The 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.
JOIN US MONDAY NIGHT TO HEAR A SPEECH ON HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR STUDENT RIGHTS
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.
JOIN US MONDAY NIGHT TO HEAR A SPEECH ON HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR STUDENT RIGHTS
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.
JOIN US MONDAY NIGHT TO HEAR A SPEECH ON HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR STUDENT RIGHTS
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.
JOIN US MONDAY NIGHT TO HEAR A SPEECH ON HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR STUDENT RIGHTS
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.
