http://dailycardinal.com/article/22497

At least one student newspaper can write a well-written article regarding sexual assault without going out of their way to throw EX under the bus. The Badger Inquirer has the same credibility as juicycampus.

Three years ago the Duke Lacrosse Team was falsely accused of a rape and three of its team members were indicted. It was a deliberate Frame, perpetrated by the Durham Police, the DA’s office and Duke University, according to lawsuits now ongoing.

From the beginning, the two newspapers in the area - the Durham Herald-Sun and the Raleigh News & Observer - helped gin up the lynch mob against the Lacrosse Team.

You people at the Badger-Herald are dangerously close doing exactly the same thing. I just finished reading about a lynching that took place in 1906 Chattanooga, TN. You all should take note.

Contempt of Court: The Turn of the Century Lynching that Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism By Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips, Jr. 400 pages, published by Faber & Faber, 1999. Hardcover. ISBN: 0571199526

Chapter Three - Someone must pay

pp. 36-37

“For their part, the two newspapers in Chattanooga were only inflaming the passions in the community. Both the Times, which was the morning newspaper, and the News, which was published in the afternoon, featured front-page stories on the crime. Both ran editorials expressing community outrage.

“In story after story, the newspapers printed the most gruesome details of the St. Elmo crime. Each played on stereotypes, repeatedly referring to the attacker as a “Negro brute” and Nevada Taylor as “young white princess.” They kept stating that the man arrested for this crime would undoubtedly be lynched. Never did either newspaper use its pages to seek to calm the community.

“It was the Times’ use of incendiary language that was so surprising. After all, many of the editorials in the Chattanooga Times in 1906 were written or approved by its owner and publisher, Adolph Ochs. The Times fashioned itself as a newspaper of the New South, supporting liberal political and social ideals as well as equal rights and equal treatment for black people. With that mission in mind, its coverage of this crime demonstrates how emotional and intense the community had become.”

It always amazes me that college students today have no idea just how long back date rape and gang rape have been going on within fraternities. Take a look at the blog to see how a bunch of Theta Chi’s got away with gang rape for years!

I’ve been following the Sigma Chi story over the last few days. I graduated from the UW in 1969 and was a member of Theta Chi, who, at the time of my membership in the undergraduate chapter, had a large member base similar to that currently in Sigma Chi.

First of all, my heart goes out to the victim of this incident. It took a lot of courage for you to step forward. I hope over time you are able to return your life to a somewhat normal basis. It is going to take a lot of time on your part and those that support you. But by stepping forward you identified youself as the kind of person who attacks problems head on. Best wishes for your full recovery.

As for the men that perpetrated this deed, I hope the criminal justice system locates you and applies appropriate punishment. Anyone who has knowledge of this event needs to step forward and contact local authorities so these rapists can be brought to justice.

But I do want to address a number of miscomceptions about Fraternities and the Greek system that I’ve seen in the responses to the Badger Herald news articles on this subject.

First of all, a large fraternity like Sigma Chi is likely to have a membership that somewhat represents a cross section of the University community. It will be a somewhat narrow cross section because of the selection process used to select fraternity members. It is likely to have a significant percentage of membership made up of high quality human beings who are as outraged about the incident that happened in their house as the general University community.

My opinion on this subject is based on where some of the individuals that were my active brothers 40 years ago have gone. One is former Chairman of the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Another is managing partner of a respected Madison law firm. A third taught kids in the Green Bay school system until his recent retirement. A fourth runs a major Chicago bakery and was the Theta Chi President when Theta Chi initiated what turned into a 25 year string of Ski for Cancer events that raised over $250,000 for cancer research.

Had such an incident happened in the Theta Chi house in 1969, I can’t imagine any of those four individuals (including our president at the time)circling the troops to protect a rapist/felon in their midst. I suspect those Sigma Chis that are standup individuals are doing everything they can to get the perp identified and brought to justice. I think the opinion that all the members would circle to protect a brother who is a rapist is pretty far fetched in a fraternity with in the range of 100 members.

But to understand some of the issues Sigma Chi has in dealing with this issue, you need to understand a bit about how a Fraternity is organized. To put it in a context non-fraternity members may be able to relate to, a fraternity is a combination of a housing cooperative and a social organization.

In most fraternities, the house is owned by an alumni-run housing corporation. In the case of my fraternity, Theta Chi, the house at 210 Langdon is owned by the Rattle Building Corporation whose board is made up of alumni. The house is currently leased to the AEPi fraternity through the chapter housing corporation. The current occupant pays a market price to lease the space. But if at some point in the future, the house is reoccupied by Theta Chi, the housing corporation could elect to subsidize the rent to the chapter, passing it along at cost. When I was in school, the food and housing at 210 Langdon was actually cheaper than in University dorms. Social dues took the total above dorm costs, but the UW wasn’t billing me for my social schedule. I paid retail prices at venues like the long gone Var Bar and Hasty Tasty (this was in the 18 year old beer drinking age era).

