Gawker
The New York Post ran a story this morning about a poor young lady named Courtney Holt, a 19-year-old Boston native (woot?), who is claiming she was subjected to cruel hazing rituals while pledging the Phi Epsilon sorority at Hofstra University. It's not a sorority, "it's a cult," she claimed. They bashed her head into a wall, they said they would "kill me and slit my throat." That sounds terrible. For reasons I can't quite go into, I once had a raving band of Long Island coeds trying to kill me, and it was pretty scary.* But! Not so, says the sorority. In an internal email sent out this morning to alumni, someone from the sorority claims that Holt was an angry drunk who was violent at bars, that her mother was a lunatic who is banned from the Hofstra campus, that she trashed people's rooms and called them "cunt." Dear me! Who's telling the truth? And more importantly, who's to blame for all these girls who have gone wild?? How about sororities in general. Or, even better, that filthy whore Miley Cyrus. That sounds nice and reactionary, right? Full ZOMG sorority email after the jump.
Dear Alumni,With the media outburst this morning regarding one of our depledges, we wanted to inform all of you of what has been going on so you have the full story.
This past spring there was one depledge, Courtney Holt, who depledged after five days claiming she had family problems and that her mother was on drugs. After numerous spottings at the bar it became apparent that this girl was not only a liar but a problem, consistently harassing our sisters. The night the new girls, the Gamma Thetas, got in there was an altercation with her at the bar. One of her friends punched our President, Lauren [redacted] in the face causing our sisters to obviously react and throw her head into the wall. It was at this point, three weeks after she depledged, when she decided to press hazing charges against the sorority along with an 8 page report outlining some of the pledge program including the Sister Dinner, the sitting before FR, and FR itself. There was a full academic hearing conducted with administration and we were found NOT GUILTY and the sorority did not suffer any repercussions. This past Friday at happy hour there was another issue with her at the bar and one of the new girls found her room vandalized with all of her Phi Ep paraphernalia destroyed and "cunt" written on her wall. There was a report filed with public safety where Courtney Holt's mother caused a huge scene and verbally attacked one of the sisters. Her mother is now banned from Hofstra's campus.
As a result of the recent media frenzy we are in contact with an attorney as well as all publications to figure out what needs to be done to take further action. If you have any questions or feel free to e-mail me personally at xxx@gmail.com or you can call me at (xxx) xxx-xxx. Feel free to also contact the President, Lauren at xxx@pride.hofstra.edu and the Vice President Jen at xxx@pride.hofstra.edu. Thank you all for your continuous support.
*No that did not actually happen.
Comments
Wow, these girls mean business. Are they packing motorcyle chains in their Prada bags? I see a made-for-tv movie right now, Greek Girls Are Easy.
As a Greek it always aggravates me forrealreal that GREEK is written with two sigmas. I pronounce it GRSSK. Yea. Special (nobody gives a fuck).
Well, they all go to Hofstra, so there are truly no winners, here.
"causing our sisters to obviously react and throw her head into the wall"
Because that's the obvious (?) reaction?
One of her friends punched our President, Lauren [redacted] in the face causing our sisters to obviously react and throw her head into the wall.
I would react towards the person who didn't actually assault me, too.
Da Enggish porgrom at Hofster is ossum!
So this is essentially a big fight about not being friends anymore? Be quiet. Sit alone in your room. Read a book. Do drugs and write a memoir about sororities.
A bar fight on LI between women. Yes, it's Tuesday.
p.s. this years wet t-shirt contest is totes in the bag because pledgie Kim is totally stacked and we have been spiking her drinks with prenatal supplements all year!
The gals at Kappa Kappa Gama inform me that Miss Holt is a slag.
Headline: Greeks still biggest assholes on campus. Film at eleven.
The story in the Post makes it sound like her mother came to college with her. If that's true, it will be the best Jamie Lee Curtis vehicle ever when this all gets settled.
