For most of the Syracuse University campus, the question of what happened the morning of Nov. 17 remains a mystery.

But for Kathleen Malliarakis, the answer is all too real.

The night of Nov. 16 started off typically for Malliarakis and her sorority sisters, who did not wish to release their chapter’s name. Earlier in the evening they heard rumors of problems developing between brothers in the Zeta Psi and Alpha Chi Rho fraternities, but the sisters did not think much off it, Malliarakis said. Fights are common in the fraternity system, she added.

When the girls returned to their house, several away from that of Zeta Psi, 747 Comstock Ave., however, the problem seemed to have risen to a new level. Malliarakis said she saw a crowd of about 20 Zeta Psi brothers crossing Comstock Avenue and walking in the direction of the CROW house.

‘We had all just gotten home and we saw them walking across the street,’ said Malliarakis, a junior policy studies and french major. ‘I had heard that people were ready to start something.’

Several minutes later Malliarakis heard yells and screams, she said. Then some Zeta Psi brothers started running back toward their house. Some of the men were holding their heads, she added.

‘You saw the guys who were hurt running back,’ she said. ‘We yelled out and asked if they wanted help, but then we saw lights and knew that help was coming.

‘I think the majority of the guys going over there didn’t know what they were getting into. They were drunk and they were stupid and their testosterone was raging. These actions totally live up to what people criticize the Greek System for – and they’re both guilty of that.’

Regardless of what precipitated the fight, its outcome was soon after publicized in local media and in a briefing on CNN. Zeta Psi brother Derek Fischbach was transported to University Hospital and taken into emergency brain surgery Nov. 18 after he was hit behind his left ear with a billiard ball in a sock. He was released Nov. 20 and returned to his East Henrietta home for Thanksgiving.

CROW brother Evan Hanahoe now faces charges of first and second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Three other Zeta Psi brothers were treated at the hospital and released the same day. Both fraternities are on interim suspension by the university and at least 10 members of the two houses face charges by the university’s Office of Judicial Affairs.

Brothers of Zeta Psi and CROW would not confirm whether they were involved that night.

But Zeta Psi President Carlos Zuniga said he was not at CROW the night of the fight, he was in his apartment on Harrison Street.

For Malliarakis, the fight also served as a disappointment for her family. Her brother Anthony was a founding member of the fraternity when it recolonized here in the 1990s. The fraternity had existed at SU since 1875, but was suspended.

‘The whole intent behind Zeta Psi was to not be the typical frat guys,’ she said. ‘But then everyone slips into this ego thing I guess.’

Whatever happened that night will have effects that will trickle through the entire Greek System, said officials from SU’s fraternities and sororities.

Nate Pieprzyk, Theta Chi president, was at his home in Norwood when the fight occurred. He did not hear about it until he returned to campus this week. Immediately he questioned the fate of the two fraternities, he said.

The fight will most likely spark the Interfraternity Council and the Office of Greek Life to more carefully monitor the interactions of all of the chapters in the system, he said. More oversight, along with added efforts to ‘bridge the gaps’ between fraternities may help curb conflicts between two groups before they reach a violent point, he added.

‘It’s too bad though that it took something like this for people to realize something needs to be done,’ said Pieprzyk, a senior psychology major. ‘If the IFC is going to make a difference on campus it needs to start within the system.

‘A lot of times it just starts with just two individuals. Instances happen and don’t get resolved right away. That’s how stuff like this happens.’

Noah Fisher, president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, agreed the temptation to fight is stronger among fraternity brothers.

‘If two people have a problem with each other, those two people normally just fight it out,’ he said. ‘But if those people are in separate fraternities, the instinct is to bring your brothers into it.

‘Being a brother increases your involvement in fighting.’

But this pressure to fight was part of the problem Nov. 17, said Mike Nagy, president of Tau Kappa Epsilon.

In the fraternity system, brotherhood is often interpreted as rallying behind your brothers, said Nagy, a sophomore aerospace science major. But that only leads to further problems and jeopardizes the entire house, he said.

‘You can’t bring your entire house into a quarrel,’ he said. ‘It gives the impression that you’re a gang. That’s where those two frats went wrong.’

Pieprzyk said that while fighting may be common outside of the Greek System, when one or two fraternity brothers get in a fight the entire chapter will take the blame for it.

‘With fights outside of the Greek System, you can’t pin it on a specific group of people,’ he said. ‘Anything you do reflects on your fraternity. That might make a difference, it might now. But I think some people think twice before they do something that could jeopardize the fraternity.’

Also, the perceptions of a fight like the one Nov. 17 are different outside of the Greek System, Nagy said.

‘The people within the Greek System are going to see it as a tragedy or something,’ Nagy said. ‘It’s upsetting and unfortunate. But for the people outside, it just seems like something that typically happens.’

Diana Rocco, president of Delta Gamma, agreed that for fraternity brothers, fights like these stem from unique problems and have different circumstances.

‘It’s more difficult for guys who are greek because they have a stigma attached to them,’ said Rocco, a senior broadcast journalism and political science major. ‘Nobody went out with the intention of getting into this fight. It’s just the decisions you make when you’re drinking that lead to stuff like this.’

And Rocco said she anticipates any new regulations that OGL imposes as a result of the fight will also affect the sororities.

‘They’re imposing new standards on fraternities and sororities every year,’ she said. ‘It’s getting more and more difficult to keep your chapter up to speed.’

Published on November 28, 2001 at 12:00 pm