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College Republicans announce position on ZBT incident
BLOOMINGTON, IN--The Indiana University College Republicans have decided on an official position regarding the recent incident involving the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at IU. While the College Republicans join the condemnation of insensitive comments in the ZBT scavenger hunt list, CRs believe ZBT should be punished for actions and not beliefs, no matter how abhorrent those beliefs may be.Some of ZBT's critics have ascribed racism not only to the nine arrested pledges and the writers of the list, but also to the entire membership of ZBT, to the greek system at large, and even the University itself. CRs believe it is unfair to spread blame equally over this diverse population, when evidence suggests the incident is the fault of a few carelessly offensive individuals.
CRs are also concerned with the push by the Student Coalition to revoke the fraternity's charter without Constitutional due process right to a legal procedure. It is especially disturbing that Chancellor Kenneth Gros-Louis--a University official--would publicly express the same sentiment, as he was quoted on an AM 1370 radio program.
CRs believe the high emotions triggered by these events have impaired the ability by many on both sides to make rational choices of proper response to the incident. Actions rooted in emotions usually are not conducive to fair and equitable treatment of all parties involved. We suggest that all sides allow emotions to subside before taking ill-conceived, irreversible actions.
Eric Seymour
Robert Schiener
