The Machine (social Group)
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The Machine is a secret society at the
University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...
. In 1914, it formed from the ''Alpha Rho chapter'' of
Theta Nu Epsilon Theta Nu Epsilon (, commonly known as T.N.E.) was an American sophomore class collegiate society that later became a traditional social fraternity. Founded at Wesleyan University in 1870 as a chapter of Skull and Bones, the society expanded into a ...
as a coalition of Panhellenic sororities and IFC and NPHC fraternities. The group, which has operated in varying degrees of secrecy since 1914 (though its roots run deeper into the 19th century), is credited with selecting and ensuring the election of candidates for
Student Government Association A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organization ...
, Homecoming Queen, and other influential on-campus and off-campus offices, including the Student Government Association Senate. It was evidently first publicly noted as "a
political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...
" in 1928 by Alabama's campus newspaper, ''
The Crimson White ''The Crimson White'', known colloquially as "''The CW''," is a student-run publication of the University of Alabama published twice a week under The Crimson White Media Group. Its circulation in the fall and spring is about 14,000, and it is dis ...
''. Then in a 1945 article in the newspaper, it was referred to as "the machine", and the name has stuck ever since. It is alleged that The Machine plays a real role in both the politics of the student community and in the political careers of numerous
Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
politicians.


History

The ''Alpha Rho chapter'' of
Theta Nu Epsilon Theta Nu Epsilon (, commonly known as T.N.E.) was an American sophomore class collegiate society that later became a traditional social fraternity. Founded at Wesleyan University in 1870 as a chapter of Skull and Bones, the society expanded into a ...
was founded at the University of Alabama in 1888 without formal permission of the society. In 1902, the chapter contacted the fraternity's governing authority and was accepted as a legitimate chapter. It was subsequently accepted by the administration and university community, and in 1905, the chapter hosted its first annual promenade, which was a successful public event. In 1909, on February 14, The ''Alpha Rho chapter'' created a new society, this one for members of the senior class, called The Skulls. The Skulls replaced the Theta Nu Epsilon chapter. Both the earlier and later organizations were publicly recognized by the university, and appeared each year in the university yearbook. The Skulls was considered a legitimate student group until 1922. The organization officially ceased to exist at that time. ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...
'' devoted its April 1992 cover story to an exposé of The Machine. By their own estimates, Theta Nu Epsilon claims to have a "voter block of 8,000 students."


Controversies


Machine opposition

Over the years, numerous campus political groups have been formed in an attempt to motivate independent students to vote for non-Machine candidates. While a law student, future Congressman
Carl Elliott Carl Atwood Elliott (December 20, 1913 – January 9, 1999) was a U.S. representative from the U.S. state of Alabama. He was elected to eight consecutive terms, having served from 1949 to 1965. Background Elliott was born in rural Frank ...
of Vina, Alabama, ran for the high-profile position of president of the student government. With the support of the growing number of out-of-state students and women, Elliott became the first person to defeat the Machine. In 1936, Elliott completed his term as SGA president and graduated with his law degree. The University Party was formed by Ed Still and Jack Drake in 1967. Drake lost the SGA Presidency to Ralph Knowles and Still lost to Joe Espy. An anti-machine group called "The Coalition" formed in 1968 and operated through 1972. This was a joint effort by the men's dormitories, small non-machine fraternities, International Students Association, women students, and the
Afro-American Association The Afro-American Association (AAA) was an influential organization founded in 1962 that started as a study group teaching African and African American history, later hosting speakers, meetings, forums, and other activities. Historian Donna Murch ...
. It was formed by Steve Windom (later lieutenant governor), Tommy Chapman (later district attorney), Steve "Red" Wadlington (later political campaign operative), Don Gilbert (later head of Alabama Trial Lawyers Association) and
Jim Zeigler Jim Zeigler (born May 23, 1948) is an American lawyer and politician who served as state auditor of Alabama from 2015 to 2023. Before becoming state auditor, he served on the Alabama Public Service Commission from 1974 to 1978. Early life and ...
(later public service commissioner and a member of the Mallet Assembly). The Coalition succeeded in 1969 in electing Joe Estep as vice-president over the Machine's George Culver. It elected Henry Agee as secretary-treasurer over the Machine's Phil Reich. In 1970 it elected Zeigler as president of SGA as an independent. It also elected Windom to the Student Senate and almost 50% of the Student Senate in 1970–71. In 1972 the coalition senators led by Fred Benjamin got the SGA to recognize and fund the Afro-American Association. Benjamin co-won Senator of the Year award along with a machine senator. He lost election for vice president of the SGA later that year. Another anti-Machine group 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 (
Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States–based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapt ...
) that belonged to the Machine, as its president. Orr's fraternity was also the fraternity of the then SGA President, George Harris. Control of ASP was then subsequently retaken by independents later in the year, and it then 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. 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 (11th Cir. 1989). The Mallet Assembly, originally 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".
Jim Zeigler Jim Zeigler (born May 23, 1948) is an American lawyer and politician who served as state auditor of Alabama from 2015 to 2023. Before becoming state auditor, he served on the Alabama Public Service Commission from 1974 to 1978. Early life and ...
, who defeated The Machine in 1970 for SGA President, was a member of the Mallet Assembly and actually lived in old Mallet Hall, where his room was burned in 1971. One of the most controversial elections took place in 1976, when Cleo Thomas, an African-American student and member of an historically black fraternity, was elected to the SGA presidency with the support of the Mallet Assembly and a coalition of several sororities. In 1979, the Machine weathered an internal disagreement about who should be the Machine-endorsed candidates, which resulted in three fraternities electing to leave the Machine to run their own candidates. In 1989, independent Joey Viselli lost a very close election for president to a candidate who was reportedly the first-ever Machine-backed female candidate for the office. Many people, including
Tuscaloosa County Tuscaloosa County is a county in the northwest-central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama and is the center of commerce, education, industry, health care, and entertainment for the region. As of the 2020 census, its population was 227,036, ...
election workers assisting with the election, believed there were definite irregularities. Viselli took a challenge of the results to the administration, which ruled against a new election, but did remove future student elections from student control. Later that spring, Viselli was elected president of the Residents Hall Council after a challenge by James Adams, a freshman member of a fraternity (
Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States–based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapt ...
) that belonged to the Machine. Viselli's father Fran was a popular community figure who was the founder and owner of Bama-Bino's Pizza in the Tuscaloosa area. It has been widely believed that the Machine initiated a retaliatory boycott against Bama-Bino's following the election which, when combined with new competition, soon led to the closure of all Bama-Bino's.


