The Machine

Summary

Campus Files: The Machine Episode Release Date: June 4, 2025

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Introduction to the Machine

In the June 4, 2025 episode of Campus Files, host Margo Gray delves into the enigmatic and powerful fraternity known as "the Machine" at the University of Alabama. Described as a "chapter of the national secret society Theta Nu Epsilon," the Machine exerts immense influence over campus life and state politics, operating with a level of secrecy that even its members deny its existence.

"It's so secretive that its own members deny it exists, and yet its presence is everywhere... is simply the Machine."
— Margo Gray [01:03]

Alicia's College Journey

Alicia, the first in her family to attend college, chose the University of Alabama, driven by her parents' enthusiasm for both the football team and Greek life. Her mother envisioned Greek life as a pathway for Alicia to build connections, potentially leading to marriage or better job opportunities.

"To her, I think that was something special... I knew that I would go through rush."
— Alicia [02:54]

In 1983, during a highly competitive sorority rush, Alicia was accepted into her top choice, Phi Mu. The welcoming atmosphere of Squeal Day initially drew her into the sorority's embrace, where she enjoyed the parties, sisterhood, and camaraderie.

"It was all just right away, you're sucked into it. And at that time, they're so welcoming, and they really made it feel special."
— Alicia [03:37]

Joining the Student Paper

Determined to build a solid journalism portfolio, Alicia joined the university's student newspaper, the Crimson White. This decision placed her at odds with her sorority sisters, who historically resented the Crimson White for its critical reporting on Greek life issues such as segregation and the Machine's dominance.

"Her sorority sisters couldn't understand why she'd want to write for the student paper... they were always antagonistic to each other."
— Margo Gray [11:12]

Despite initial distrust from her peers at the newspaper, Alicia earned the respect of fellow reporter John Archibald by demonstrating her commitment to hard-hitting journalism. Her primary focus became the Student Government Association (SGA), through which she began uncovering the Machine's pervasive control over campus elections.

Unmasking the Machine's Influence

The Machine's dominance dates back to 1914, consistently ensuring that only Machine-backed candidates won student government elections. Even as the university diversified, the Machine adapted to maintain its grip on power, including integrating sororities in 1976 to bolster its influence.

"The Machine has run Alabama's campus. It's a chapter of the national secret society Theta Nu Epsilon... Since the student government came into existence in 1914, machine-backed candidates have almost never lost."
— Margo Gray [05:56]

Alicia observed the Machine's tactics firsthand, such as distributing vote lists that dictated how sorority members should vote, effectively controlling election outcomes.

"They would have printouts that told us who to vote for in every category... I knew what voting was supposed to be, and I had just voted in my first presidential election right around that time."
— Alicia [05:19]

Encounters with Intimidation

As Alicia pursued her investigations, the Machine employed increasingly aggressive tactics to suppress dissent. Incidents included harassment of independent SGA candidates, physical assaults on campaign aides, and even cross burnings aimed at intimidating black sororities.

"His campaign aide had already been hospitalized with broken ribs after being beaten by fraternity members... a black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, was moving into an empty sorority house... there was a cross burning next to the sorority house."
— Margo Gray [15:06]

Despite these threats, Alicia persisted in her reporting, documenting the Machine's relentless efforts to maintain its authority through fear and coercion.

Pursuing the Exposé

Determined to expose the Machine, Alicia, along with John and another editor, orchestrated a surveillance operation outside the SAE fraternity house. Their goal was to identify key members involved in clandestine meetings. However, their efforts were thwarted when fraternity members hastily concealed their identities, and the subsequent story faced significant suppression.

"We know that can happen... Not a lot of that story got out."
— Alicia [22:42]

Publishing and Backlash

Despite their thorough investigation, the published exposé saw limited distribution as papers were systematically removed from newsstands, likely by the Machine’s operatives. The backlash from sorority friends and the wider Greek community was severe. Alicia faced ostracization, threats, and direct intimidation, including vandalism and warnings to cease her journalistic activities.

"It had become scary all the time, boys calling the house and telling me that I needed to stop writing for the paper and I would be sorry if I didn't."
— Alicia [23:46]

A pivotal moment occurred when Alicia published an opinion piece advocating for the integration of sororities, further alienating her from the Greek community and leading to a confrontation with a Phi Mu alumni advisor who demanded she relinquish her sorority ties or face expulsion.

