In a guest commentary in today’s Daily Emerald, Sigma Nu President Andy Newsom defends the fraternity against allegations of rape that were printed on inserts illegally placed in Emerald issues. According to Newsom, the alleged rape happened at a party that was not hosted or sponsored by the fraternity, which is not an University-recognized fraternity because of its refusal to go dry. Newsom states that the perpetrator is not a member of Sigma Nu.

An excerpt:

“The unfortunate truth of this situation is that the flyer released takes the form of an attack which in turn provokes our fraternity into a defensive mode. The important issues, which involve the safety and well-being of the young woman, the punishment (if necessary) of the alleged perpetrator and the materialization of the actual facts, are at risk of being ignored. In spite of the urge to focus on defending ourselves from an attack, we will continue instead to do the best we can to assist in the investigation — not as good members, but as good people.”

Concurrently, the Emerald ran a story today on the predominance of criminal activities that are associated with fraternities. According to Student Judicial Affairs Director Chris Loschiavo, violations of the law and student conduct code by fraternity members occur almost every weekend. However, it appears that very few incidents are reported to police and only about 10 fraternity-related crimes are reported to Student Judicial Affairs every year.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2004 at 13:32 by Sho and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.