To the Editor:
The days of March 25 – April 3 were a special time for the members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity. During this time, we had our annual Paddy Murphy celebration. This is a time of festivities and service to honor the legacy of a fallen brother. The theme reflects a legendary bootlegger brother from the Prohibition who valued loyalty over crime and good friends over violence. As the story goes, he sacrificed his life in place of being forced into killing a fellow Sigma Alpha Epsilon brother.
This year’s celebration consisted of a phone-a-thon (calling our chapter’s alumni asking for donations), social events, participation in other groups charity events, and our annual GM Week soccer-a-thon (24 hours of soccer to raise money for the Muscular Distrophy Association). To promote these events, members of our house posted flyers around campus that were inappropriate. In addition, chalk outlines of bodies were drawn near the JEC and CII and ketchup was used to resemble blood. While the chapter was trying to promote the gangster theme of the week, these actions were uncalled for and distasteful.
We would like to apologize to anyone in the RPI community who was offended by these displays. Our intention was to gain support for our activities using the gangster theme, but our means of doing so was unfortunate and regrettable. Furthermore, they were not meant to be any kind of threat. Given the high societal impact of recent school violence and other such horrible acts, our promotional antics were particularly ill-suited for a college campus. Again, we sincerely apologize to those that were offended by it, and please know that we had only positive intentions in mind.
Eric Lang, President
On Behalf of the Brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
