Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

48° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Advertisement
Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our email newsletter in your inbox.



Advertisement

Advertisement

Editorial: No excuses for Delta Upsilon

As part of Delta Upsilon’s recruitment last week, the fraternity brought Half Pint Brawlers, a company that advertises “psycho midget wrestling.” At the January 8th event, one performer was smashed into a pool table and one had a dollar bill stapled to his forehead. Performers also simulated sex, all in front of potential new fraternity brothers.

There’s no place for such vulgar events at Northwestern. Students at this university are known for their intelligence – NU has some of the top students in the country – and midget wrestling is not something with which this university should be associated.

NU has received more than its fair share of bad press over the last several years. Scandals ranging from soccer hazing to Holocaust denial have shed a bad light on NU in national news. The university does not need to become another indictment of the Greek system alongside Colorado University and its periodic hazing-related deaths or DePauw University and its Delta Zeta debacle.

The fraternity recruitment system lends itself to over-the-top events to attract freshmen. As opposed to sorority recruitment, when women must visit every single house in a regulated, structured environment, men are thrust into North Campus guided by nothing but hearsay, free food and the promise of a good time. In order to attract new pledges, fraternities compete by creating the most outlandish programming.

DU obviously overstepped the bounds of good taste with their wrestling match, but they may also have violated university hazing policy, which outlaws degrading or humiliating games and activities that produce mental or physical discomfort and embarrassment. Although DU listed the event in their rush posters, the fraternity falsely advertised in the Interfraternity Council Recruitment ad in The Daily, which stated that Tuesday’s event would be paintballing. The fraternity did hold paintballing on Thursday, which was listed in the ad as wrestling.

The administration opens an official investigation into DU’s actions today, and it will surely fuel the sentiment among many Greek students that NU – and specifically Mary Desler – wants to eliminate fraternities and sororities.

Hiring such a group to perform at DU sends the message that the fraternity isn’t concerned with what the university thinks. This is just the type of bad behavior the administration needs to justify the eradication of the Greek system at NU. If Greeks want to stay on campus, they need to make extra effort not to validate the administration’s alleged witch hunt.

It’s one thing for fraternities or sororities to engage in illicit activities secretly, when it is difficult for the general public to catch wind of their actions. But flaunting the rules on the first day of recruitment, when the house is open to anyone, is asking to get caught. Women were present during DU’s wrestling spectacle, in addition to freshmen who had no motivation to stay mum or loyal to the fraternity.

The Daily has obtained significant photo and video evidence from the event. In all likelihood, many more pictures exist across campus. With camera phones ubiquitous, incriminating evidence is easy to come by.

College students are warned routinely to maintain decorum on their Facebook profiles, in case future employers check them out. But in this case, it’s possible the news didn’t even make it to Facebook before arriving on Dominic Greene’s desk.

Greek life should be a positive addition to NU. It’s a tradition on campus that has lasted more than 145 years. More than a third of all undergraduates join fraternities or sororities, and they serve as an obvious social and philanthropic benefit to NU. Unfortunately, just a few bad choices can taint the entire Greek community and even NU as a whole.

More to Discover
Activate Search
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
Editorial: No excuses for Delta Upsilon