Board to investigate frat t-shirt, flier complaints

Greek Peer Judicial Board will investigate several fraternity rush t-shirts and fliers following complaints filed with the board over the past few days. GPJB Chair Andrea Williams said yesterday that the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs has also been alerted to the complaints, but GPJB prosecutors and individual fraternities have not. Because specific houses had not been formally contacted as of last night, Williams would not say which chapters are being investigated or who filed the complaints. However, several University students contacted over the past week said they found Alpha Epsilon Pi and Acacia fraternities' paraphernalia offensive, but it is not known if the complaint was directed towards these chapters. But Interfraternity Council president Jim Rettew said AEPi will be discussed in a meeting of Greek umbrella presidents later this week. The back of AEPi's rush shirt depicted a man sitting in a beach chair holding a drink flanked by two women in swimsuits and two tuxedo-clad waiters. The shirt reads, "In a world of compromises . . . some men don't." AEPi members voted over the weekend to discontinue wearing the shirts, Rettew said. AEPi President David Slotkin did not return several calls placed to his room yesterday. Acacia's shirts and fliers advertised a pig roast with a pig laying on its back and the words "eat me" between its legs. The shirts and fliers come after IFC recommended that all fraternities internally monitor promotional material. Rettew said most houses follow this suggestion. Rettew said fraternities have a "moral mandate," and "even if it [IFC policy] doesn't say, they have to assume they are responsible." Acacia President Brian Baxt, a College senior, said last week that the poster "has nothing to do with women," and he "couldn't think of any group it would particularly offend," except perhaps vegetarians. Panhellenic Council President Maureen Hernandez said she will meet with the umbrella presidents before any action is taken. "I plan to work together with [Black Inter-Greek Council President] Marisa [Sifontes] and Jim to assess what we should do," she said. The umbrella presidents did not report the current charges, but Hernandez said she does not rule out the possibility of filing additional complaints with the GPJB. Rettew said AEPi's decision to not wear the shirts is a "positive step in the right direction," which will influence what further steps are taken. Several fraternity fliers have come under fire in the past for being offensive to women and minorities.

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