This past weekend, a series of apparent insulting, misogynistic and troubling rhetoric was said at Sigma Chi’s annual Derby Days event. The event raises thousands of units of blood for Mississippi Blood Services and undoubtedly saves lives. However, the lack of basic control of the event has unfortunately stained Sigma Chi and its brothers’ reputations. It provides a lesson to everyone in Greek Life, and any organization on campus: there can be no excuse for inappropriate behavior and the violation of basic standards at an official event, and it is the duty of these Greek organizations to ensure that these events run smoothly.
Some have said this is an example of political correctness run amok. While I agree that too often at this University we have that problem, this is not an example of it. This is an example of poor leadership and incompetence which led to a few members staining one of our Greek organizations permanently. I believe that most Sigma Chi brothers found this behavior wrong as well, but it confuses me as to why they were either not present at the time or did not take away the platform that was being used to say rude and insulting things to the women who worked hard for the event, parents, grandparents and children as young as 10 years old. That type of behavior has no place in a public forum such as that event and never has, whether it be in today’s world or the world of 20 or 50 years ago.
It is for the University and the IFC to make decisions as to Sigma Chi’s future and the future of Derby Days. However, I think every Greek and campus organization can learn lessons from what has happened. The most important is that you can not let a few rogue members injure your chapter’s reputation.
When Greek organizations place trust in people who should not be in leadership positions, the entire University’s reputation suffers. Make no mistake, the wide majority of Greek men and women on this campus are upstanding people, but there is a small minority that only serves to do harm to their chapters and to our school.
As Greek leaders, we are called to guarantee this type of behavior is forbidden at these events, and we need to do a better job to prevent that small minority from hurting our general community. As our community reflects on what has occurred the past week, let’s move past the lashing out and arguing, let the University work with the discipline that might be in order and let us come together to find constructive solutions to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Patrick Waters is a freshman accounting major from St. Louis, Missouri.
