SAE Stories

Collected by Sarah Bruning (bruninse@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu)

Summary: The SAE fraternity exemplified the "good old days" of Vandy and got
kicked off of campus for lighting a girl on fire. The house itself managed to escape
demolition during the Greek reform of the 60's because so many of the Vanderbilt
trustees are alumni.

Text: The SAE's used to pretty much rock this campus, and every year they
had this one big party where they lit the lions in front of the house on
fire. I'm pretty sure that much is true, but supposedly one year some
idiot decided to use that fire-paste with napalm in it and the fires got
a little out of control. That night there was this really drunk girl who
fell into the fire and it burned her face off. I don't know if I believe
that last part or not, she probalby just burned her hand or something
and the admin freaked out. So that's why they got kicked off campus. As
far as the house goes, it's pretty amazing inside. In the 60's the
university reformed the Greek system and made all of the fraternities
tear down their houses and put up the little shitboxes they have now,
but apparently half of the Board Of Trustees were SAE's and so they let
them keep their house. It's still there and they won't let lambda chi
use it for the same reason, but since last year it got put on the
historical registar or whatever it's not likely to be torn down or given
to another frat.

Notes: Although the above is not a perfect transcription of the interview, I
tried to be as accurate as possible. I think some of the most
interesting parts are where he adds that he dosen't really believe parts
of the story himself. It will be interesting to see if any of this was
true.

CONTEXT
A. The SAE fraternity exemplified the "good old days" of Vandy and got
kicked off of campus for lighting a girl on fire. The house itself
managed to escape demolition during the Greek reform of the 60's because
so many of the Vanderbilt trustees are alumni.
B. Type: Fraternity tale. Motifs: the "good old days," conspiracy
C. I have heard so many stories and variants of stories about SAE that
this is just the tip of the iceberg.
D. Freshman year
E/F. The informant dosen't remember a specific situation or a specific
person who he heard the story from, it's just one of those things
EVERYONE talks about freshman year.
G. Age:21
Sex: Male
Place of Birth: Nashville, TN
Ethnic Group: Caucasian
Languages: English
Religion: Protestant
Year: Senior
Extracurricular: Interhall
Date Collected: September 16, 1998