"I told her that I was going into journalism and that was why I was doing it, and that I felt like I was probably going to marry the guy. And so, no, I'm not going to quit those things."
— Alicia [25:58]

Long-Term Impact

Despite Alicia's courageous efforts, the Machine's control remained unchallenged. Her story’s limited reach meant that the Machine continued its dominance over campus elections and extended its influence beyond the university into state politics, producing alumni who held significant political power.

"The Machine will continue to control campus elections for the foreseeable future... These people go on to be very important, not just in Alabama, in the country."
— Margo Gray [29:22]

John Archibald reflects on the broader implications of the Machine’s legacy, expressing concern over the ruthless political tactics it fosters, which resonate in national politics today.

"It's a sort of ruthless brand of politics... we can make them into a 'they.' And I think that that's the model that has concerned me so much."
— John Archibald [29:30]

Conclusion

The episode of Campus Files titled "The Machine" offers a profound exploration of the entrenched power structures within the University of Alabama. Through Alicia's personal journey and investigative efforts, Margo Gray highlights the enduring challenges of exposing clandestine organizations and the profound impact such groups can have on both campus and national landscapes.

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For more stories on institutional scandals, explore seasons 1-3 of Gangster Capitalism in this feed.

Transcript

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[Margo Gray]

In 1992, Esquire magazine ran a cover story with the headline the Most Powerful Fraternity in America. It was about a secret organization at the University of Alabama known as the Machine. It's so secretive that its own members deny it exists, and yet its presence is everywhere, the article's subtitle reads. It controls life at the University of Alabama, but nobody can see it. Its influence extends to the State House but nobody can touch, reeks of corruption, but nobody can smell is simply the Machine.

[Alicia]

It seems so silly for a college group, but the stakes really are high. When you talk about the things they've been willing to do in passed to win, targeting people who went against them. When you talk about that racism is nurtured there, and when you talk about the power they continue to hold in the state and also in the country, then it isn't really as silly as you might think it is.

[Margo Gray]

I'm Margo Gray. This week on campus, files were pulling back the curtain on the most powerful and most secretive fraternity in America. Getting into college was a major milestone for Alicia. She'd be the first in her family to attend. Both of her parents were particularly excited about the University of Alabama. Her dad for the football team and her mom for the Greek life.

[Alicia]

I think that my mom was drawn to the Greek life and was interested in that for me because she saw it as a possibility to help me meet somebody, to marry or to get a better job and for her daughter to be a sorority girl at Alabama. To her, I think that was something special. So once I decided to go there, I knew that I would go through rush.

[Margo Gray]

Back in 1983, when Alicia was at Alabama, sorority rush was just as cutthroat as it is today. But she got into her top choice, Phi Mu. She still remembers the moment known on campus as Squeal Day. Like it was yesterday.

[Alicia]

Everybody's literally squealing and running from the student center to the houses to meet the sisters on the lawn of the houses, and they give you a shirt with your Greek letters, and there's a party that night, and it's all just right away, you're sucked into it. And at that time, they're so welcoming, and they really made it feel special.

[Margo Gray]

At first, Alicia loved everything about the sorority. The parties, the sisterhood, the camaraderie.

[Alicia]

And it was good to have built in friends, people that were interested in the same things I was interested in and that seemed supportive.

[Margo Gray]

But early on, Alicia saw a darker side beneath the frills and pink accessories. The first glimpse came during her freshman year, when a high school friend, also attending Alabama, ran for student government.

[Alicia]

I innocently thought that I could bring her to dinner at the Phi Mu house and introduce her to everybody. It wasn't like we were, you know, handing out anything. I brought her to dinner, I clinked my glass, and I introduced her and said that she'd been my friend and she's great, and she's running for Senate, and please consider voting for her. That was the extent of the whole thing. And that was the first time that I really got in trouble.

[Margo Gray]

An older girl in the sorority pulled Alicia aside and scolded her. She was told not to support or vote for anyone outside of Greek life. Then, on the eve of the election, she was handed a cheat sheet, a list of exactly who to vote for, from student government president to homecoming queen.

