OPINION
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2012
COLUMNISTS
From foolishness, a hope for change
ZACH DESPART
Five weeks ago, the revelation that a member, or members, of the Sigma Phi Epsilon created and allegedly circulated a survey asking about sexual violence, which subsequently resulted in closure of the fraternity, generated one of the most divisive controversies at UVM in recent memory. I cannot and will not indict the entire Greek system at UVM. But, by the same token, I cannot fathom how anyone can blanketly support it. Like any part of the University, the Greek system has flaws that can and need to be addressed. There is a distinction between supporting a group or organization while acknowledging that it has erred, and refusing to accept that anyone has done anything wrong. What happened at Sig Ep was not only incredibly demeaning toward women, but a national embarrassment for the University — gracing the front page of CNN’s website for several days. I cannot support Sig Ep when its former president called the closing of the chapter a “social injustice.” There are very few times a white man can toss around the phrase “social injustice.” This ain’t one of them. In a Dec. 20 interview with Vermont Public Radio, former Sig Ep president Alex Haller refused to name anyone involved
with the survey. While others may be enamored by his solidarity, I am not. If it was only one or a few members involved, why not force them to take responsibility, instead of allowing judgment to be cast on the fraternity as a whole? Perhaps scholars Patricia Martin and Rubert Hummer have the answer — in an essay entitled “Fraternities and Rape on Campus,” they assert, “Protection of the fraternity often takes precedence over what is procedurally, ethically or legally correct.”
Rape is not something funny to joke about. When reports of the survey surfaced, Sig Ep was not forthcoming with details. According to the Burlington Free Press, members of the fraternity declined to answer questions and refused to answer the door for a reporter; at no point has any member of Sig Ep taken responsibility or apologized for the survey. For the second time, Sig Ep’s charter was revoked for violations of policy. In 1993, the national chapter revoked Sig Ep’s charter for four years after incidents of hazing were captured on video. Interestingly, the same day the Sig Ep story broke, The New York Times published a story discussing a new report that found that 1 in 5 women in the U.S. reported that they have been sexually assaulted — a number far higher than previously thought. Rape is not something funny to joke about. I originally started
that sentence with the words “needless to say,” but it is apparent that, in no uncertain terms, someone needs to say it. The survey question that generated the controversy — “If you could rape someone, who would it be?” could have been posed less offensively as “If you could have sex with someone, who would it be?” A conscious decision was made to use the word “rape” — changing the connotation of the question from being a presumably consensual act to one that willfully ignores someone else’s wishes. There is no doubt in my mind that there are good men and women in Greek life at UVM. But I also have no doubt that Greeks and UVM students as a whole could greatly benefit from a better understanding of rape culture. In his interview with VPR, Haller makes a good point — that the members involved in the incident need sensitivity training. I think we could all benefit from that. Hopefully, the University and the Greek institutions on campus will take this offensive, embarrassing incident as a spark to reform how we think about sexual violence and redouble our efforts to combat rape culture. It would be a shame if the only consequences of this incident were negative. The closure of a fraternity, though justified, does not bring about change — only a commitment to a continuing dialogue and plan for action does.
Zach Despart is a senior political science major. He has been writing for The Cynic since fall 2009.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
UVM’s violence culture exposed Dear Editor,
“If you could rape someone, who would it be?” That was the question which appeared on a survey circulated by members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at the University of Vermont recently, which went viral on the Internet. UVM has once again lived up to its reputation as a place where wealthy kids from the northeast, who can’t get into Ivy League schools, can come play in the snow for four years. But why was this a surprise to anyone familiar with UVM’s culture of violence, which dates back at least 20 years? Who could ever forget the 1999 “elephant walk” in which freshman members of the ice hockey team were forced to wear women’s underwear, drink warm beer and liquor until they vomited and parade around like circus elephants holding each other’s genitals? Back in the early ‘90s, alcohol was a contributing factor in the deaths of four UVM students in five years. For all too many UVM students their motto is: “You can’t believe how drunk I got last night.” More recently, four officers of another UVM fraternity were charged with violating the state’s
new hazing law enacted after the 1999 UVM ice hockey scandal. UVM’s affinity for violence was reaffirmed by the announcement that it had entered into a partnership with the U.S. government-owned Sandia National Laboratories, known best for the fact that it designs, builds and tests nuclear weapons. Although Sandia’s research at UVM will not involve weapons of mass destruction, no one seems to care whether UVM is being used by Sandia to help legitimize its real business, instruments of death. UVM will receive $9 million from Sandia. Money still speaks. Like most universities in the U.S., UVM has an active ROTC program whose aim is to train professional killers to support the American empire’s policy of full spectrum dominance. Many ROTC students have four-year scholarships. Upon graduation, they agree to go anywhere in the world to which they are assigned by Uncle Sam to kill the name of the State. Ironically, UVM also has a premier medical school committed to saving lives rather then destroying them. And then there is the case of Maj. Gen. Michael Dubie, head of the Vermont National Guard.
