UPDATE: The AJC is reporting the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity placed itself on probation and suspended the member accused of sending an email with instructions for “hooking up” with females. This censure happened prior to the release of the email on Internet sites: 
 
 “The referenced email is extremely inappropriate and does not reflect the values of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity, Alpha Rho chapter or Georgia Institute of Technology,” the Phi Kappa Tau national office said in a statement released Tuesday to The AJC. “Currently, Phi Kappa Tau Executive Offices staff, Institute officials, local board of alumni advisors and the regional director are working with chapter leadership to bring this matter to a swift resolution.” 
 
 I have never quite understood the appeal of fraternities and sororities – I prefer to pick my friends one at a time rather than by the dozen. I also hate theme parties. 
 
 Nor do I get how fraternity and sorority members keep getting themselves in hot water by patently insane actions. With all those new best friends, couldn’t someone warn them that they were about to make a mistake they’d never live down? 
 
 And doesn't anyone ever suggest that sending out a vile email in a mass mailing is akin to taking out a full-page ad in the newspaper? 
 
 Here are two vivid examples of bad, bad choices, one at Georgia Tech where you would think students might know better. 
 
 A fraternity member emailed a sexist advisory to his brothers on “luring rapebait” at parties with the help of alcohol. I attempted to share a line of the email, but there's little that's printable. 
 
 In a statement to the AJC, Tech said: 
 
 “Georgia Tech is aware of this incident, and its Office of Student Integrity is currently engaged in an investigation to determine the facts. Phi Kappa Tau’s national office, as well as Tech’s student-led Interfraternity Council, are also reviewing the matter to determine whether to take any independent action. The Institute does not condone this type of behavior and continues to provide resources and education designed to create a supportive campus environment for all students, even those who exercise extremely poor judgment.” 
 
 The Tech frat email is getting attention in the blogosphere where it's being described as the male match to a crazed dispatch sent earlier this year by a University of Maryland sorority member to her sisters. That email – which I warn you is chockfull of expletives – led to the writer’s ouster from the sorority. 
 
 Let me advise that both emails are raunchy, so read at your own peril. ||||| A controversial email sent by a Georgia Tech fraternity member offers pledges advice for how to seduce women with the help of alcohol. 
 
 
 
 The university is investigating the email, which went out last month. It outlines how to succeed with girls, encouraging the pledges of Phi Kappa Tau to give women alcohol and also referencing rape. 
 
 
 
 “If anything ever fails, go get more alcohol,” the email says. 
 
 
 
 If pledges succeed in taking a girl home, the email tells them to “Expunge. (Send them out of your room and on their way out when you are finished.)” 
 
 
 
 Women on the campus told Channel 2’s Amy Napier Viteri the email is troubling. 
 
 
 
 “If they’re not into it, to just give them more alcohol and just keep feeding them more alcohol until you get them drunk enough into your bed,” student Mai Dinh said. 
 
 
 
 Another female student said she disagreed with some students who found the email funny. 
 
 
 
 “So it’s offensive to every single girl. I don’t think any girl would be OK with that," the student said. 
 
 
 
 Most offensive to Dinh was the sign off, “in luring rape bait.” 
 
 
 
 “As in us girls are the rape for them to bait, that just makes me sick to my stomach,” Dinh said. 
 
 
 
 Someone at the Phi Kappa Tau house told Viteri, “No comment.” 
 
 
 
 The fraternity CEO issued a statement saying, “The referenced email is extremely inappropriate and does not reflect the values of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. The written expression of this thinking by a member is disturbing to everyone associated with Alpha Rho chapter and the fraternity.” 
 
 
 
 Fraternity leadership said the chapter has suspended the member who sent the email and placed itself on suspension as the fraternity and Georgia Tech investigate. The university sent a statement saying they do not condone this type of behavior and are working to determine the facts. ||||| Florida International University has suspended its Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity chapter after a private Facebook page maintained by the group became very public. 
 
 An anonymous email sent to multiple media outlets and university administrators included screenshots of about 70 posts from the page  some of them offering to sell drugs, others boasting about hazing new members, which is prohibited by university policy. 
 
 Anyone have a connect for coke, one group member wrote. Not me, a friend wants, lol. 
 
 In another post, someone offers to sell the prescription stimulant Adderall, which is often abused by college students as a study aid: 30mg of addy 10 starting tomorrow. 15 for non brothers. 
 
 Another announces on campus for those of you looking for the Pike Pharmacy  and included his phone number. A man who answered at that number Wednesday confirmed his first name matched that of the Facebook post, but he then quickly hung up. 
 