[Alicia]

You would come to the house for dinner or whatever other event there was, and they would have printouts. I'm sure they do it on the phone now, but back then, we had printouts that told us who to vote for in every category that we could vote in. And we were supposed to take that to the polls with us and put it down next to our ballot and just make those selections. I knew what voting was supposed to be, and I had just voted in my first presidential election right around that time. Even then, I knew no one could tell me how to vote.

[Margo Gray]

But being told how to vote is a common practice at Alabama, and that's thanks to the machine for Over a century, the Machine has run Alabama's campus. It's a chapter of the national secret society Theta Nu Epsilon. But unlike similar groups at other schools, like Yale's Skull and Bones, the Machine became a political powerhouse. Here's how it each fraternity in the Machine had a representative. They met in secret to handpick student government candidates, then made sure their houses voted exactly as told. And it worked. Since the student government came into existence in 1914, machine backed candidates have almost never lost. As the university began admitting women and non white students, the Machine's mission only intensified. It was about holding onto power, and that meant keeping it in the hands of white men. Until 1976, sororities were excluded from the Machine, but that changed after they helped elect a black student as SGA president, a direct challenge to the Machine's control. In response, the Machine brought them in.

[Alicia]

The only reason they were brought in was to double their voting power. And if not for that, they probably still wouldn't be in there.

[Margo Gray]

Phi Mu. Alicia's sorority was one of many brought into the Machine. When she rushed, she knew it was a Machine sorority, but it didn't mean much to her until the start of her junior year when she joined the student paper, the Crimson White.

[Alicia]

I was majoring in journalism and I decided to write for the Crimson White because I knew that when I graduated I would be asked for a portfolio of clips, and those don't make themselves.

[Margo Gray]

At the time, the editor of the paper was a former sorority sister of Alicia's. Though she'd since dropped out. She was excited for Alicia to join, but did warn her that getting involved with the paper might cause some tension with the sorority.

[Alicia]

But, you know, not enough to scare me off. I can say honestly, I did not anticipate the level of disgruntledness I would get from my friends and from other Greek members.

[Margo Gray]

Her sorority sisters couldn't understand why she'd want to write for the student paper. After all, the paper had a history of publishing critical pieces about Greek life, from its segregation to its control over student government.

[Alicia]

So from the very start, they were discouraging me, coming to me and saying, they're going to try to get you to do things that'll make us look bad. You don't need to do this. Sometimes they would ask me what kind of stories I was going to be writing and there was a lot of why are you doing this? What is your goal? Some of them were satisfied with me saying I was a journalism major and I had to do this, but not.

[Margo Gray]

With everybody Alicia very quickly learned that working at the paper came with consequences. One day, her friend from the sorority asked to talk.

[Alicia]

She was crying. And she conveyed she had been promised homecoming queen by the machine. I didn't know that. I did not know that she had been tapped by them.

[Margo Gray]

Her friend said the machine was pulling its support because she was close with a Crimson White reporter. Alicia.

[Alicia]

She completely blamed me, and it was a bad time. I can remember being in her room with her like her, just sobbing and feeling like her, you know, she'd lost the world. Her disappointment was so great.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia's friend was on the ballot for homecoming queen that year. But when the machine handed out its cheat sheets, her name wasn't selected. Without the machine's backing, she lost the race.

[Alicia]

You don't want your friends to get hurt because of what you're doing. And she was never my friend again.

[Margo Gray]

To Alicia, it was clear the machine was sending her a message. Stop writing for the paper or there will be more consequences.

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[Margo Gray]

You can Venmo this or you can Vemo that.

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Yo, you can Vemo this.

[Alicia]

So you can Vemo that.

[John Archibald]

You can Vemo.

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[Margo Gray]

3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees, extra terms. @mintmobile.com at the University of Alabama, the relationship between Greek life and the student paper is anything but cordial. For decades, the Crimson White has been calling out the problems within the Greek elitism, segregation and the influence of the machine.

[Alicia]

I think that the people from the Crimson White covered the Machine. From the first whisper of it in the early 1900s or whatever, they were always antagonistic to each other.

