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Damaged Restaurant Growls; UF Apologizes

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

TAMPA - A manager of the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City complained to the University of Florida that one of its sororities drunkenly caused trouble, damage and fights during a social held at the historic eatery two weeks ago.

On Oct. 11, about 250 members of Zeta Tau Alpha, Gamma Iota chapter, and their dates 'arrived in an intoxicated state' and 'turned our 102-year-old fine-dining restaurant into a frat house,' catering manager Caroline O'Connor wrote to UF President Bernie Machen in a letter dated the next day.

The restaurant had to call police to break up a fight between guests, 'something we have never had happen,' O'Connor wrote. Members of the visiting group broke a toilet and a men's room baby-changing table and also vomited 'in various parts of the restaurant,' she added.

University officials have apologized to the Columbia and are investigating the complaint to determine whether to discipline the sorority chapter, UF spokesman Steve Orlando said.

In a written statement, the sorority's national president said the UF chapter is prohibited from holding social events that include alcohol while her staff investigates the complaint. 'These actions do not represent the high ideals of our 109-year-old sisterhood,' Zeta Tau Alpha National President Laura Ladewig Mauro said.

The UF sorority booked its social at the Columbia and chartered four buses for the trip from Gainesville. O'Connor alleged that 80 percent of the group arrived at the restaurant drunk. Most were underage, 'as we carded everyone on arrival,' she wrote.

Once there, some of the guests ripped a handle off the entrance door, damaged a restroom and tried stealing liquor from the bar before they were caught, O'Connor wrote.

The restaurant's management then asked the group to leave. 'We cannot tolerate that type of behavior,' O'Connor wrote.

Tampa police spokeswoman Kristin Molina said officers were called to the Columbia about 10:20 p.m. that night to break up a fight outside between two customers, but the fight was over by the time they arrived.
Zeta Tau Alpha members have been in trouble with UF before. The group had alcohol at an off-campus party in fall 2002 when it wasn't supposed to, Orlando said. The university prohibited the group from participating in social events the following semester.

Efforts to reach student leaders at the UF chapter were unsuccessful. When reached by phone, O'Connor declined to speak with a reporter.

The university is working with the sorority's headquarters to determine how badly the group damaged the restaurant. Mauro said her vice president will visit the UF chapter to determine whether its members violated any of the group's policies and whether they should face further discipline.

Whatever the national leaders decide, however, the university could sanction the chapter as well, Orlando said.

Reporter Mike Wells contributed to this report. Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at

aemerson@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-8285.

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