The Knox Student

Greek progress

Things are moving right along this week in the Greek world. TKE seems to be making real changes in the way they run their organization so that current and future pledges can enter the fraternity in a pleasant and rewarding way. The Greek Task Force report, which emerged yesterday, made a number of practical recommendations for the campus and the Greek system, including the dissemination of a pamphlet which would make sure all students know how to report hazing if they see it.

The report mentioned, fairly, that the administration can’t fix what they don’t know is broken. However, it also pointed out that, now that hazing has become a hot topic on campus, “the administration and faculty no longer have an excuse for turning a blind eye to behavior that might otherwise be thought invisible.”

With that in mind, we have concerns about the administration’s apparent opinion that, as Dean of Students Xavier Romano put it, “the administration can’t have a position on something that hasn’t been brought to it.” Though we appreciate that there are many venues to report hazing on campus, nobody ever uses them: Romano said in News Editor David Nolan’s article this week that no such complaint has been brought to the faculty for “years and years.”

Nobody can say for sure why that is. Our best guess is that nobody likes a tattletale, even the tattletales themselves. No matter how anonymously a student is able to bring a complaint of hazing to the attention of the authorities, it’s not hard to imagine why they wouldn’t want to, especially if the complainant is a pledge starting to feel the bonds of brotherhood with his fraternal family-to-be.

We’re not saying we want the administration to punish TKE. As far as we’re concerned, the hazing issue is being dealt with, and everyone would like to move on. However, we wonder if the administration is setting a hands-off precedent for the future, even despite Romano’s stringent promise to hunt down every hazer that is brought to his attention. It’s true that nobody came to the administration about TKE, but the allegations themselves certainly count as public knowledge by now. We hope that in the future if this kind of information becomes a matter of public debate, the administration will take some initiative in addressing it, even if it comes to light outside of their official channels.

Drag show

We also wanted to give a shoutout to the fabulous drag performers in Ally Rally Week’s drag show! You all brought the house down, but where were all the dudes who looked like ladies?