[Margo Gray]

So you can see why Crimson White reporters were surprised when Alicia, a sorority girl, joined the newsroom.

[John Archibald]

None of us trusted her when she came in. We did not trust her at all. We thought she was some kind of spy or something.

[Margo Gray]

This is John Archibald. He was a year older than Alicia and already an established reporter at the Crimson White.

[John Archibald]

We were an automatically distrustful. I mean, this was the 80s and we were very 80s, dark newsroom kind of people. And she was, you know, pink bow in the hair, kind of, you know, Greek letters around her neck kind of thing. So, I mean, I think there was a natural sort of distrust because that was the nature of the environment. You know, this is a segregated Greek, non, Greek campus. It all sounds weird and it is weird.

[Alicia]

I know I was wearing a pink bow in my hair, like a big one, because I wore them all the time. I didn't think about them not liking Greeks. So I wore my usual, you know, I'm pretty sure I had on some shorts with a FAME logo on. I mean, I was completely geared in the way that I usually would be. There were people who were very suspicious of me and didn't really trust what I was doing.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia was determined to prove herself in the newsroom and especially eager to impress John.

[Alicia]

He made a very big impact on me when I met him. I really liked him from the very start.

[Margo Gray]

It didn't take long for John's suspicion to fade. He and Alesha started dating not long after. And Alicia won over the rest of the team too, proving herself to be a hard hitting journalist. Her main beat was the Student Government association, the sga.

[Alicia]

As we started getting into the elections, it became more obvious that the machine was controlling what was going on. And you couldn't cover the SGA without talking about who was making decisions. Behind the scenes.

[Margo Gray]

The machine had an extraordinary grip on suiting government. From the SJA's founding in 1914 through the early 1980s, when Alicia was on campus, it had handpicked all but seven student body presidents.

[Alicia]

That was always a big question to me personally. How could the machine stay in power when there were so many more people who were not in Greek life? Only 20% of campus was Greek, for one.

[Margo Gray]

The machine was skilled at mobilizing those Greeks to the polls, whether by offering free beer in exchange for votes or fining members who didn't vote. But they didn't rely on chance alone.

[Alicia]

I realized how sinister they were willing to do anything to accomplish their goals.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia quickly became familiar with the machine's more nefarious tactics and the extreme lengths they would go to in order to win.

[Alicia]

One night, we were working at the crimson white office, and we heard a kerfuffle down the hall.

[Margo Gray]

Two fraternity members had broken into the office of an independent candidate for sga president, A move straight out of the Nixon Watergate playbook. But this wasn't the first instance of harassment the candidate had faced. His campaign aide had already been hospitalized with broken ribs after being beaten by fraternity members. Then there was the time a black candidate ran for sga treasurer. He claimed that the machine made threatening phone calls to force him to drop out. Later, one afternoon, while driving back to campus, he was run off the road by a car full of white fraternity guys. He reported the incidents to the administration, but nothing came of it. And so it went with the administration. Even after the cross burning.

[Alicia]

A black sorority, Alpha kappa alpha, was moving into an empty sorority house, and it was directly behind the famu house. The road curves around, and they backed up to each other, And John and I were coming home from a date. He was dropping me off, and there were all these police cars, Just so much going on.

[Margo Gray]

They drove over to see what the commotion was about. To their shock, there was a cross burning next to the sorority house.

[Alicia]

It was so distorted, disturbing, and upsetting. And the message was, we do not want black sororities on white sorority row. And it's not like the sorority issued a press release saying it was wrong or anything like that. That is not the stance that was taken. I don't remember anybody telling me they were disturbed by it. Honestly.

[John Archibald]

Foreign.

[Margo Gray]

The administration didn't investigate the crime, and they certainly didn't acknowledge the open secret that the machine was behind it. That silence gave the machine room to thrive. After all, if it didn't officially exist, it couldn't be held accountable. Not surprisingly, when Alicia tried asking about the machine's involvement in the cross burning, she got nowhere.

[Alicia]

There's just this extreme silence when you try to interview somebody. They really persisted in not admitting that the machine even existed. They would go so far as to say, what machine? What are you talking about?