@exitplan:
In order to throw her head, wouldn't they have had to remove it from her body? That sounds a little worse than a punch from someone else.
@Sarcastro: If you want to find sorostitutes, take a walk on your lunch break to Amos Hall in the quad.
@beantownbastard: Heh! When I was in college oh-so-many-moons ago, Sigma Kappa sorority partnered with Alpha Tau Omega fraternity to build a float for the Homecoming Parade. The day of the parade, their float was emblazoned on both sides with their letters, spelling the Greek word "SKATO" . . .
@Clare: Excellent. Thanks for the advice.
(Seriously)
@TheHonJudgeSmails: I think there is one winner here: LIU-C.W. Post.
Everything you've heard here today is the truth, and I, for one, blame Candace Bushnell, MySpace, and iPhones.
That is all.
Whatever happened to that MTV reality show about the UC Davis sororities? Can they bring that back? Maybe at Hofstra?
@meerkat: I just desperately hope this involved some type of comical hole in drywall.
Future gold diggers of America club!
"causing our sisters to obviously react and throw her head into the wall."
Now, I don't know about most of you, but I'm pretty sure there is a difference between defending your friend and throwing a person's head into the wall. Not only "a sister came to her defense and in the altercation..." but "our sisters"...
Most people's initial reaction to violence is to leave, in a hurry. Grab friend if you want to, interpose yourself, whatever. But throw head into wall? No, that is generally considered excessive.
Smart money would have been simply to leave once the situation started, or to let the bar staff handle it. There's a reason they employ bouncers.
I can't really speak to the blessings and horrors of being in the greek system, but it typically takes deliberate malice for people to coordinate themselves enough to bash a head into a wall as a group.
@Xavoc: "smart money"...hofstra....does not compute...
courtney holt is one of my best friends. both her and i have dealt with "mean girls" our entire life. i go to college in mass while she's in new york. she's been my best friend for about 6 years now, and throughout the process of her pledging i barely talked to her. these girls completely took over her life. they all stressed respect, yet repeatedly hazed not only courtney but the rest of the pledges some of which include getting screamed at by the sisters. um lets get real how can you truly respect someone after they've just spent a month basically degrading you? courtney is one of the best people i know in my life full of laughter and kindness she would never EVER go out of her way to hurt someone else. if noone know this courtney is under 5 feet how the hell can she be attacking these girls? i think the letter written by the sorority is complete bull shit save yahh story bitches your lying cuz ur sorry asses got caught. your all pathetic losers and you are LUCKY im not in the same state as you. people have the freedom to depledge lett it GO she doesn't like you guys cuz ur all crazy losers who have no lives. ud rather sit around and give her dirty loooks and yell stuff at her well i got something for yah you aren't tough. come to west roxbury you prissy little bitches and see what happens to you.
That Ms. Holt is not from Long Island, yet willingly attends Hofstra is good enough to prove her lack of mental fitness to stand trial.
@kristenx0x15:
Was the laughter and kindness before or after the punch throwing in the bar? There seems to be no winners here, but a whole lotta' losers on many levels.
I'm from Long Island and went to Hofstra, dropped out, went to Stony Brook, dropped out, then went back to Hofstra and graduated at the age of 26. And yet I still thought I was way too cool for the greeks. Riddle me that, Batman. I'm awesome.
@SuperBien: Haaaah, awesome. Poop jokes and fraternity/sorority life. So appropriately paired.
I will say this once and only once. From personal experience with the same sorority at the same university, almost 4 years ago, I experienced similar problems. After realizing that I couldn't conform to the cult-like rules of Phi Epsilon, I too 'de-pledged'.
Not only was I called numerous innappropriate names, in bars, classes and social events, but I the new girls were feed gossip from the older girls that I was calling them sluts. Right. So, when confronted at the bar by 35 or so girls, I was lucky to have my REAL friends there to stop the fight (which the sorority started) from escaltatiing.
Needless to say, I left Hofstra after only 2 years and couldn't be happier!
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