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UM editor awaits sufficient action against fraternity
By Cameron Ackroyd
Alligator Writer
Late one night shortly after last year’s Sept. 11 attacks, Jordan Rodack returned to his room at the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity at the University of Miami to find the place trashed.
His possessions were tossed around, there was a dirty mattress and burnt flag on the ground and a used condom on his loft where his bed used to be.
Rodack, the editor of the university’s newspaper The Miami Hurricane, published an article that reflected poorly on the fraternity.
In the days following the Sept. 11 attacks, Alpha Epsilon Pi pledges had gone around campus with video cameras asking students “What would you do about these goddamn Arabs?’’
But before the newspaper’s report on the incident was published, fraternity members stole all 9,000 published copies.
UM found three fraternity members responsible for the theft and punished them.
“A few days later I was in my room, and I opened my door, and a bucket of vomit fell right into my room,” Rodack said.
The fraternity was told to take out a half-page ad in the Sept. 17 issue of The Hurricane, apologizing to Rodack.
But Rodack said the three members found responsible had their penalties reduced and are once again students in good standing with both the university and the fraternity.
Rodack said the university and the fraternity have not sufficiently punished fraternity members for the abuse they hurled at him, which he said included death threats and a period during which he was stalked.
A UM spokeswoman said the university and its administration have no position on the situation.
“I was hopeful that the university would protect the freedom of the press, and they have not shown a willingness to do so,” he said. “The university has sat by and watched it happen, and I’m very disappointed at this point.”
The fraternity was not formally charged and members accused of stealing the newspapers were not further disciplined.
UM English and history senior Alex Matzinger, who was a member of the fraternity, said the fraternity should have been put on suspension and be forced to reimburse Rodack’s semester dues.
“[The administrators] were waiting for Jordan to get sick of the whole thing, and hopefully it would all go away and they wouldn’t have to do anything,” he said.
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