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Written by: Dan Merica
Members of Bentley’s recognized fraternities distributed a poster at the recent Activities Fair stating that Kappa Sigma, a local unrecognized fraternity, was not recognized by Bentley. The flyer has caused a fight within the Greek Life community.
The white poster reads at the center that “Kappa Sigma is NOT a real fraternity at Bentley,” followed by, “They never have been,” near the bottom. The poster was approved by the office of Student Life on January 22, bearing the Bentley approved stamp, provided by a work study student in the office, as most posters are approved in this manner.
“Obviously it’s slanderous and it’s negative and I wanted to bring it to the administration’s attention so [those who made it] are held accountable for it,” said Brian Bovino, grand master of Kappa Sigma’s Waltham Chapter.
“I speak for all unrecognized organizations when I say that I don’t think we should be subject to negative flyers on campus. It’s not like we are out to get other organizations,” said Bovino.
Christina Witkowicki, director of Greek Life at Bentley, declined to comment over the situation.
The Activities Far during Spring semester is a major part of Greek recruitment for the recognized Greek organizations, as Rush events are occurring around the time of the fair and Spring pledge classes are the life-blood of Greek Life. Kappa Sigma, being unrecognized, could not host a table at the Fair.
Jeff Salveson, president of Alpha Gamma Pi (AGP), and Daniel Boyer, president of Intra-Fraternal Council (IFC), both claimed to have very little knowledge of the flyer, though Salveson did say, “It was made just to see if it could be made, if it could get approved and Bentley approved it so people have it just in case they want to use it.”
Salveson did state that he personally believed “it isn’t necessary to use it for any event that I could think of. However, if Kappa Sigma did decide to claim they were an on-campus fraternity and recruited as such, that might be a different story.”
Bovino said he was flattered when he heard about the flyers, stating, “They are entitled to their own opinion. If they need to make flyers bashing our organization, then we are clearly doing something right. That’s how I look at it.”
“Kappa Sigma doesn’t make any efforts that I can see to try to provide anything good to the Bentley community,” said Salevson, who went on to say, “What I mean by that is they don’t try to organize any certain events. They don’t try to do anything like that.”
Both Salveson and Boyer also expressed apathy towards Kappa Sigma. “My own fraternity is my own concern and my duty to fulfill for IFC is my concern,” said Boyer. “So for now if Kappa Sigma is something out of control, which it is, I have other things to worry about,” he continued. Salveson echoed Boyer, stating, “I don’t have a problem with them because to be honest I don’t have any contact with them whatsoever.”
Kappa Sigma colonized Waltham in 2008 when Bovino, Antony Khalife and Michael Martin were disenchanted with Greek options at Bentley. “We had seen what the other fraternities had to offer and we weren’t very impressed,” said Bovino. Bovino went on to say that what they wanted was more of a focus on community service and fundraising.
Bovino told The Vanguard that Kappa Sigma currently has 30 brothers but is hoping to raise that number to 50 this semester. They have created ties with the Waltham Public Works and Police Departments.
In addition, Kappa Sigma held their first annual golf charity outing last year and is slated to hold the second event on May 2. All funds raised from that event will go to aid military veterans.
When asked whether he believes that Kappa Sigma is drawing potential rushes from recognized Greek Life on campus, Salveson stated, “They may draw from people who are interested as a whole, but from an AGP standpoint, I don’t think they take any of our potential rushes away from us.”
According to Bovino, Kappa Sigma did attempt to become recognized by Bentley when they were first interested in founding a chapter of Kappa Sigma. Bovino claims that when he contacted the administration about colonizing, they were told to wait, but the administration “never got back to us.”
The organization colonized without recognition from Bentley and tried to acquire recognition on campus, but Bovino said, “The school wasn’t crazy about it and the other organizations weren’t crazy about it.”
As for the future of Kappa Sigma, Bovino realizes how recognition could help, namely in promoting and holding events on campus. At the same time, however, “As an organization right now, we are running great as an unrecognized fraternity, and I have nothing to complain about.”
“[All orgs] all started somewhere, they had founding fathers, and those founding fathers didn’t like what was offered so they started something new,” concluded Bovino. “And that is exactly what we did.”
{ 5 comments }
So, which organization, exactly, was handing out this flier? The title of this article suggests that all Greek orgs conspired to create that poster when in fact it was probably only 3 or 4 individuals…maybe less. I think the vanguard just made an article out of nothing here…got some quotes really fast…next thing you know, there’s a huge brawl that breaks out between Kappa Sigma and all of Greek life and it’s all due to the Vanguard’s propaganda. Alright, that was a stretch, but seriously, find a real story next time instead of making a whole bunch of people look like jackasses based on the actions of some few people.
This story is a little ambiguous, but is there really a student at bentley named Johnny Thunder?
If you’re a man, express your opinions openly, instead of hiding behind the internet. And of course Greek Life should be accountable for its members. You guys are the first to claim you’re the largest organization on campus, but when it comes to getting caught, it’s about individuals and individual fraternities.
Greek Life needed to clean up its act years ago when I was on campus and the brothers seemed committed to make that effort. Sadly, my own observations and coversations with friends still on campus show that recent members care more about the partying than the service. It’s a shame.
Best quotes from the article:
“[the flyer] was made just to see if it could be made, if it could get approved and Bentley approved it so people have it just in case they want to use it”
-No one would go through the effort of making fliers, printing them, and getting them approved if they had no intention of using it and in this case, they were in fact used.
“Kappa Sigma doesn’t make any efforts that I can see to try to provide anything good to the Bentley Community. What I mean by that is they don’t try to organize any certain events. They don’t try to do anything like that.”
-There is a reason for that, it is not a recognized organization and therefore, cannot advertise and hand out flyers and such at Activities Fairs. Pretty ignorant comment if there is “no contact whatsoever”
I agree with the sexist approach of Jeff on this one, Mr. Thunder. “If you’re a man”, don’t hide behind the internet. HOWEVER! If you happen to be a woman, then by all means continue hiding behind the internet.
And duhhh, of course hundreds of students in multiple organizations should be blamed for the actions of 2 or 3 people in one organization….its just common sense. Why should we only hold the guilty parties accountable when in fact we can strike very vengefully against oh so many students!?! While we’re at it, we should just start slander campaigns against the green society after I witnessed one of their members in the act of throwing plastic away in a normal garbage bin as opposed to a recycling bin. Yes, I think this is the way. Let us victimize as many people as possible so as to make ourselves look much much better…you have a wonderful outlook on life, Jeff.
Clearly, anyone in Greek life hates people who do community service and seek to destroy their dignity. Jeff, you really hit this one out of the park…your compassion for justice is absolutely beautiful. And you also have a real knack for logical reasoning.
Dan Merica has quite the habit of exaggerating stories and pulling sources out of his a$$. The vanguard is a joke. People only read it for the police logs.
Hey Yash and Jeff, get the actual facts. Don’t take Merica’s article as the truth. The kid needs to take a journalism 101 class. I’ll help you out. Instead of “frats”, replace that with 3 members of one organization. Instead of “fliers”, replace that with flier. Instead of distributed, replace that with displayed it on their table. With that being said, what this one organization did was uncalled for and further proves their lack of testicular fortitude, especially at their leadership positions.
P.S. Amy you sound hot
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