Ski Resort Damage By U-M Frats, Sororities Rises To Nearly $125K
ANN ARBOR (WWJ/AP) - Two ski resorts say damage estimates have climbed to nearly $125,000 after a wild weekend of partying by fraternity and sorority members from the University of Michigan left dozens of rooms in shambles.
Treetops Resort manager Barry Owens told the Detroit Free Press that estimates approach $100,000, about double the previous figures. Boyne Highlands spokeswoman Erin Ernst said it sustained at least $25,000 in damage. The figures are expected to rise as repairs are completed.
"We would very much like to be able to press charges," Owens said.
More than 120 fraternity and sorority members damaged 45 rooms at Treetops, Owens said, leaving behind broken furniture, broken windows and tiles ripped from the ceiling.
At Boyne, Ernst said about 100 students damaged 12 individual condo units, leaving holes in drywall and stains all over the carpet.
Six national fraternity and sorority organizations suspended their chapters at the University of Michigan because of the vandalism. The national fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu was the first to act. It was followed by the Pi Kappa and Chi Psi fraternities and the Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Phi and Delta Gamma sororities.
The university says that members of the groups damaged the resorts in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula on Jan. 16-17. State police are investigating.
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald has said that the fraternity and sorority members engaged in excessive drinking and says the damage they inflicted is "an affront" to thousands of "respectful, hard-working students."
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