smu ato question

"Past IFC Member" has no idea what he is talking about. I was an ATO from 82-85 at SMU so I guess that makes me one of his thugs. The chapter was not shut down in 1983 and no pledges walked out. I never heard of any pledge filing a lawsuit either. ATO National did visit that spring. As a result, a few ATO's were put on alumni status and some were placed on probation, but the chapter was definitely not shut down that year. In 1984 and 1985, we had pledge classes over 40 in number and they were considered to be among the best those springs. Yes, there was plenty of hazing, but no more than the SAEs or Phi Delts. After probation in the late 80s, ATO came back very strong, but lost the house in 1996. My opinion is that the ATOs will never come back to SMU. SMU has too many problems with existing fraternities and ATO National has no interest as well. Remember, times have changed - fraternities are more service oriented now - back then we were just staring in our own Animal House movie. Great memories and friendships though - I wouldn't change a thing! Shout out to my fellow SMU ATO's - The BEST is yet to come!

I was at SMU '87-'91, and ATO was on campus then, had their own house and was considered top tier, along with SAE and Phi Delt. Sigma Chi was up there too, I think. I was blissfully unaware of hazing going on, but believe it happened. Had a crush on the house president at the time we graduated. Nice guy.

91 grad is right…ATO was on par with SAE and Phi Delt in the late 80s. Strong house with a lot of good guys and a lot of athletes. I heard the tale of their ultimate expulsion from the chapter president who went down with the ship in the 90s—a mix of bad behavior as you would expect and some allegations of politics from national. Those ATOs felt like they were unfairly singled out and punished too severely, but isn’t that the same story told by most fraternities who’ve been kicked off?

I was an ATO at SMU and graduated in 1984. In 1983 the chapter advisor ET Freeman and the Province Chief Brian Rule decided to outlaw all pledge training activities and turn the frat into social club instead of a true brotherhood. The active chapter didn’t take this ultimatum lightly and rejected the demand. 13 juniors including myself were placed on immediate alumni statue at the end of the 1983 school year and we were band from going to the frat house our senior year. There were no accusation or any proof of hazing activities or infractions. I filed a grievance with the dean of student life and the national chapter was informed they could not selectively target and suspend individuals unless there was specific proof of infractions. This was the beginning of the end. We continued on with our heritage of a pledge training program. There was never any sort of alcohol use or physical abuse of pledges. But the training continued so the charter was suspended at the end of my senior year.