So if you were part of Greek life in college, and I was, you know that pledge classes of fraternities have certain rituals they are responsible for completing. And that is not necessarily one and the same, but can be part of things that people would categorize as hazing…. especially if the task at hand is not completed.

According to Bill Rettew of the Daily Local, fraternity members are stealing bricks out of the historic sidewalks of West Chester University. This is based upon an interview with local residents:

Bricks mysteriously missing from West Chester’s sidewalks

Here is an excerpt:

Why are the historic bricks from the borough’s brick sidewalks disappearing?

Are they wearing out and not being replaced, stolen to replace those bad bricks by neighbors, or according to one neighbor, part of a long-time West Chester University fraternity hazing ritual, or is something else happening?

Sean Barry lives in the Southeast region of the borough where most of the students who rent live, and the fraternity houses are located. His bricks mysteriously started disappearing from his sidewalk.

He returned from his honeymoon to learn from the borough that he was responsible to repair and replace the bricks or face a fine…..The damage was widespread and the sidewalk bricks or pavers are no longer made. Barry sought an estimate and was told by a professional contractor that the bill would come to between $10,000 and $13,000 to repair his sidewalk. A simple Google search shows that several contractors will repair or replace brick or paver sidewalks for thousands of dollars.

Barry spent 11 hours repairing the sidewalk himself, with the aid of a friend. The thefts continue and bricks are currently missing from Barry’s sidewalk.

Barry witnessed a young male removing a brick from his sidewalk. He confronted him and asked the youth why he was removing the brick and was told that he was a member of a West Chester University fraternity and it was part of the pledging process and he had to collect a number of sidewalk bricks to fulfill a “quota.” The alleged student would not give his name or the name of a fraternity to Barry….Elizabeth Nebel lives on South Walnut Street. She sees some neighbors paving the bricks over with concrete and wonders if it is because of the thefts, and if consequently, West Chester will lose some of its charm.

Barry agrees.

“The bricks are a big part of the town,” he said. “It’s part of the charm.

“But brick by brick we’re losing what makes West Chester special.”

Barry said that he’s happy to live in the Southeast.

“We know it’s a select few and most are good neighbors,” he said. “I’m good to have students as neighbors, but the density comes with unique challenges.”

Now, when I read through the article, I noticed that West Chester University was kind of playing Pontius Pilate. Look that’s somewhat typical for schools with a big off-campus population. They say they can’t be responsible for their kids, yet they are, aren’t they?

And the fraternities’ national organizations are also responsible for their charges. It doesn’t take much to look up the fraternities currently active at West Chester, and not even includes ones that aren’t officially recognized. Sometimes fraternities are also suspended, I don’t know if they list them on West Chester‘s website or not. West Chester also maintains documentation of recent or relatively recent issues within their Greek community so to speak as far as hazing and what not. I also found this report- https://cm.maxient.com/chtr.php?WestChesterUniv

So these bricks levitating from sidewalks around the Borough of West Chester near the fraternities isn’t like typical hazing per se, but I am sure it is part of some initiation process. Now it’s relatively harmless if you take it at its face, except it’s destroying historic sidewalks.

As a historic town, West Chester will have lots of visitors, undoubtedly during America’s 250 celebration this summer. If you were “Greek” in college, please look at the attached list of organizations pertaining to Greek life with chapters on this college campus please contact your national organization an please ask them to ask the students to just knock it off and return what they’ve taken.

All of these organizations have service projects that they generally do, and a lot of times they do it right in their local communities where their chapters are located. It would be really nice to return the bricks.