Posted on 03/29/2008 12:35:24 PM PDT by RogerFGay
The Gamma Phi Beta sorority at University of North Dakota has been put on temporary social probation while the university investigates complaints stemming from a November party during which sorority members and their guests donned mock Indian garb and red face and body paint.
The temporary probation was issued by both the UND Dean of Student’s Office, which will investigate the complaints, and by the Gamma Phi Beta International office in Centennial, Colo.
The probation means Gamma Phi won’t be allowed to host or participate in social activities with other sororities and fraternities or other student groups, either on or off campus, during the investigation, UND Dean of Students Lillian Elsinga said.
Photos from the November party show sorority members in “Indian maiden”-style dresses and feather headdresses. Some male guests are dressed in makeshift loincloths and smeared with red paint.
Elsinga wouldn’t speculate on what, if any, penalty her office will recommend once the investigation is complete, but said, as dean of students, she did not condone the behavior be-ing described.
In a brief statement released late today, UND President Charles Kupchella gave his support to the investigation and said “appropriate action will be taken at the conclusion of the review.”
Gamma Phi’s central office also issued a statement today.
“Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority sincerely regrets the recently-reported actions involving chapter members at the University of North Dakota. We realize that the actions of the chapter demonstrate the need for greater chapter education about diversity and personal dignity.”
The Gamma Phi party first came to public attention late last week after Margaret Scott, an American Indian student who frequents UND’s American Indian Student Services house, found photos of the party on the Facebook site of Anastasia Ginda, the sorority’s current president.
The American Indian Student Services House is next door to the Gamma Phi house.
Scott copied the photos onto her photobucket.com site and forwarded that link to an anti-nickname campus e-mail list.
The Herald also linked to Scott’s photobucket site in its early coverage of the Gamma Phi party. Many of those photos have since been removed from the site and replaced with a note that they violated the site’s user agreement.
About 10 American Indian students wrote an official discrimination complaint about the Gamma Phi party late last week, and that form was delivered to Elsinga this morning.
Between 50 and 60 discrimination or harassment complaints are filed at UND every year, covering a broad range of issues, Page said. Elsinga said it has been several years since a complaint was filed against a fraternity or sorority.
Calls made to Ginda and the sorority house since Friday have not been returned.
Why is it insulting to dress as an Indian? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?
Good thing these PC police weren’t in Boston in 1775!
Help me out here ... I don't see any discrimination. Were Indians denied access to the fraternity? Denied jobs? Denied admittance to the school? Was there any discrimination at all?
Oh -- right! White people aren't allowed to wear that kind of outfit. Only Indians are allowed to dress like that. Indians are special. White people need to know their place and only wear "white people" clothing. Okay. NOW I see the discrimination.
I guess we should be insulted if Indians dress like non-Indian folk.....
Gee, I guess that let’s out the recognition of bravery and independent spirit of the Boston Tea Party.
I'm offended she is impersonating a human being, get a fricking life and stop being so faggy sensative.
Imagine how "sensative" B. Hussein Obama will force onto people through legislation "if" he is elected?
I bet they are now on double secret probation
Can’ decide on their guilt or innocence without photographic evidence....
I have no idea, as a person with a lot of American Indian bllod, I am not offended???
Get her back to the re-education reservation.
Fair is fair.
faggy?...faggy?...you can’t say “faggy”...in a few years you will face prison time for using that “hate” speech on a public forum...this is, if there are still public forums.
Did they all get drunk like Indians too??
I know, I know,
LORD I APOLOGIZE
About 10 American Indian students wrote an official discrimination complaint about the Gamma Phi party late last week....
Okay. Am I to assume that these '10 American Indian students' wear 'traditional American Indian' clothing on campus everyday or do they wear 'white man' clothes?
I respectfully submit that if indeed they do not wear traditional American Indian clothing everyday they should be expelled.
Substitute any other ethnic group and you may see why it is insulting. A look at the Thanksgiving greeting cards in November shows that we tend to single out Indians as acceptable objects of caricature.
Ugh.
YGTBSM!!!!
The idiots are running the asylum.
You mean the ones that run all the convenience stores and Best Westerns?
Did they dress like Navajos, Arapahoes, or St. Louis ‘hos?
Wonder what they’d do to “Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring”?
So they weren’t ten little Indian boys? Seriously, what the hell right does a public university have to tell these people how they can and can’t dress- especially at a private function in their own sorority house? If this was the University of Pennsylvania, not only could they dress up any way they liked, but they could do it at the university president’s home and get their picture taken with her to boot!
