If there’s one thing on everyone’s mind after Alpha Tau Omega’s atrocious video and its subsequent suspension, it’s that there’s a serious need for change on this campus.
If you’re a hermit who hasn’t glanced at any form of news or social media, you’re in for a surprise. The University suspended IU’s ATO chapter, and the national ATO office revoked its charter after a video surfaced of a confirmed member performing a sexual act on an exotic dancer in front of almost half the fraternity’s members.
No one’s arguing that this isn’t a serious situation and if they are they’re probably the type of person who attends an event like the one ATO has now become infamous for.
But the reaction from our University is just a little too late, and we’d be seriously surprised if IU were able to turn this problem around.
In fact, if you talked to some students on this campus a good number would tell you they aren’t surprised this happened, and at ATO no less.
Hazing is bad enough and it’s no stranger to IU’s greek system, but it’s a wonder why the administration — and its critics for that matter — don’t call it what it really is.
Any type of sexual act that involves persuasion, peer pressure or cohesion is deemed sexual assault.
ATO passed hazing by a long shot with this video.
And if our school’s administration thinks this is an isolated incident or the result of a “few bad apples,” they’ve got another thing coming.
ATO received more than its fair share of warnings to get it together.
The greek organization made national headlines in 1992 after forcing pledges to drink copious amounts of alcohol to induce vomiting. This hazing landed a sophomore in the hospital with an almost deadly .48 blood alcohol content. The pledge luckily survived.
We thought they would learn their lesson after that train wreck but, unfortunately, ATO doesn’t take second chances seriously.
The Editorial Board has come to an impasse, where we have to do something we absolutely hate to get the point across: use a cliché.
Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. IU is partly at fault for letting an organization get to this level of recklessness and maltreatment.
A report of sexual assault was filed in 2013. Speculations about a “Ménage Tau” party ATO plays host to every year — where “body shots, threesomes and much more magic follows” — were printed in 2013 by brobible.com.
Reports of sexual assault, battery, alcohol violations and even a man falling off the three-story house have plagued the fraternity since its temporary suspension in 1992.
The time for an ATO redemption has come and gone. But the rest of this school still has a fighting chance.
If we want to learn anything from these events, it’s that inaction from our administration or action that comes too late isn’t going to cut it.
You want to fix this, IU? Start by holding every single person present during the filming of that video responsible.
