Shawn Collins pledged a fraternity in fall 1988 and kept a diary of his experiences.
I published four issues of a Greek life newspaper at the University of Maryland called The Greek Times, and I got a nastygram from a lawyer about content in the third issue. It was an advice column that caused the trouble. One of the staff members, Kendra, would answer questions submitted to the newspaper. They…
My experience at the University of Maryland was akin to one of Winston Churchill’s speeches. Specifically a radio address he gave in October 1939 about World War II when he said, “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…” You see, I spent a lot of my five years as an undergrad drinking…
Hank was my big brother in Pi Kappa Alpha, and we hung out a lot in college and sometimes got into mischief. This one night in August 1990 was one of those times. It was the day that two new roommates were moving in with my friend John and me to our Knox Box. There…
I always enjoyed writing, and the first time I saw my name in print was for my elementary school newspaper. It was just a photocopied publication of maybe six pages, but I loved being a part of it. When middle school came around, we didn’t have a paper, but we did in high school, and…
On a sunny fall morning in 1991, sirens jolted me awake. I nearly fell out of my loft bed in room 7 of the University of Maryland’s Pi Kappa Alpha house, scrambling wildly to see what the chaos was about. The scene outside didn’t look good. Someone was on the ground in front of a…
It was the night of Friday, October 30, 1992, and we didn’t have a party going on at the fraternity that night. So, I got a handful of brothers and the pledge class and headed to the Cellar, a beer bar at the University of Maryland that was the easiest to get into for underage…
One of the things that attracted me to Greek life was the opportunity to take on leadership roles. From the start, I was excited to be more than just a brother. I wanted to help, give back, build, learn, and support the brotherhood’s success. While I was initiated in early 1989, my drive to be…
It was early 1989 when my PiKA brother, Rich Dickson, mentioned at one of our chapter meetings that the fraternity would be running a large-scale, multi-day sale of ACA JOE clothing to benefit Family Stress Services in Washington, D.C. Dickson’s mother ran the retailer, ACA JOE, at the time, and Rich organized ACAmania with some…
I was at the University of Maryland for five years and one summer session, but I only went to four away weekends while I was there. During my final semester, in 1993, the fraternity’s finances were a bit unstable, and we didn’t have one. We went to Williamsburg, VA, for two or maybe three of…
Each year, our fraternity house in College Park, MD, had to undergo city inspections to ensure compliance with housing and life safety codes. These inspections were conducted by the City’s Department of Public Services. The list of things to repair in the house was long. If I remember correctly, we’d have around one-hundred or more…