UCF Frat ‘Roofie’ Scandal Serves as Wake Up Call in Fight for Student Rights
Campus Beat, Editorials, UCF Administration, UCF Greek Life — By Staff on March 27, 2011 at 8:25 pmThe following is a KnightNews.com editorial opinion piece:
The disgraceful way the Delta Upsilon fraternity has been treated by the University of Central Florida should serve as a wake up call to everyone on this campus whether you’re Greek, progressive, liberal, conservative or communist — you could be next.
UCF has shown the same amount of respect and decency to DU and the people who care about it as it has to the UCF Arboretum: zero. And the more student leaders sit back and let UCF reduce student rights without a fight, the more often and comfortable the administration is with pushing the line in unethical and dishonest ways.
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Take the current situation for example: UCF is lying about how it handled the outrageous allegations suggesting that DU brothers had several bottles of alcohol mixed with roofies on a bus — drank out of the bottles (meaning they would be drugging themselves) — then admitted the drinks were drugged to Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority girls as they supposedly offered them a sip of the drugged concoction in hopes of drugging them.
How the hell does this make any sense at all?
Why would you warn someone you were trying to date rape that the drink you were offering them was spiked with a date rape drug? The simple answer is, you would not. But this is the story told in the written complaints by three KKG members — who DU’s have not been told the names of — making such serious allegations against DU’s that also haven’t been named.
Yet, a month and a half after the alleged roofie attempt happened, UCF still hasn’t gotten to the bottom of it. UCF still hasn’t sustained or dismissed the accusations, allowing DU to deteriorate while the heinous accusations hang over the brotherhood like a swarm of locusts, consuming the fraternity at the worst possible time — while its national organization was reorganizing the chapter.
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DU had to suffer through this difficult reorganization period without knowing who accused them, the ability to cross-examine the accusers so it could refute the charges, and the right to have a video record of the whole process during a “[f]air and impartial hearing,” which is guaranteed in UCF’s Golden Rule.
The closed-door action was moving right along. Then, on Friday, when the local TV media caught wind of it, UCF covered up its failure to quickly resolve the situation, and misled the public by claiming UCF just found out about the allegations, so it just decided to launch a police and Office of Student Conduct investigation.
By this point, though, those investigations don’t matter. UCF already got what it wanted — DU’s national office gutted the chapter.
And UCF didn’t have to worry about fending off a pesky lawsuit like Beta Theta Pi filed against the university when it felt it was wrongly accused of raping a girl. (After Beta sued for the violation of its rights, UCF backed down, and Associate General Counsel Youndy Cook settled with the fraternity to reduce the punishment.)
Students in the Greek community know it is nonsense to claim UCF just found out about these allegations, because the Greek community has been talking about the likelihood that UCF was pressuring DU’s national office to gut the chapter for weeks. KnightNews.com has also learned from credible sources that UCF knew about the allegations very soon after it happened.
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Make no mistake: we believe that even joking about trying to date rape a girl is disgusting. But based on evidence we’ve seen, making a bad joke appears to be about the worst thing DU may be guilty of — and it appears even that can’t be proven for sure.
Why? Well let’s think about what we know so far, based on the documents we’ve uncovered, our reporting and our network of sources:
1. There is no indication anyone was drugged that night, became extremely intoxicated or was hospitalized.
2. UCF staff apparently didn’t think the complaint was credible or serious enough to request a UCF police investigation when it first learned of the alleged crimes.
3. There is evidence UCF tried covering this up, as OFSL Director Belinda Boston told KnightNews.com: “I don’t have a written complaint from KKG.” Then about 60 hours later, UCF released three written complaints from KKG. (Either Boston has a really odd definition of “written complaint” or she failed the students by not reviewing and maintaining records submitted to UCF containing such disturbing accusations of a group she is over.)
Students pay good money to attend UCF. As UCF student journalists, we should expect honest, straightforward and direct answers from UCF when we are seeking information to report to the student body about how the individuals students pay to run this university are doing their jobs.
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Unfortunately, according to lawyers, UCF has broken the law repeatedly with the way it has handled ensuring student journalists’ First Amendment and other rights.
UCF students who treasure the Arboretum believe their right to enjoy a protected piece of land is being ripped away — without a proper chance for meaningful public comment.
Greek students have had their First Amendment right to assemble peacefully at locations of their choosing have been abridged by UCF without a Student Conduct hearing. (UCF blames the Greek Week committee for imposing these restrictions, but the Greek Week committee denies it has the power to do this.)
Monday at 7 p.m., a vice president with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Adam Kissel, will speak to UCF students about how to protect their rights. KnightNews.com, which has benefited from FIRE’s help in the past, is proud to be a media sponsor of this event.
FIRE has also helped Students for a Democratic Society at UCF fight for free speech. Kissel knows the tactics used to strip rights, and can be a big help to anyone fighting for free speech and student rights at UCF.
We hope to see you there, and that all parts of the diverse UCF community can agree on this point: It’s time to stand united and fight together for our rights, before UCF strips even more away.
