UVM suspends fraternity after survey asks members who they want to rapeMike Donoghue, Joel Banner Baird and Adam Silverman
Burlington Free Press
A survey that asked fraternity members at the University of Vermont about their preferred rape victim, allegedly circulated by members of Sigma Phi Epsilon, has resulted in the fraternity’s suspension and a visit from its national headquarters, according to university officials.
The matter has been forwarded to campus police to determine if there is a criminal aspect to the incident, Thomas J. Gustafson, vice president for student and campus life, said Tuesday.
“We don’t know what we’ve got right now; we don’t know which individual or individuals are involved,” Gustafson said.
The Sigma Phi Epsilon survey question was: “If you could rape someone, who would it be?”
Full article.
I have a friend who has no interest in administration save for one, far off dream: if he were ever a Dean/Provost/President/Chancellor, he would actually hold Fraternities to their pretend charters and expel them from campus as soon as the "brothers" stop being the pious ideal citizens described in literature and actually be the assholes they tend to be all the time.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me laugh.
"....he would actually hold Fraternities to their pretend charters and expel them from campus...."
ReplyDeleteThat's too clean; I would drive a T-72 tank through the offending frat houses.
"...I would drive a T-72 tank through the offending frat houses."
ReplyDeleteThat's too fast; I would bbq them.
I thought the M60 Patton was the tank of choice for vigilante justice.
ReplyDeleteYou'd leave the Delta Tau Chis and the Tri Lams alone though, right?!
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ReplyDeleteOnce, at grad school, house on Frat Row caught fire during a party -- something about flaming shots gone awry -- and the whole thing was destroyed.
ReplyDeleteI took a lot of pleasure in seeing that.
According to a friend I have at UVM several people wanted to go down with torches and have a bonfire. Also, though the article doesn't say it, the question came to the administration's attention after a student sent the survey to his TA instead of his homework.
ReplyDeleteMatt Ruff wrote a very funny book called "The Fool on the Hill" set on Cornell's campus. There's a fictional frat called "Rho Alpha Tau"--the RAT frat. They're part of a subplot, and the way Ruff relates the story of what happened to a girl who ended up at a party there makes me think that he too, had personal experience with some real fuckwads.
ReplyDeleteI went to a SLAC with no frats or sororities, because a benefactor gave GENEROUSLY to the College to ensure that it would never allow national "organizations" like that on campus. Instead, we had "social clubs"--and those were mainly divided by what sport or computer club you were in: rugby had their own, the football/baseball/basketball jocks had one, the soccer players had their own, and the nerds had one. Each male club had a "sister" club. There was a sort of "rush" week but it was nothing like the shit you see in the news. I never really saw the point, though I wandered to a few parties. It mainly seemed like an excuse to party, and I didn't really need an excuse.
I see this as a corollary to the Penn State students rioting over JoePa's ouster. They accept rape culture as just part of our culture--like, what's the BFD? And that's what so shocking and sad.
Be careful Strel, sometimes the morons are armed. At my grad school uni, the Kappa Alpha house had a big cannon out front, pointing away from their building. One night a bunch of drunken-idiot KAs managed to load and fire what I had assumed was a decorative cannon. The fuckers actually managed to blast the corner off an apartment building across the street.
ReplyDelete@surly ... oh my... I know it maybe isn't supposed to be, but that's kinda hilarious. Can you imagine their doofussy faces when they realized the cannon was REAL (if they didn't know)?
ReplyDeleteFrats are for people who are too lame to find friends on their own. I was 14 and just out of 8th grade when I snuck out to my first frat party, and even then I knew that the 21-year-old hitting on me had to be a loser if a high school girl was his only option.
ReplyDeletethe 21-year-old hitting on me had to be a loser if a high school girl was his only option
ReplyDeleteYou've obviously (grin!) never been a boy, Froad. Some of these guys will hit on anyone they see. It's about the tally sheet.