Quote:
Originally Posted by LaneSig
For the record, I have never enjoyed the kind of humor that the two emcees displayed. It's just not my thing.
I do have a problem with the whole Derby Days being suspended because of this incident. I think the university could have had a conversation with the fraternity president, Derby Days chairs, and the two emcees about what is appropriate and inappropriate and let the event continue.
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Well if IFC or Sigma Chi HQ want to suspend the activity, IFC is an organization Sigma Chi voluntarily organizes with, so they might have that power. Sigma Chi HQ certainly has that power. The school does not. Period.
Public universities don't get to ban activities because of offensive behaviors. Doing so will open them up to liability. We all have a First Amendment right to be offensive, sexist, racist, etc. While our private organizations can do anything they want to combat that behavior, public schools cannot.
There may be an argument about events which might lead to an imminent breach of the public peace (e.g., if Alpha Beta wants to hold a slave auction where pledges are dressed as slaves wearing blackface, that would almost certainly result in some sort of riot, allowing the school to shut it down). This, however, resulted in a lot of people being offended and some people walking out of the event.
And to be clear, I'm not endorsing this behavior at all, I find it childish and offensive and if this happened within my chapter, I'd probably be coordinating with HQ because our charter would likely be suspended at this point pending an investigation by HQ and I'd be advising the undergrads on expulsion procedures for everyone involved. I would, however, tell the school administration to butt as we were handling this internally and that they had no business regulating our speech and that I wouldn't rule out legal action if they wanted to proceed with any sort of sanctions.