Administrations going too far?

[DeltAlum]

There is truth in the following article. The problem, I think, is where to draw the line between freedom and offensive behavior...

The Washington Times
November 22, 2002

Campus correctness;
Insensitivity claims restrain expression on fraternity row

By Ellen Sorokin, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Greek fraternities and sororities didn't invent fun; they perfected
it, as they like to say, but their antics have been under fire on
college campuses across the country.

Hazing and drinking aside, the main issue now is freedom of speech.
College administrators judge some activities as racist or insensitive.

One example occurred at the University of Georgia, where
administrators warned fraternities in July against displaying the
state flag with its Confederate emblem. Black students objected to
the flag, saying it reminded them of slavery. In an e-mail message
sent to fraternities, administrators threatened to penalize any group
caught displaying the flag. After student protests, administrators
apologized to the fraternities, saying the university had no written
policy against displaying the flag.

Civil libertarians say university officials around the country have
instituted policies that in practice apply only to the Greeks.

In some administrative actions against fraternities:

*Administrators at the University of Tennessee last month suspended
Kappa Sigma after some members wore black paint on their faces and
dressed up as the Jackson Five for an air-guitar competition at a
campus party.

*A chancellor at Syracuse University in New York suspended Sigma
Alpha Epsilon and took action against one of its members after the
student dressed up as golf celebrity Tiger Woods at an off-campus
graduation costume party in May. The chancellor said his
administration would be "amenable to developing a reporting system
that includes ... bias-related incidents as defined by university
policy."

*Officials at the University of Louisville in Kentucky suspended Tau
Kappa Epsilon this year for at least five months and ordered its
members to undergo sensitivity training after the fraternity was
found guilty of conduct that "seriously alarms, intimidates or
harasses others and serves no legitimate purpose."

The charge stemmed from an off-campus Halloween party last year where
several fraternity members wore black face paint and dressed as
rapper Snoop Dogg and the movie character Shaft. A black fraternity
member wore a Ku Klux Klan costume, which he burned at the party.

*Administrators at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire put Psi Upsilon
on probation and ordered all members to undergo sensitivity training
after the school's Greek Judiciary Council found the fraternity
guilty of racial harassment.

The charges stemmed from an incident in which several fraternity
members stood outside their house and chanted "wah-hoo-wah," a
traditional cheer at Dartmouth. The council found that the cheer was
offensive to American Indians.

*Officials at the University of Mississippi decreed that all students
belonging to the school's Greek system must undergo sensitivity
training after a member of Alpha Tau Omega attended a 2001 Halloween
party dressed in a police uniform and pointed a toy gun at another
member, who was dressed in overalls, had painted his face black and
was wearing a straw hat. The university suspended the fraternity for
a year, but did not punish any students.

*Administrators at Auburn University in Alabama settled a lawsuit
brought by a Beta Theta Pi, which the school suspended after members
attended Halloween parties last year in blackface, do-rags and Afro
wigs. The Halloween party was organized by another fraternity, Omega
Psi Phi, the oldest black fraternity on campus.

The university suspended both fraternities and suspended 15 students.
Ten students sued the university for $300 million for violating their
First and 14th Amendment rights.

A county judge last November ruled that Auburn violated its rules of
fairness and required the school to readmit the students. The
university settled the lawsuit out of court on May 15, and agreed to
allow the fraternity and its members back on campus.

A report released by the Heritage Foundation in 2000 concluded that
the Greek system had become a victim of political correctness.

The report said colleges target fraternities because many
administrators see the Greek system as an anachronism, segregated by
sex and steeped in overly conservative tradition.

Fraternity membership fell by 30 percent over the last 10 years.
Schools like Williams College in Massachusetts and Bowdoin College
and Colby College in Maine have banned fraternities altogether, the
report said.

"Universities should be centers of free expression and equal rights,"
said Thor Halvorssen, chief executive officer of the Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education [FIRE] in Philadelphia.

"In fact, fraternity students, unpopular in the eyes of
administrators, very frequently find their rights deliberately
disregarded. In a free society, individuals who find fraternities or
their protected expressions and behaviors offensive ... should not
have the power to call upon the selective and heavy hand of coercive
authority and censorship."

Greek groups should have the same rights and responsibilities as
other official student organizations, Richard Mullendore, associate
provost at the University of Georgia, said in a letter to FIRE.

"A bureaucrat's power and budget are directly proportional to the
amount of turf he controls," said Winfield Myers, an education
analyst with the Democracy Project, an educational assessment and
outreach organization in Wilmington, Del.

"Deans and radical professors have successfully projected their
ideology into classrooms, textbooks, residential life, and student
groups through kangaroo courts, intimidation, financial threats,
tenure and hiring policies that favor their allies, and peer
pressure. Yet fraternities remain enemy territory in their midst -
something no turf-hungry bureaucrat can resist."

Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against
Censorship in New York, said administrators should teach students how
to have discourse over civil disagreements instead of censoring
anyone - including fraternities.

Educators should allow an exchange of ideas even if the ideas are
offensive, Ms. Bertin said.

"Administrators are trying to walk a very fine line to ensure that
all students feel that campuses are welcoming places for them where
they can get an education. But administrators would do better if they
allowed more free speech and help find students more constructive
ways to deal with issues."

Copyright 2002 News World Communications, Inc.