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/904ppnhh.asp
I know a lot, and I mean a lot of Indians. Most of them are big Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians fans. Go figure. It's hilarious how easily white liberal kids can be "offended."
Her penalty should be a huge drop in tuition dollars for next year, as prospective students seek out other institutions where free thought is still respected.
We had an anti-nickname agitator in my town. She also filed suit against the performance of “Little Mary Sunshine.”.
The team name is Blackhawks. In the 1990s, permission was asked of the ancestors of Chief Blackhawk to use the name. Permission was granted and there was actually a ceremony involved.
The real kicker is this person is Scots Irish. She has no Indian blood. She has a daughter conceived by artificial insemination whom she claims is 1/2 American Indian. Thing is, while the girl *looked Indian*, I saw a photo of the mother at the same age and she looked exactly like her daughter. The key appearance element here is straight black hair.
My husband was investigating this person and went to the anti-nickname site she frequented. At the time, there was a huge uproar there over the agitator not being Indian. Turned out that her main supporter on the site, who posted under an Indian-sounding name, was also Caucasian.
Fast forward several months after the demonstrations and national news coverage. We are attending a potluck at our sailing club. One of the members is a sociology teacher at a university 45 miles from our little town. HE had instigated a group of his students to attend the demonstrations and was bragging to me that he was producing activists. I gave him a piece of my mind, explained the Blackhawk family permission history and he just looked at me blankly. Evidently, it is not possible for anyone to agree to the use of any American Indian name for any purpose other than the name of a tribe. Period. End. Oh, and this person is also Caucasian.
Oh well. In my college fraternity we wore Confederate uniforms, flew the stars and bars, and we owned and fired a real cannon. We even sang “Dixie”. (I’m not kidding either.)
Unlike the drunken pugnacious Irishman , or the cheap Scotsman like Janitor Willie on the Simpsons, or the dull Canadian, or the rigid German, the drunken Russian etc etc etc. Grow up.
I forgot to mention that I even dated a few Gamma Phi’s.
I’m not clear on what you’re saying here. That all those stereotypes are okay? That it would be okay to have a party and dress up like any of those stereotypes?
Will there ever be an end to this PC BS?!
I think you had more of a point earlier. Now that you have elaborated, you just look kindof silly...like a liberal charicature.
The outfits are no big deal. The red paint is a bit reminiscent of "blackface" (depending upon how it was applied).
I was hoping for some pics of sorority girls in costume! A search has found nothing. Anyone?
Are Federal funds being used to support this infringement on a freedom of association? I think the UND should voluntarily decide not to accept federal funds if they want to impose such bans.
...and they pretended to be running the Quick-ee Mart???
Thank you! Come again!
I and many others I know are NOT offended in the least. We find it flattering.
Well, come on down. You’ll get a warm southern welcome when you get here.
Yup, unless Indians dress like Indians and stay out of Nordstroms - I AM OFFENDED! Insanity rules! s/
Who does wear traditional Indian clothing everyday? I certainly don't and I suspect none of those who filed complaints do either. Although, you have a point, this is just plain silly. If these students want to act like complete morons, then let them have at it.
This doesn't harm anyone other than those who were at the party. The photos will serve to remind them they were idiots in college. We all have those photos, regardless of race, creed or color. :) Although someone on the thread made a point that had the students been dressed in black-face there likely wouldn't even have been a discussion. Those kids would be in deep trouble and likely suspended.
College kids just like to wear clothing vastly different from their own when they get drunk and act like jerks. I suppose what I am saying is that I am not offended and that, stupidity, in and of itself, is not a crime nor reason for expulsion or any punishment.
College is for education and the 10 who complained, got an education on some drunken morons to avoid. Ours is not to cry and whine over little things like this, but to conduct our own lives with honor, dignity and integrity thus proving the mockers the idiots they aspire to be. :)
Pretty much the only people it’s safe to goof on these days are white trash and Evangelicals.
I'm sure everyone sees what I mean, even if they don't think such activities should actually be illegal. The party was insensitive, and the university was within its rights to speak up about it and take action.
You southerners, please keep the south authentic, and don't let the liberals moving there, with their intent to change things, change the culture there. I have a few more years before I can, but I intend to leave socialism behind me, and I hate to thing they will be able to liberalize the south before I can.
I’m saying there are negative stereotypes for every group, and we should grow up and accept that fact and understand we don’t have a right to not be offended. Don’t like how people dress at a party? Leave.
“I wish I was in the Land of Cotton ...”
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