Don’t Haze Me, Bro!

In a tape revealed at a UF Senate meeting, an anonymous Unite Party supporter recorded a mid-election party session that revealed the inner workings of the FBK machine – from over-the-top attacks on the character and motives of their opposition to berating house reps to even encouraging hazing and voter coersion to maximize Greek turnout.

Seriously, outside of accusations of a dry campus, I think the tape was a recycling of virtually every SG cliche in the book. They called freshmen living in dorms as god-damned-independents. They said their opponents had no friends, were up to dirty tricks, probably double voted and stole I Voted stickers. They told their houses that giving away alcohol or denying meals to pledges were good voting incentives to use. They accused the opposition of a level of hostility toward the Greek system that I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard from anyone in the independent movement in the last decade and a half. (The independents are more upset with voter coersion and the existence of a psuedo-secret society like FBK than with anything about Greek houses, priveleges or their social calendar.)

Well, the story has been picked up by The Fine Print and The Gainesville Sun. And just a few hours ago, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd tweeted on the subject.

It’s no telling how long the legs are on this story. “Green Means Go”, “Don’t Taze Me Bro”, and the “Grapski defamation” scandals all started like this. And given this is happening at the same time as UF officials plan to impose a fee students rejects in this same election, I don’t think Spring Break will save UF from embarassment like it had hoped.

UPDATE: And now UCF has picked up the story, in a way much better done than the Alligator’s reporting.