The Kappa Delta Rho fraternity at Penn State is now under investigation after a private Facebook page belonging to the fraternity was discovered. The Facebook page contained pictures of nude women who appeared to be unconscious and were posted by fraternity ?members.
A special task force was created specifically to investigate these allegations. Penn State University president Eric Barron released a statement about the investigation, which implies they are taking this situation ?seriously.
Meanwhile, students are rallying and asking that those who are members of the Facebook page not be given their degrees. Although this might appear to be a harsh punishment for the members, it is completely proportionate to the wrongfulness of their conduct.
Many fraternity members may go on to be leaders of businesses and our coworkers after earning their degrees. These postings completely support rape culture. If these men feel comfortable enough to post unauthorized nude pictures of women, they have the ability to make even worse, detrimental decisions.
I do not want somebody who was affiliated with an organization that has posted nude picture of women online without consent to be my boss or my coworker later down the road. It would make many women feel ?unsafe and uncomfortable.
Therefore, not granting the offending members their degrees would be ?appropriate.
In the past few years, many issues and scandals among fraternities surrounding sexual assault seem to have been swept under the rug. The serious matter in which Penn State is approaching this horrific event is refreshing. It gives all students, especially women, hope for protection and equality.
In addition to this, it demands that fraternities respect women more than they have in the past. Fraternities are very influential organizations and an essential component to campus life. When their actions do not reflect their core values, especially when it comes to the treatment of women, it is important they suffer ?consequences for it.
This might improve the decisions made among fraternities. If fraternities choose to show women respect in their conduct, it can have a positive effect on the whole campus.
There have been many scandals recently involving fraternities posting ?offensive material to social media sites. These fraternities need to remember who they are representing before posting anything online.
Their decisions in real life and the material they post online represents both their universities and organizations. The consequences for posting inappropriate material should be harsh because they are misrepresenting thousands of students and fraternity members.
Fraternities and universities need to start taking sexual misconduct seriously. Penn State’s decision to do that is encouraging, although it is sad that it needs to happen. This is a good step towards creating respect for women across all campuses.
eshrack@indiana.edu