 On the FIU Pike chapters official public Facebook page, a contact number is listed, but no one answered repeated calls Wednesday. 
 
 In a brief written statement, the Pike fraternitys national headquarters in Tennessee said it had no previous knowledge of this Facebook group and was informed of its existence on Tuesday. 
 
 The international fraternity has been assured of the chapters full compliance with the temporary suspension and subsequent investigation, according to the statement. 
 
 FIU released its own statement Wednesday, saying it was recently made aware of the postings and is investigating possible violations of the universitys code of student conduct. The universitys on-campus police are also involved, FIU said. 
 
 The university is taking this information very seriously As a result, the fraternity has been instructed to cease all meetings and events, FIU wrote. A university spokesperson said it was the anonymous email that sparked FIUs investigation. 
 
 Among the Facebook screenshots are several showing photos of topless women who were apparently dating Pike members. In one, someone writes that the girl was 17 years old at the time. 
 
 Other posts belittle classmates. Rival fraternities are repeatedly described using anti-gay slurs, and members of one sorority are described as the biggest sluts on campus. 
 
 The Facebook posts also frequently criticize women whom the frat members perceive as overweight. Several posters stressed that Pikes were only allowed to sell fraternity-affiliated T-shirts to thin women. 
 
 And some posts appear to take pride in unsportsmanlike conduct during soccer games against other fraternities. One post notes the Pike team has been losing points in the soccer league because of its lack of sportsmanship  particularly in heckling players from the opposing team. But the writer notes that sportsmanship points only become a factor in the case of a tie breaker, so they can safely be ignored. 
 
 Since we are not going to lose any games, then we dont need that tie-breaker, he wrote. 
 
 This weeks suspension is but the latest round of discipline for a fraternity that has repeatedly gotten in trouble  both locally and nationally. The FIU chapter was already on probation from an incident in June involving serving alcohol to a pledge. Since 2006, Pike has been found guilty of a variety of offenses: underage drinking, conducting drinking games, throwing eggs at a rival fraternitys house and breaking a students car windshield while also painting obscene words and pictures on the vehicle. 
 
 The penalties leveled against Pike have included suspensions, community service hours, and requiring the fraternity to make a $1,500 donation to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. 
 
 At the University of Tennessee, a student ended up in the hospital last year in critical condition after participating in a butt-chugging party at UTs Pike house. Students there were inserting a tube in their anus and then funneling in alcoholic beverages  a practice that can be deadly. 
 
 Susan Lipkins, a Long Island psychologist and author who is an expert on hazing and Greek organizations, said universities often turn a blind eye to the misbehavior of these groups. The reasons, Lipkins said: Fraternities and sororities create an atmosphere that helps colleges attract new students, and Greek students tend to be more generous in donating to their alma mater after graduation. The construction of frat houses also provides colleges with extra on-campus housing that they need, she said. 
 
 The Facebook posts at FIU, Lipkins said, reflect larger problems with the culture of Greek life. 
 
 They are definitely not the exception, Lipkins said. They are the rule. 
 
 Other FIU fraternities have also been disciplined. In 2002, FIU suspended the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity for paddling students  an act of hazing so severe that one student was seen limping on a swollen left leg. Though the hazing mentioned in the Pike Facebook posts isnt as extreme  pledges were forced to wash cars, for example  Lipkins said that doesnt mean more-severe hazing wasnt happening. 
 
 Pike members at times discussed the groups reputation. One posted that Pike didnt have a PR problem because sorority girls are dying to hook up with Pike brothers. In the days after the Boston Marathon bombings, another member had this suggestion: 
 
 Guys please put up the PIKE Prays for Boston Banner thats upstairs outside so that when people start arriving tomorrow morning they see it, he wrote. This is excellent publicity!
– Georgia Tech says it's investigating an ill-advised mass email within a fraternity that explained how to treat women at parties: essentially, get them drunk and into bed, reports WSB-TV. What's caught the attention of most critics is the signoff by an unnamed member of Phi Kappa Tau: "In luring rapebait." And among its gems: "If anything ever fails, go get more alcohol." (You can read it in full at TotalFratMove, but be warned, it's as raunchy as you might expect.) The frat issued a statement calling the email "extremely inappropriate" and said its writer had been suspended. The campus chapter also placed itself on suspension pending the school investigation. Aren't frat brothers supposed to help each other out, wonders Maureen Downey at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution? "With all those new best friends, couldn't someone warn them that they were about to make a mistake they'd never live down?"