I’m telling you this because there is a perception that fraternity members are rich kids. In the case of my brothers, many came from working class families. Only a few came from affluent families.

The social organization in the typical UW fraternity is fairly structured, (organized as a chapter in a national fraternity), ritualistic, and has a much larger membership base than the housing capacity of the house. Rituals and events profide a framework for members to become ‘brothers’, and accumulate experience in running a business, and being involved in charitable events. The national organizations regularly provide workshops for new members and publish risk management manuals describing among other things how to properly conduct a social event at the chapter house.

When you run a party at the house (like Sigma Chi was running on the date of the rape incident), it is likely that over 50% of the men attending don’t live in the house. This is especially true during fall rush season when you are inviting prospective members to your events and other participants have crashed the party. In rush, you may meet a potential member twice, extend a bid, then find out after he joins what he really is like. You get mostly good apples and — and sometimes a few bad ones.

Based on some of the information posted, the victim was found by a fraternity member in his room well after the incident happened. The description of his reaction is inconsistent with his realizing that the person found in his room was a rape victim who had been left in his room. It is likely at the time he encountered the victim, he knew nothing about the incident.

Given that the victim indicates that she was drugged, there is a strong possibility she was taken to an unoccupied room by the rapists, and the the incident may have occurred without attracting attention of other members who may have been either in public parts of the fraternity house enjoying the party or thought the noises eminating from a closed door room were with the woman’s consent. As she was drugged it is likely she was silent during the attack. I’m speculating here, but the comments on this incident are mostly speculative.

The perpetrators could have been residents, fraternity members not living in the house, or visitors including those living in apartments living above the house.

All of this creates a very significant challenge to the Madison Police, Sigma Chi, the University, and anyone else trying to get to the bottom of this incident.

Is Sigma Chi to blame for this indident? They share part of the fault because they failed to take the security precautions needed to secure their house during a social event. I haven’t seen Sigma Chi national guidelines for conducting social events but the Theta Chi guidlines (if followed) may have prevented this incident, and certainly would make it easier to investigate. Sigma Chi may have violated city, university, and their national fraternity regulations in managing this event. Do they deserve to be placed on social probation? Probably! Should they be thrown off campus? That depends somewhat on the role the fraternity actually played in this incident, and whether they are fully cooperating in police investigation, something none of us know at this point, but I hope comes out in the investigation.

As for the allegations that IFC is circling its wagons to protect Sigma Chi and whoever is guilty of the rape at its house, that allegation is even more far fetched. I am working with 12 new Theta Chis who are currently attempting to recolonize the chapter at UW. They have a seat on IFC. To a man they are outraged over this incident. I also received an e-mail from a senior staff member at the Theta Chi International fraternity, who is also upset about the incident. I can’t imagine our new Theta Chi undergraduate members or the Theta Chi International fraternity playing a role in suppressing information or blocking the police investigation of this incident. I’ll bet the same outrage is being voiced at fraternity and sorority houses up and down Langdon street. In the range of 1,000 fraternity members would need to sign off on a cover up. I can’t imagine that happening.

I was happy to see that the discussion of rape and sexual assaults was broadened in yesterday’s university led meeting beyond the Greek system. This is a very eye opening example of what can happen if we don’t address the issue of sexual assault on a university wide basis. What happened at the Sigma Chi house, all too unfortunately, happens regularly all over the university campus. This incident should be a rally point for broad based education to reduce the likelihood of such incidents in the future, both inside and outside the Greek system.

Hilarious Walter. You are comparing the recent newspaper treatment of this incident to a 1906 lynching in TN? Really? Compared to the racial/ anti-semitic/homophobic history of fraternities and sororities? Hilarious!

All hype and no suspects. I feel bad for the smudged reputation this is giving to the Sigma fraternity. Even though I have my own biases when I think greek organization, this has become a witch hunt. Unless the victim can deliver some concrete evidence then they should stop playing the victim and try to move on with their life. Easier said then done I’m sure, but for me to be expected to pay sympathy to every rape occurance on campus (the feeling I get from reading this columns) is simply a waste of my time. I will no longer pay attention to this column as the BH continues to beat the subject like a dead horse. Move on. My prayers are with the victims, but a prayer is all the time I can devote to this as I spend the majority of my time pursueing a college education.

LYNCHING? Really?! Come ON.

Wow, frat babies are a bunch of whiners. Duke? LYNCHING? Grow the F up. If this was a lynching like you’re referencing, random members of Sig Chi would have been shot, drug through the streets, beaten, castrated, and then strangled to death.

Then again, I suppose you’d actually have to go to history class to learn that.