried out is not great.”

Brown says DFSL doesn’t patrol the site due to the sheer amount of rumors that flow from random sources, saying if a fraternity or sorority were to get in trouble, more serious allegations than a forum post would have to occur.  For now, DFSL treats the site as just another gossip mill.

DFSL: All About Values

As for university students, many have taken to not logging onto the site at all, or ignoring the negative posts.  Junior criminology and criminal justice major Corey Zoldan easily discounts the site but says it’s a sad indicator of what Greek life should be: “it seems ironic because Greek life is about unity and all conversations on ACB are the exact opposite of what Greek values should be about being distinguished men and women,” he said. “It always seems that people are anxious to gossip and down talk others no matter where you are, but it seems especially prevalent in the Greek community because of how people are divided into different houses– or ‘tiers’– to begin with.”

Zoldan’s sentiment seems to be shared by many at the university.  Another member of the Greek community– who wished to stay anonymous– agrees, saying, “I’ve always said this but it’s just so silly ranking and comparing. If I wanted to be in Pike or KA I’m sure I could have put on an act and gotten it, but I wouldn’t have fit in there and I wouldn’t be happy.  People go where they fit in and there is no better or worse. If I hung out with KD and Tri Delt all the time I wouldn’t like most of them so what’s the point?”

Students’ Reaction to CollegeACB

CollegeACB: A History Lesson

For those unfamiliar with the cringe-inducing, infamous, and downright scandalous website CollegeACB.com, here’s a history lesson.  Started in 2008 as a web forum for college students to discuss classes, professors and other collegiate topics, founders Andrew Mann from Johns Hopkins University and Aaron Larner from Wesleyan University in Connecticut saw their tiny site grow from a pet project to lucrative Web site with thousands of hits a day.

The site’s owners were eventually replaced by Peter Frank, a student at Wesleyan University in his early 20s.  After the demise of fellow gossip site JuicyCampus.com in 2009, CollegeACB’s traffic skyrocketed, hitting half a million viewers per day.

CollegeACB is a popular website among college students.

CollegeACB’s mission statement insists the site is meant for the free flow of ideas, a way to stick it to the man by having an uncensored forum for whatever random thought a student wants to post. Comparing users to George Washington and Barack Obama, the statement insists the site will “be there when you want to write without responsibility. For some of you, it’ll be an excuse to be judgmental, petty and mean. For others, it’ll give you a chance to explore your imperfections without looking stupid, to be excited without looking lame, to examine yourself without looking weak, to improve your community without being an outcast and to tell jokes and stories that might fall flat the first time around.”

A noble calling, indeed.  The posts range from silly—“Class of 2011: THE BEST UMD HAS EVER SEEN” and “michelle obama SHE IS HOT”—to downright nasty.  Posts like “AOPiggies love pizza so much they had there [sic] crush party at vitos” and “Ugliest Girls in Each Sorority?” garner an astronomical amount of responses, all from anonymous users. One thread, “DAN RYAN=FAG,” received 35 responses in less than nine hours, with responses like “Dan Ryan wears one of those man purse fag bags, so on those grounds you are correct” and “dan ryan = n***** lover sympathizer.”

Various topics are posted on the site-- some goofy, many serious.

Those offended by threads can request to have the post removed, but deletion is not guaranteed.  A link to a post deletion request form is displayed on the top of every page on the site.   A number of University of Maryland fraternities and sororities have designated someone to monitor CollegeACB for any potentially harmful threads, and chapter members are often instructed to not even look at the site.

The website is protected under the Federal Communication Decency Act, which protects internet service providers from being liable for user generated content.

Sites of this kind aren’t new.  Juicy Campus started in 2008, and lasted around a year and a half before closing due to money woes.  The site prided itself on its often nasty, outright mean posts; the header even read “C’mon.  Give us the juice.”  Like CollegeACB, the posts were completely anonymous, and when the site shut down, users were redirected to CollegeACB.

UniversityRated.com is a Web site that caters to the same clientele as CollegeACB.  Users log into their school’s site and in effect, rank women by their attractiveness by picking one of two photos that are presented to them, one after another.

Users submit photos to University Rated, which are then judged by anonymous users.

Another site, DirtPage.com, is the newest of the crop, allowing users to post answers to various questions, like “How to save the world” and “UMD Sorority Rankings.”

As for CollegeACB, Peter Frank has just announced he has sold the website to new (anonymous) owners.  For a website with more than 20 million pageviews a month, perhaps the new owners will be able to effectively manage the notorious website that is CollegeACB.

UMD Ponders adding another sorority

A Look Inside UMD’s Pan-Hellenic Council

Technology in Greek Life

A Greek/Nongreek Divide

UMD Greek Week

The University of Maryland Greek community is in the throes of Greek Week this week , a week dedicated to fostering bonds between different houses on campus.  Each sorority is paired with a fraternity and two multicultural houses, and compete against other chapters in sports, skits and other events.  Every matchup chooses a theme for the week; this week, the houses chose different super heroes as their themes.

UMD Fraternities Innocent of Hazing

UMD fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha has been cleared of all hazing charges.

The Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life and the Office of Student Conduct at the University of Maryland have found a string of fraternities not guilty of hazing after allegations surfaced earlier this year.

DFSL suspended Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically black fraternity and member of the Pan-Hellenic Council, mid-February after the fraternity was charged with hazing, according to the Diamondback.  According to the fraternity’s website, Kappa Alpha Psi prohibits any form of hazing in its chapters.

Delta Chi, Pi Kappa Alpha and Tau Kappa Epsilon, members of the Interfraternity Council at UMD, were also cleared of hazing allegations filed at the beginning of the semester.

DFSL is working with these four fraternities to ensure hazing charges never arise again, working with the fraternities in membership reviews and meetings with DFSL staff.

Delta Chi, Pi Kappa Alpha, and Tau Kappa Epsilon will remain on social moratorium until the end of the school year, according to DFSL, meaning the three fraternities cannot host socials or parties, and cannot participate in Greek Week.

An Outsider’s View on Greek Life

In an editorial piece by South Africa’s News 24, a visiting journalist takes a fresh look at sororities and fraternities– and what she saw wasn’t pretty.

“No, what bugs me is that Greek Life is divided by gender – and often also by race and cultural factors like religion,” reporter Jean Barker writes. “As a South African I’ll never buy the “separate but equal” argument (it’s just English for “apartheid”). It may be a knee-jerk reaction, but I just can’t help it. I don’t want to hang out with only girls, and do girl stuff. And I want the right to join a fraternity instead.”