For his role in sending young Vermonters to faraway places such as Afghanistan and Iraq to kill or be killed on behalf of the empire, Gen. Dubie was awarded an honorary UVM doctorate degree by the Board of Trustees. The most exasperating aspect of UVM’s culture of violence is the indifference expressed toward it by the UVM Board of Trustees, administration, faculty and students. Neither Dubie’s honorary degree nor the Sandia Corporation were ever discussed by the UVM Faculty Senate. At most reputable universities, honorary degress have to be approved by the faculty’s governing body. Not so at UVM. The real issue facing UVM is not the Sigma Phi Epsilon rape survey question, but rather, how many unreported rapes have there been at UVM over the past 20 years as a result of the University’s benign neglect of its culture of violence? Sincerely, Thomas H. Naylor Dec. 26, 2011
13
SAT culprit speaks
PEYTON ROSENTHAL
Today, America’s list of scandals is nothing compared to what it once was. We now deal with things like celebrity breast implants — who needs to fix their botched boob job — and the royal Will and Kate’s wedding — I am ashamed to admit I actually know someone who missed school last year to see the latter’s TV special. Our respectable news broadcasting is having its bar lowered. The American population seems to have a hard time concentrating on the important information out there; no one is talking about the end of the Iraq War or the social unrest in Greece. Unimportant social media is what we crave, and is now what we get. Most recently, an embarrassing scandal in the town I come from qualified as national news. Take Sam Eshagoff, a sophomore at Emory University from my hometown of Great Neck, New York. The 19-year-old student is currently facing arraignment on scheming to defraud, criminal impersonation and other charges that could result in up to four years in jail, all for illegally taking the SATs for at least six people. I had a similar opinion to this national news when I read about Heidi Montag’s 10-procedure plastic surgery on a reputable news site. I was absolutely disgusted. But the juicy details get even juicier: Eshagoff earned up to $2,500 per test if he secured his client a good score. Yes, he calls the kids he took the tests for his clients — how professional! He even referred to his service as life-saving in his 15-minute claim-to-fame on a “60 Minutes” interview. His “business” seems eerily similar to that of a prostitute, or whatever type of selling-yourself-job you want to call it. Even before this scandal, Great Neck schools were being denounced for inflating grades and for our students for buying their credibility and talents — because apparently that’s buyable now. Now John L. Miller Great Neck North High School can proudly cherish their wonder-
ful alumnus like Sam Eshagoff and an abundance of other over privileged and entitled students, like Eshagoff’s girlfriend, who proudly displayed the “60 Minutes” interview on Facebook. The worst is the amount of pride these “clients” displayed after the scandal. I remember walking around my high school hearing kids brag about their purchased SAT score. The truth leaked after bouts of bragging and the emergence of a mass of college acceptances that didn’t quite fit the bill. But even more horrible is this strong desire for fame. All the parents, students and friends acquainted with the “cheating SAT kids” want to be nationally noticed: they take pride in their children’s mistaken and undeserved acceptances to topranked universities.
Eshagoff’s “business” seems eerily similar to that of a prostitute or whatever type of selling-yourself-job you want to call it.
News trucks and cameramen came to North High School to interview students and catch the latest details on the scandal. Kids crowded the news anchors, hoping for an interview, their own 15 minutes of fame. Wendy David-Gaines, a Long Island College prep examiner, noted, “colleges are not informed when test results occur from SAT scams.” So who’s getting punished now? This is typical of a wealthy, privileged society. What I have learned is that money and reputation can solve all problems for everyone from Eshagoff to O.J. Simpson, although, Mr. Eshagoff is not equivalent in any way whatsoever to the famous O.J. in reputation or respect. As Newsday reported, Eshagoff’s “actions made a mockery of concepts like merit and effort.” It’s a shame that these kinds of stories provide our broadcast networks and newspapers with groundbreaking “news”. If anything, this is just mere entertainment to see if the criminal gets what he deserves. Peyton Rosenthal is a first-year Anthropology major. She has been writing for The Cynic since fall 2011.
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