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16 Comments
Hillary Weaver and Kristy Galler are two of the girls who wrote letters…sucks to be dumb and put your positions in the statement. Dumb Kappas…
Really? “DU has never roofied anyone ever. That is FACT.” So you can account for the behavior of 60+ guys at all times over the course of several years?
It’s awesome how the first defense of the fraternity is “those girls are sluts”. Why would anyone, knowing how it would go over in the Greek community, come up with this story? Apparently unless they’re hospitalized after the fact, they can’t be believed.
Not at all surprised that this was totally mishandled by UCF police- since they’ll try to talk you out of pressing charges before your rape kit is even completed.
It does suck that this happened to DU. Whether or not the allegations are true, DU is doing what it needed to do for several years now: They are suspending, and disaffiliating brothers that do nothing but hurt their chapter.
According to a letter addressed to UCF’s DU chapter from Delta Upsilon International Fraternity’s executive director Justin Kirk, the redevelopment phase for UCF’s chapter of DU ends March 28. DU was placed on reorganization status on Jan. 25 by DUIF. Appeals to the Board of Directors are also due that day.
Also in Kirk’s letter are the results of membership reviews. According to the letter, 48 brothers can maintain undergraduate status, 17 are on financial and/or academic probation, 16 are alumni and 32 have been recommended for expulsion.
When over half of the people in your frat are in academic, financial or behavioral probation, you have an issue. Oh the poor frat!
This is how losers are born
Wow, to read this story almost brings a tear to my eye. Date rape drugs? Really? I went to UCF for 5 years and partied hard every night…. I worked at bars in the area i went on greek social functions not just my own but others as well. I have NEVER touched, seen, or even heard of this stuff going around. Shame on you KKG for slandering the name of a great fraternity. There is a reason they never had socials with you and thats because you are libelous skanks who when made fun of flip a shit and go running to administration with false truths and blatent lies. Karma is a bitch and i hope when it comes for you it pounds you hard because with you comments you have brought down the greek community, student rights and the entire culture of college. I know some will say that oh he is just a scumbag party animal who cannot let go of college but you would be wrong. I left UCF got a real job and an in my masters, however unlike many who forget what college was about when they leave i did not. I remember that you cannot let a school, an organization or even you parents make you decisions for you. you must go to college make mistakes and have the opportunity to learn from, because if we don’t we might as well just live in a dictatorship and we can all march to the same beat. Was it poor judgement to bring the bottles on the bus in front of the girls… yes but that deserves a slap on the wrist not a proverbial “kick to the nuts” Thanks for the forum… cant wait to see someone take down the administration one of these days on the gross violations of civil rights
Some sloot got too drunk at a frat gathering? SCANDALOUS! Stop acting like whores & douchebag’s, learn how to handle a drink & not cry boo if you show your ass after having too much.
It’s sad when DU’s admit you can’t spell DRUGS, DUI OR DRUNK without DU. Stop making jokes about serious issues. Thank god if there were roofies, no girls ended up in the hospital. But it looks like that’s what needed to happen for anyone to believe them.
Whether you like DU or not, that doesn’t change the fact that if you look into this case at all, these allegations are almost comical. DU has never roofied anyone EVER. That is fact. These girls are trying to insinuate that they roofie each other? Come on. I dont care if you like these guys or not but no one deserves to be dragged through the mud for something they OBVIOUSLY did not do.
If all it takes is for one person to make a comment, that’s really wrong. One person messes something up and huge problems arise form it. UCF is looking like a joke in this situation! lets reorganize the administration! JOKE!
I think its ridiculous that people feel bad for DU all they do is black out and get drunk anyways…They went on a social and they got in a huge fight WITH EACH OTHER not only that, they have shirts that say “you can’t spell drunk without DU” I mean seriously? How do they still have a charter?
UCF doesn’t know how to deal with Greek organizations. Stuff like this has been going on for years now, since before the SigEp and SAE incidents. Belinda Boston is always out to protect her own and will throw anyone under the bus, sometimes without due cause, to make problems just go away.
“But based on evidence we’ve seen, making a bad joke appears to be about the worst thing DU may be guilty of — and it appears even that can’t be proven for sure.”
Oh you mean like when Will Lusk made a joke about paying for a College Republican endorsement?
So people are supposed to feel sorry for DU because they were already in trouble with their nationals? They don’t just reorganize chapters unless they’re already in deep $hit. Sorry this is just another issue to add to their list. I don’t see why these girls would make up these allegations?
UCF’s office of fraternity and sorority life conducted their own investigation and cleared DU of these allegations more than a month ago
Maybe Scott should read the Florida public record laws before trying to pull this sketch ass move. Funny he had the girls turn in a written complaint instead of e-mailing it. He must have thought that post-it note on his desk isn’t public record…
If a fraternity was as sketchy as that office, they’d be kicked off campus.
Maybe, rather than trying to cover their own sororities asses by throwing fraternities under the bus, these girls should learn their alcoholic limits and not black out on socials. And MAYBE, before immediately taking the side of PAN and assuming the gentlemen are to blame, OFSL should respect both organizations equally and base their punishments on the TRUTH.