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.

A Greek/Nongreek Divide

Delta Sigma Phi Pledge Dies in Apparent Suicide

University of Maryland sophomore Ben Sassoon died Monday afternoon after being struck by a train in New York, according to the Diamondback. Police say the crash was part of a possible suicide.  He was days away from being initiated to Delta Sigma Phi.

“Ben was really the type of individual who really lit up a room. He smiled anywhere he went, and he was just an incredible person who we’re certainly going to miss,” said DSP President Mike Devore, a senior history major. “The men here at Delta Sigma Phi are really mourning the loss of a great friend, and through the university and our fraternity, they’re providing us with the support and the resources to grieve and to handle the situation.”

Diamondback columnist defends Greek life

In today’s Diamondback, Maryland student Andrew Steinberg defends the reputations of the campus’s sororities and fraternities, writing, “The American Collegiate Fraternity System — commonly known as “Greek life” — is more than 234 years old. And, as recent news at our university has revealed, fraternities and sororities — just as other institutions — have their faults, weaknesses and rotten apples. But these recent blemishes have been the result of poor direction and senseless judgment rather than fraternity and sorority life’s underlying principles.”

And he’s right– actions of one Greek house do not necessarily reflect other houses on campus.

Gourmet Chefs, meet Frat Boys

Today’s fraternity and sorority members are no longer subsisting on Ramen and dining hall mystery meat, the Wall Street Journal reports— in fact, many Greek houses are hiring gourmet chefs for their members.

Chefs hail from all backgrounds, including restaurateurs, personal chefs and high-end caterers.

All this for a couple of frat guys? As the WSJ’s headline gleefully points out, “dude, those candied walnuts go great at a kegger.”

U-Va. Pledge Hospitalized After Eating “Strange Meal”

And in more hazing-related news, a University of Virginia Zeta Psi pledge was hospitalized March 1 after consuming an entire bottle of soy sauce, according to the Washington Post. The student was hospitalized for four days.

Pledges in the fraternity reportedly ate a meal of dog food, gefilte fish, matzo balls and soy sauce earlier that day.  The police (with the support of the university) are now investigating the incident– If students are found guilty of hazing, they face expulsion from the university.

Data says Greek Life Helps Students Stay in School

New study: Purdue students have a 5 percent greater chance of staying in school if they are involved in Greek life.

Reads the article from The Exponent, Purdue’s student newspaper: “Fraternity, sorority and co-operative retention data shows that, while 89 percent of Purdue students overall are retained from freshman to sophomore year, 94 percent of students in the Greek system are retained.”

Zeta Phi Beta: A Lesson on Hazing

So much for not hazing.  Last week, several members of the historically African-American sorority Zeta Phi Beta, Inc. at the University of Maryland were charged with assault and allegedly hazing for beating pledges, according to the Washington Post.

According to police, the sorority sisters beat a female pledge, slamming her into a wall and attacking her body– including hitting the woman with an oak paddle.  The events occurred in October, say authorities, and the sorority was suspended from campus in November.

The women charged are Amber Bijou, Bridget Blount, Montressa Hammond, Kandyce Jackson, Tymesha Pendleton, Zakiya Shivers and Monika Young.  All seven women are in their 20s.

Four national Greek councils exist at the University of Maryland: Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association, Pan-Hellenic Council and the United Greek Council.  Zeta Phi Beta was a member of the Pan-Hellenic Council, composed of nine historically black sororities and fraternities.  The Council is not affiliated with IFC, PHA or UGC.

According to the sorority’s website, Zeta Phi Beta advocates scholarship, sisterly love, service and finer womanhood—in today’s culture, is it really necessary to paddle a pledge to prove her sisterly love?

“I’m annoyed,” said journalism major Alex Scarfone, a sister of Sigma Kappa. “One chapter’s choice to haze makes the rest of Maryland’s Greek life look terrible.”

Zeta Phi Beta’s website also advocates against all types of hazing. “Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., has a membership intake policy, which forbids all forms of hazing,” reads the website.

Safety in Greek Houses

Let’s be real here: Prince George’s County is not the safest place in the United States.  Students are often greeted with an e-mail from PG police detailing the latest crime, usually a robbery or other property crime.  FBI data from 2009 (the last time crime data was comprehensively reported) shows that the Prince George’s County Police Department reported more than 2,500 robberies in the county, and more worrisome, 86 murders and 197 forcible rapes.

So what is the university doing to protect students?  Like campus dorms, Greek houses owned by the university have a swipe system, where residents of the house use their UMD identification card to swipe in.  Other members who don’t live in the house are also granted access by the university, and who can swipe into the house is up to the chapter presidents.

It’s this system that makes students safer.  Unlike campus dorms, strangers can’t simply “tailgate” by following residents through the doorways, since sorority and fraternity members know who belong in their house.

“I feel safer,” said Evan Churchville, a sophomore government and politics major and member of Zeta Psi fraternity. “A stranger can’t get in.  It’s almost like you have to earn your way into the house.”

Kendall Clise swipes her way into a Greek house.

Meet Michael

Meet Michael Baker.  He works in the kitchen of Delta Gamma, whipping up lunch and dinner for the more than 100 women in the sorority.  A graduate of L’academie De Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Md., Michael has had his fair share of culinary experiences—but none could prepare him for the life of a Greek personal chef.  We sit down with Michael to find out what he likes about being an honorary DG, and why a “thanks” is always appreciated.

Did you have any preconceived notions coming into Greek life?

I actually think that I am pretty good at keeping an open mind….The really only preconceived notion that I had about Greek females especially was that you guys are very particular about some things, but that’s okay because fortunately I’m also very particular about some things.  I appreciate people who know what they want and can express that, over people who just sort of muddle around and take what they’re given or are unhappy but unwilling to say anything about it.

What’s the best part of working for DG?

You guys are always appreciative of what I do. I’ve my whole life worked very hard knowing that I’m usually good at what I’m doing, but particularly in the food industry, recognition is hard to come by, even when you’re working at the top of your profession, which I was… taking the time to share appreciation for something is a big deal.  The fact that you guys are appreciative of the things I do for you whether you asked for them or didn’t is really what makes working here great.