[Margo Gray]

Alicia found that hard to believe. Everyone in Greek life knew about the machine, and yet even sorority and fraternity members didn't know who their own representative was. That's how secretive the organization was. But Alicia wasn't the type to settle for ignorance. She'd been quietly keeping a list of people she suspected were involved. Then a tip came in from someone inside the organization.

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[Margo Gray]

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[Alicia]

We sat there basically getting more and more nervous and excited as we watched the house, waiting for the meeting to be over, for people to come out.

[Margo Gray]

Finally the meeting wrapped and one by one people began trickling out of the fraternity house. Alicia recognized the faces, fellow Greeks, many from her own social scene, and she couldn't quite believe she was watching this unfold.

[Alicia]

So we crossed the street and head over there to interview people with our little notebooks, and they saw us coming and it was like such a scramble. They all went running back into the SAE house and the next thing we knew people had coats over themselves to hide their identities. And I guess it was probably pledges from that year were driving cars up and people were jumping in the cars with the raincoats on or whatever and they were speeding away.

[Margo Gray]

They'd gathered enough names to publish a story, but Alicia and John weren't satisfied. They wanted a comment for the article, so they decided to drive after them.

[Alicia]

Why? I don't know. It was ridiculous. We should not have been driving fast through town, and it was not a good idea.

[Margo Gray]

Suddenly the Cars they were chasing slammed to a stop, then turned and started coming straight at them. So they raced to the relative safety of the Crimson White office located in the student center.

[Alicia]

While we were working at the student center, there were cars driving around the block all night. It was very intimidating.

[Margo Gray]

Meant to intimidate with cars circling. They stayed up all night racing to get the expose ready for publication the next morning. Back at a time when the newsroom had no computers.

[Alicia]

We laid out the pages by hand. And so we were using a waxer and X acto knives and time consuming and hard. But we were definitely ramped up on adrenaline. It was very fun and exciting, but also terrifying.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia nervously braced for the campus reaction the next morning. After all, she was about to drag a top secret organization out of the shadows. But when she woke up, she discovered that most of the papers had been stolen from the newsstands, presumably by members of the Machine.

[Alicia]

That is something they've done in the past. So we knew that could happen. And we tried to have people out, but there's no way to cover all the bins on campus. And, you know, then you would get out of class and go. And they were gone. So not a lot of that story got out.

[Margo Gray]

It was a solid piece of journalism, and Alicia was proud of her work. But many people in her life didn't share the same sentiment. Her mom, for one, wasn't thrilled.

[Alicia]

She felt like I was unnecessarily drawing attention to myself and to things that shouldn't be talked about.

[Margo Gray]

Her reporting wasn't just getting attention. It was also making people angry.

[Alicia]

My friends that I thought were my friends, many of them were not supportive of me and in fact, just wouldn't support, speak to me and were embarrassed by me and mad at me and all that.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia still lived with those friends in her sorority house. One day, she noticed something on the bulletin board. Her face had been scratched out with a pencil.

[Alicia]

It had become scary all the time, boys calling the house and telling me that I needed to stop writing for the paper and I would be sorry if I didn't. And the last girl who did it had her lights in her car, bashed out with a baseball bat. And, you know, I wouldn't want that right then.

[Margo Gray]

In the spring of her junior year, Alicia added kindling to the fire. She published an opinion piece in the Crimson White.

[Alicia]

It was about my desire to integrate the sororities and feeling that 1986 was too late for us to be doing that, that we should have done it before, and how we made benefit from the diversity. And I honestly believe that that is what was the final straw for my alumni professor.

[Margo Gray]

Shortly after the piece was published, the Phi Mu alumni advisor summoned Alicia to her office.

[Alicia]

And I would just like to reiterate that I was 21 years old. I feel like I was still a child. And she was a very successful realtor and Tuscaloosa with children in college who had a lot of life under her belt. So I was very intimidated. When she started talking, she told me that I shouldn't be writing for the paper. She's like, you are hurting the name of Phi Mu.

[Margo Gray]

The advisor told Alicia that Phi Mu's national headquarters was involved, meaning she was in serious trouble.

[Alicia]

I was so shocked, and I started crying, and I was like, there were always girls in the house with drugs. Why are you focusing on me? That doesn't make sense.

