College: home of higher education, world-class research…and fraternities. This article was first published in Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader. 

The Sleeping Fraternity

Students at Northwestern University in Illinois started a new fraternity named Zeta Zeta Zeta, better known by its Greek letters, ZZZ. Members say they are dedicated to “encouraging excellence through sleep,” and are open to both men and women “regardless of race, gender, or sleeping orientation.”

Not So Funny Fraternity

Chi Omega, a sorority at Kent State University in Ohio, was placed on probation after the group held a formal dinner-dance where they gave a student an award for being the “blackest member” of the sorority. She was white. The sorority issued an apology, saying it was just a joke.

The X-Rated Fraternity

California State University, Chico, began an investigation when someone reported (anonymously) that while watching a pornographic movie they recognized the room in which the “actors” were being filmed: it was the living room of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house on campus. Not only that, some of the “actors” were members of the fraternity. Officials at the school announced that all activities at the fraternity—whose motto is “Where Character Counts”—would be suspended.

The Cat Burglers

Student body president Mark Morice at Southeastern Louisiana University was arrested after he convinced his fraternity brothers to steal all the copies of the university newspaper before anyone could read it. The paper had an article critical of Morice’s handling of school funds and questioning his ethics.

The Big Bang Fraternity

Three Kappa Alpha members at the University of Missouri–Columbia were arrested in 2006 after a fireworks prank resulted in a near-fatal explosion. The trio had loaded up a Civil War-era cannon with fireworks, expecting the blast to shoot out the end of the barrel, but instead, the entire cannon blew up. An eight-inch chunk flew across the street and crashed through the roof of an apartment building, finally coming to rest on a Ping-Pong table that was being used by visiting students from China.