Gaylord, Michigan- Following antics that would make John Belushi’s character from Animal House hide his bottle of Jack Daniels, the Treetops Resort in Gaylord Michigan has pressed charges against individual members of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity and Sigma Delta Tau Sorority for damages to the resort’s lodging. The damages exceed $400,000 and occurred during a mid-January ski weekend, when a party spiraled out of control. Consequently, The University of Michigan chapters of Sigma Alpha Mu and Sigma Delta Tau are finding themselves as the subjects of national headlines. Resort owners claim the fraternity and sorority members kicked holes in the drywall, urinated on carpets, and knocked exit signs off the wall with baseball bats. Treetops Resort was subsequently forced to close 22% of its lodging for recovery efforts.
According to Jamie Hicks, operations manager for the reclamation company ServPro, the damage inflicted on the resort was the worst case of vandalism he’d seen during his 16-year career. According to Hicks, “with all the damage that was done there, and the booze and all the fluids, you don’t want to take a chance with what did or did not have bodily fluids.” The result was over 2,000 pounds of laundry and a 20 yard dumpster filled with broken furniture, beer cans, and other refuse.
Locals living in Gaylord are upset at the Greek organizations and have demanded legal action. Recently, the Otsego County Board of Commissioners voted 9-0 in favor of prosecution “to the fullest extent of the law.” Although the President of the University of Michigan chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu has apologized and “accepts full responsibility,” the Ski Resort has taken legal action against individual members of the fraternity and sorority involved, claiming the damage was a result of “malicious and intentional conduct.”
Criminal charges have been filed against Sigma Alpha Mu chapter president Joshua Kaplan and fraternity members Zachary Levin and Matthew Vlasic.