[Margo Gray]

The alumni advisor suggested that Alicia's boyfriend John, was likely to blame for her poor decision making.

[Alicia]

He was a bad influence, and if I would just break up with him and quit the paper, then they would just open their arms back up to me. But if I refused to do those things, then they were going to kick me out.

[Margo Gray]

In other words, Alicia had a choice. Drop her boyfriend in the paper or drop the sorority.

[Alicia]

I told her that I was going into journalism and that was why I was doing it, and that I felt like I was probably going to marry the guy. And so, no, I'm not going to quit those things. Those are my lifelong things.

[Margo Gray]

With that, the advisor instructed Alicia to hand over her sorority pin, a gift her mom had given her.

[Alicia]

I loved it so much, and my mother saved up for it. It broke my heart. I could not imagine telling my mother that my pin had been confiscated.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia lied, saying she'd lost the pin. She still has the pin today. After college, she ignored her alumni advisor's warning and married John. On their 10th wedding anniversary, John got her name tattooed on his ankle. Alicia couldn't help herself. She called up her old advisor to share the news. A petty gift to herself, she said. Then a few years later, that advisor came back into their lives.

[Alicia]

John won a Pulitzer for his [e-mail], and he heard from so many people that he knew, and it was all exciting. And then he got a letter from my old alumni advisor who had called me in and told me to break up with him. And I don't think there could have been anyone who would have surprised us more.

[Margo Gray]

Here's Alicia reading from that letter.

[Alicia]

I have always read your columns with both interest and amusement. I have pulled several of your columns over time to re enjoy and I have one about the Machine. I hated that organization. Good job. Exclamation point.

[Margo Gray]

Alicia took it as a sign that the advisor may have been pressured to make the threat, a reminder that even grown adults had reason to fear and hate a college secret society. Today, the Machine is as powerful as ever. In February 2020, the Crimson White's editorial board published a piece titled it's time for the University to End the Machine's Election Intimidation for good, they wrote. What use is there for an independent candidate running for a position they are all but doomed to lose? And really, how can we expect the university to confront the Machine's intimidation when it's never even acknowledged that the group exists?

[Alicia]

It is beneficial to the university's pocketbook. These are people who often come from moneyed families, often very, very successful, and give the school money. So I think that there's a fear of putting that in jeopardy.

[Margo Gray]

If that's true, the Machine will continue to control campus elections for the foreseeable future. And that's significant because the group doesn't just place students in positions of power. At the University of Alabama. Here's John.

[John Archibald]

These people go on to be very important, not just in Alabama, in the country. Whether that's Katie Brett, the senator from Alabama right now, to Richard Shelby, the senator who preceded her to a lot of people throughout history who gained their political chops through the machine.

[Margo Gray]

And John says the lessons taught by the machine aren't exactly the ones we'd want shaping our national politics.

[John Archibald]

It's sort of a ruthless brand of politics that's taught as threats and violence and this overarching idea of using fear as a tool and then fear of the outsiders, fear of those who aren't. That's the same thing we see in the world today. Whether they're immigrants or whether they're people of color or whether they have a different religion or whatever, we can make them into a they. And I think that that's the model that has concerned me so much and made me, as a 60 year old guy, worried about what happens on campus at the University of Alabama.

[Margo Gray]

Campus Files is an Odyssey Original Podcast. This episode was written and reported by Margo Gray. Campus Files is produced by Ian Mont Eliot Adler and me, Margo Gray. Our executive producers and story editors are Maddie Sprunkiser and Lloyd Lockridge. Campus Files is edited, mixed and mastered by Chris Basel and Andy Jaskowicz. Special thanks to Jenna Weiss Berman, J.D. crowley, Leah Reese Dennis, Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Schuff, Sean Cherry, Laura Berman and Hilary Van Ornam. Original theme music by James Waterman and Davey Sumner. If you have tips or stories, ideas, write to [e-mail].

[Ryan Reynolds]

I'm CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett, and you're invited to the takeout. No reservations required. Every weeknight, our podcast serves up a balanced menu of politics, policy and pop culture. The day's happenings with curiosity, informality and humor. Serious discussion, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. Follow and listen to the takeout with me, Major Garrett, on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.