MTV's choice to film its reality-based television series "Fraternity Life" and "Sorority Life" on campus this year stirred up controversy across not only campus, but in the city of Buffalo as well.
In the wake of the Princeton Review ranking UB at No. 6 on its list of the nation's Top 20 "party schools," MTV announced it would be filming the Sigma Chi Omega fraternity and the Delta Xi Omega sorority for the semester.
The shows premiered February 26, providing a look at the issues that can assist or aggravate the pledging process. Emphasis was placed on impressing and talking to the Greeks.
"As bad as it sounds, I think that sometimes the girls that are really pretty don't think that they have to try as hard, personality-wise. But you know, DZO, we are 120 percent personality," said one sister in the first episode.
"It's an entertainment show. I know what they're going to focus on so it's not a big deal," said Colin, a senior finance major and president of Sigma Chi Omega. "And to be honest with you, as a fraternity we really don't care. We did what we did, and we got paid for it, and we had a good time doing it, and I think that's what counts."
Months later, however, Sigma Chi Omega found itself in trouble with both the university and the city.
An early episode depicted the pledges being reprimanded in lineups and forced to do pushups, which prompted the administration to suspend the fraternity on allegations of hazing.
"The campus approach has always been whenever there's an allegation or concern about possible hazing, they call a timeout in the group's activities," said Dennis Black, vice president for Student Affairs.
Later in the semester, during a March 26 episode, three pledges - Tim Kukulka, Earl Altheide and Steve Paul - were shown scaling the wall at the Buffalo Zoo in the early hours of the morning. Printed on the bottom of the television screen were maximum possible sentences and monetary fines for the pledges, were they to be caught.
"It was really late at night, and we were doing nothing, and they were like, 'Let's go find an animal,'" said Altheide.
Paul said that upon climbing the wall, the three realized they were not able to get into any of the cages and decided to hop back over the fence and leave.
"It's not like we were harming the animals or anything," he said. "We were just, like, patrolling the zoo."
When the episode was released, the Buffalo Zoo pressed charges against the three, who were later arraigned in Buffalo City Court on charges of criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor offense.
"The illegal actions taken by these three young men could have seriously endangered not only the zoo's animals, but the individuals involved," stated Buffalo Zoo President Donna Fernandes. "We cannot stand by and allow this type of incident to happen without consequences."
-Reported by Erin Shultz and Gene Park
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
