The Machine

otheruses4|a coalition of fraternities and sororities|other uses|Machine (disambiguation)

The Machine, the former Alpha Rho chapter of Theta Nu Epsilon at the University of Alabama, is a select coalition of traditionally-white fraternities and sororities which formed a secret society with enormous influence over campus, state, and southern politics. The group, which has operated in varying degrees of secrecy since 1914, is credited with selecting and ensuring the election of candidates for Student Government Association and other influential on-campus and off-campus offices. It was dubbed "The Machine" in 1928 by Alabama's campus newspaper, "The Crimson White," and has become a serious player in the political careers of numerous Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and national politicians.

History

The Alpha Rho Chapter was founded at the University of Alabama in 1888. For its first 26 years, the chapter operated its biggest function on campus would have been an annual promenade. The organization forms with a number of fraternities a voting block.

Member Lister Hill was able to use his influence to become the first president of the Student Government Association. (He later became a United States Senator.)

Since its inception, only seven candidates have succeeded in winning the SGA Presidency without support from the Machine. These include Carl Elliott, 1936; Donald W. Stewart, 1963; Don Siegal, 1964; Jim Zeigler, 1971; Cleo Thomas, 1976; John Bolus, 1983; and John H. Merrill, 1986.

Over the years, numerous political groups have been formed on campus in an attempt to motivate independent students to vote for non-Machine candidates. One of these groups was the Alabama Student Party (ASP), which was founded by SGA Senators Fred L. Gibson, Jr. and O. Kevin Vincent in 1985. ASP intended to run a full slate of independent candidates, but its efforts were temporarily thwarted when the Machine orchestrated a takeover of ASP by flooding its first general campus meeting at Ferguson Center with fraternity pledges and members and electing Neal Orr, a freshman member of a fraternity that belonged to the Machine, as its president. Orr's fraternity was also the fraternity of the then SGA President, George Harris 1985. Control of ASP was then subsequently retaken by independents later in the year and played a pivotal role as a force for independents in upcoming elections. ASP successfully challenged the Machine with the election of John Merrill, an independent, as President in 1986, as well as a number of SGA Senators. Interestingly, Merrill was opposed by the Machine when he ran for SGA Senator, had been backed by the Machine for Vice President in 1985, and was then opposed by the Machine for President in 1986. The Alabama Student Party subsequently was involved in the Federal Court Case of Alabama Student Party v. Student Government Association of the University of Alabama, 867 F.2d 1344, 51 Ed. Law Rep. 1169 (11th Cir. 1989).

Another group actively countering the Machine's domination of campus politics was the Independent Voter Association. The Mallet Assembly, a men's honors program founded by Dean of Men John Blackburn in the early 1960s, is traditionally opposed to Machine influence, and has campaigned for several candidates under the banner of the "Blue Door Party". Cleo Thomas, the only black SGA President in the University's history, was a member of the Mallet Assembly. More recently, a student group called CapstonePAC has formed with the intention of running issue-based campaigns on the model of Political Action Committees.

Allegations of intimidation by the Machine include the 1971 arson of the dormitory room of Jim Zeigler, a non-Machine candidate for SGA President, and alleged wire-taps on the telephone of victorious opposition candidate John Bolus in 1983. Another winning opposition candidate, John Merrill, reported harassing phone calls and alleged that his car tires emptied. He claims to have caught a group of students attempting to enter his SGA office (Merrill was at the time the Machine-backed Vice President). The suspects were photographed during the incident by the "Crimson White" and Merrill narrowly won a run-off.

The most controversial election took place in 1976 when Cleo Thomas, an African-American student and member of the historically black Fraternity was elected to the SGA Presidency with the support of the Mallet Assembly and a coalition of several sororities. During the campaign, multiple sorority members alleged harassment, and a cross was burned on the lawn of the sorority. Following the election, sororities were admitted to Theta Nu Epsilon for the first time.