1992 and suspension of the SGA

In 1992,
Phi Mu Phi Mu () is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States. The fraternity was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia as the Philomathean Society on , and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same ...
sorority member Minda Riley (daughter of former Alabama Governor
Bob Riley Robert Renfroe Riley (born October 3, 1944) is an American retired politician and businessman who served as the 52nd governor of Alabama from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was the U.S. Hous ...
) ran against Machine-backed candidate and
Beta Theta Pi Beta Theta Pi (), commonly known as Beta, is a North American social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity that was founded in 1839 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. One of North America's oldest fraternities, , it consist ...
fraternity member Neil Duthie. In that election, Minda Riley made claims of harassment and physical assault, even though she belonged to a Machine-aligned sorority. Following the physical assault of Riley, resulting in her fleeing campus, the university nevertheless suspended the Student Government Association altogether, and did not reinstitute it until 1996. Minda Riley's brother Rob Riley was elected president of the SGA as a Machine candidate. In 1999, African American Fabien “Fab” Zinga, a candidate for the SGA presidency, claimed that he was personally threatened and that his campaign signs were defaced.
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
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 "Resistance to Civil Government" 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 Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...
class while chanting words of protest against The Machine. 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 Emeline Aviki, a member of
Chi Omega Chi Omega (, also known as ChiO) is an American women's collegiate fraternity. It was established in 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Chi Omega has 181 active collegiate chapters and approximately 240 alumnae chapters. Since its founding in 18 ...
who openly refused to be affiliated with the Machine, detailed the alleged harassment she received for the ''Crimson White'', which used it for an exposé entitled "You don't want to mess with us." Though Aviki's campaign was successful, "the emotional and psychological toll the event caused" led her to transfer to
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
, where she went on to serve as class president.


Allegations of interference in Tuscaloosa municipal elections

Controversy surrounding The Machine reemerged in August 2013, when sororities and fraternities were mobilized to elect two former SGA presidents, Cason Kirby and Lee Garrison, in closely contested municipal school board races. Before election day, questions about illegal voter registration were raised when evidence emerged that indicated eleven fraternity members fraudulently claimed to be living in a single house in a specific school district. And on election day, leaked emails suggested that sorority/fraternity members may have been provided incentives to vote—including free drinks at local bars. As a result of possible voter fraud, Kirby's and Garrison's opponents refused to concede, and University of Alabama faculty have questioned whether The Machine has corrupted the democratic process in the City of Tuscaloosa.


Election of Elliot Spillers

In 2015, independent student Elliot Spillers was elected to the presidency, beating the Machine for the first time since Merrill. His election was followed by political stagnation, including the Senate initially blocking the confirmation of his chief of staff, Chisolm Allenlundy, before the administration forced the confirmation. The incident was reported in a few media outlets, and calls again came pressuring the university administration to take action against the organization.


Election of Jared Hunter

In 2017, the Machine backed an African American, Jared Hunter, for SGA President for the first time in its history. Hunter acknowledged his support from the Machine in an op-ed for the Crimson White during campaign season. Despite calls for his withdrawal over the article, as well as allegations of campaign finance violations, Hunter won the election and subsequently served until his resignation over a DUI arrest in early 2018.


Notable members

*
Bill Baxley William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama. In 1964, Baxley graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa, Alaba ...
*
J. Lister Hill Joseph Lister Hill (December 27, 1894 – December 20, 1984) was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician who represented Alabama in the United States House of Representatives from 1923 to 1938 and the United States Senate from 1938 ...
* John Jackson Sparkman *
Don Siegelman Donald Eugene Siegelman ( ; born February 24, 1946) is an American politician who was the 51st governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003. To date, Siegelman is the last Democrat as well as the only Catholic to serve as Governor of Alabama. Siegelma ...
*
Richard Shelby Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 1987 to 2023. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat, Shelby switched to the Republican Party i ...
* William "Bill" B. Blount


See also

*
Collegiate secret societies in North America There are many collegiate secret societies in North America. They vary greatly in their level of secrecy and the degree of independence from their universities. A collegiate ''secret society'' makes a significant effort to keep affairs, membershi ...


References


External links


Welcome To The Machine
a database on the machine, published anonymously
'Bama Girl
Documentary about a black woman running for Homecoming Queen against The Machine {{DEFAULTSORT:Machine Student societies in the United States University of Alabama Collegiate secret societies Secret societies in the United States 1914 establishments in Alabama Student organizations established in 1914 Local fraternities and sororities