During the 1989 SGA election the Machine backed their first female presidential candidate, Lynn Yeldell, a Chi Omega sorority member. She won the election over independent Joey Viselli, the son of Fran Viselli, owner of Bama-Bino's, a local pizza restaurant. Yeldell's margin of victory was 393 votes out of a total of 5,865 votes cast. Viselli contested the results, alleging that 1) Machine ballots were distributed by polling workers at polling sites, often as 'sample ballots'; 2) many duly registered English Language Institute students were not included on original alpha (master) voting lists and unfairly turned away from polling places; 3) some voters attempted to vote with invalid ACT (student identification) cards, and that it was documented some were successful in their attempts; and 4) it was documented that four of ten polling locations exhausted their supply of ballots with the time lag between then and the time they were replaced as much as 30 minutes. Viselli was not alone in his belief that the election was plagued by irregularities. Several Tuscaloosa County election workers assisting with the election witnessed numerous irregularities including--in addition to Viselli's allegations--ACT cards not being taken up during voting sign-in; campaign materials being placed on voting tables; and according to one county election worker, who reminded a student election official about the prohibition against campaigning within 100 feet of the polling place, being told "in a loud, insulting, and demeaning manner that I did not know what I was talking about." A student elections official said she saw literature inside a polling booth saying candidates to vote for and, finally, an investigation revealed that 1) the alpha voting list--consisting of 612 pages--at the law school polling place was missing; 2) twenty-three more ballots were cast than there were names crossed off University alpha lists; 3) four students' names were crossed off University alpha lists more than once; and 4) thirty-six students whose names were crossed off the alpha lists did not sign the lists to verify they had voted at respective voting sites. Information above was reported in the Crimson White newspaper from Jan. 27 to Feb. 15 of 1989.

Despite six witnesses' testimony and 71 written statements for Viselli, student courts ruled against a new election. Viselli then appealed to the administration, which ruled that there was "no question of irregularites", but also that there was no way they could "interpret beyond a reasonable doubt that data suggests there would (have been a different outcome)", and ruled against a new election. However, the administration did remove future student elections from student control. The Machine led an ongoing boycott of Bama-Bino's, owned and operated by Visell's father, which closed two years later.

In 1992, Phi Mu sorority member Minda Riley (daughter of current Governor Bob Riley) ran against Machine-backed candidate and Beta Theta Pi fraternity member Neil Duthie. In that election, Minda made claims of harassment and physical assault, even though she belonged to a Machine-aligned sorority. Although her claims of alleged harassment and physical assault were never verified and remain unproven, the University nevertheless suspended the Student Government Association altogether, and did not reinstitute it until 1996.

In 1999 African American Fabien Zinga-Kanza, a candidate for the SGA presidency, claimed that he was personally threatened and that his campaign signs were defaced. CNN covered the story, with references to the alleged history of intimidation attributed to the Machine.

Prior to the 2002 SGA election, the phrase "Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine" from Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" was chalked on the outer wall of the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library. This caused a group of students, calling themselves "The Counter-friction", to interrupt then university president Andrew Sorenson's epidemiology class while chanting words of protest against The Machine. Shortly after, Sorenson resigned his position as President of the university.

Internet voting debuted in 2003, but the results were ruled invalid after allegations of fraud and the election was repeated with paper ballots the following week. During the next election in 2004 SGA senate candidate Emily Aviki detailed alleged harassment that she claimed she received for the "Crimson White", which used it for an exposé entitled "You don't want to mess with us." Though her campaign was successful, Aviki transferred to Duke University, where she would be found guilty on April 2, 2005 of violating election laws during Duke University's March 31, 2005 student body elections.

In late August 1988, the student court ruled both the old election system and Bill #25 unconstitutional, because neither way required a majority of the vote for election, which was then the case for other student offices. Many interpreted this as a back-door, face-saving way for white Greeks to get out of an unpopular situation while at the same time effectively achieving their goal. Several still pressed for the SGA Senate to return to the old election system, but the new majority-rule stood. In 1988, an Asian-American student from a historically-white sorority defeated an African-American in the first year of the runoff's use. In 1989, no African-Americans were named as finalists, which combined with still-smoldering anger over Bill #25 caused minorities and others to unite behind African-American Kim Ashley as a write-in candidate at the last minute. To the surprise of many, Ashley won a majority of the vote and was elected queen. But at both the announcement of her election as well as during her crowning, loud booing, jeering, and displays of dissatisfaction were seen and heard from some white students. A historically white fraternity was seen waving a confederate battle flag; its members later denied any racist intentions. In later years, the election process for homecoming queen was changed yet again: all eligible candidates were placed on the ballot without having to go through any interviews, and the candidate with the most votes elected. This apparently has given historically white fraternities and sororities plenty of time to unite behind one candidate, and historically white sorority members have consistently been elected queen.

ee also

*Collegiate secret societies in North America

External links

* [http://sga.ua.edu University of Alabama SGA Senate]
* [http://www.cw.ua.edu The Crimson White]
* [http://www.capstonepac.org Capstone Political Action Committee]
* [http://www.welcometothemachine.info WelcomeToTheMachine] , a database on the machine, published anonymously
* [http://www.bamagirlfilm.com 'Bama Girl] , Documentary film about a black woman running for Homecoming Queen at the University of Alabama against The Machine