>> I'm wondering why they allowed the fraternity to remain on campus at all. <<
Money and power: the same reasons fraternities usually get to stay at colleges here, even after proof that they gang-banged a girl or pushed a drunk pledge off the roof to his death. They can be banned from campus, but it's rare. The Greek houses tend to be rich and well-connected and full of manipulators. Look at Sam's father; that's the kind of person backing this particular frat house.
Of course, they're up against the parents of all the injured students, some of whom are also in the Greek system. So then it turns into a sort of civil war. The college literally cannot do anything without alienating lots of rich influential parents. The least-worst option for the college is probably to put the frat on probation (again) so they can't hold events or accept new members, and will be banned if they get into more trouble. If the probable lawsuits hand down a verdict blaming the fraternity and requiring it to disband, then the college will get less heat from alumni because it was somebody else's decision.
>> There has to have been a big stink about all of this,<<
Very much so.
>> and likely the "take gender and sexuality studies or leave" was some kind of horrible compromise, not just something dreamed up by some anonymous administrator.<<
That's actually a common solution in Terramagne, although the exact choice of new major/minor depends on what a given college has to offer. Gender Studies is a popular choice because sex crimes are among the leading disputes serious enough for that much punishment. Not everybody has that, so some colleges go for something else like Psychology or Sociology. If they have other uncommon options, like Peace Studies or Ethics, they might throw that in. A related point, remember Stylet's thread -- students who cock up in the sciences can be obligated to take ethics classes or even something like Bioethics as a major/minor. The overall trend is that they don't think shutting down someone's education for an act of idiocy will make them any less of an idiot, whereas directing them to more targeted education might.
Of course, there's another factor to consider. Most college sex crimes are acquaintance rapes, and a lot of those are based on people being horny, inexperienced, stupid, and often drunk. They're often accidents rather than premeditated malice. Still crimes, but a very different thing than spiking a bowl of punch on purpose. Someone who doesn't understand what consent is supposed to be like is a lot more likely to be helped by education than someone who purposely sets a trap for victims, if that makes sense. On the third hoof, the college didn't just slap a penalty on the most likely perpetrators, but also on their housemates. While it's a hell of a penalty for the majority of the boys who had nothing to do with the damn punch, they are also good candidates to be educated into realizing that the fraternity is not actually doing them any favors and its ideals are not laudable.
>> It's certainly not something that anyone at the college would be happy about,<<
No shit. However, I can't think of a much better solution, without being able to pin down an individual perpetrator. I mean, even if you had a telepath willing to toss a couple dozen boys, that's a major violation of boundaries for everyone who didn't commit the crime.
>> but at least it wouldn't be a surprise to the other people in the gender and sexuality studies program that the remaining members of the fraternity are there. <<
It's not a surprise. The solution is known. It's contentious, but then so is every other solution to fraternity misbehavior and sex crimes.
>>It would probably be a matter of debate how many of them were creepy dudebros and how many were just as much victims as the women attendees of that party.<<
True. Even given the fraternity's bad reputation, one person spiked the punch; he may have had an accomplice or two. But certainly the whole house wasn't involved. The fact that almost everyone was drinking out of the same bowl makes it harder to prove who did it, rather than if it was a targeted hit on girls like spiking jello shots.
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2022-01-15 05:16 am (UTC)Money and power: the same reasons fraternities usually get to stay at colleges here, even after proof that they gang-banged a girl or pushed a drunk pledge off the roof to his death. They can be banned from campus, but it's rare. The Greek houses tend to be rich and well-connected and full of manipulators. Look at Sam's father; that's the kind of person backing this particular frat house.
Of course, they're up against the parents of all the injured students, some of whom are also in the Greek system. So then it turns into a sort of civil war. The college literally cannot do anything without alienating lots of rich influential parents. The least-worst option for the college is probably to put the frat on probation (again) so they can't hold events or accept new members, and will be banned if they get into more trouble. If the probable lawsuits hand down a verdict blaming the fraternity and requiring it to disband, then the college will get less heat from alumni because it was somebody else's decision.
>> There has to have been a big stink about all of this,<<
Very much so.
>> and likely the "take gender and sexuality studies or leave" was some kind of horrible compromise, not just something dreamed up by some anonymous administrator.<<
That's actually a common solution in Terramagne, although the exact choice of new major/minor depends on what a given college has to offer. Gender Studies is a popular choice because sex crimes are among the leading disputes serious enough for that much punishment. Not everybody has that, so some colleges go for something else like Psychology or Sociology. If they have other uncommon options, like Peace Studies or Ethics, they might throw that in. A related point, remember Stylet's thread -- students who cock up in the sciences can be obligated to take ethics classes or even something like Bioethics as a major/minor. The overall trend is that they don't think shutting down someone's education for an act of idiocy will make them any less of an idiot, whereas directing them to more targeted education might.
Of course, there's another factor to consider. Most college sex crimes are acquaintance rapes, and a lot of those are based on people being horny, inexperienced, stupid, and often drunk. They're often accidents rather than premeditated malice. Still crimes, but a very different thing than spiking a bowl of punch on purpose. Someone who doesn't understand what consent is supposed to be like is a lot more likely to be helped by education than someone who purposely sets a trap for victims, if that makes sense. On the third hoof, the college didn't just slap a penalty on the most likely perpetrators, but also on their housemates. While it's a hell of a penalty for the majority of the boys who had nothing to do with the damn punch, they are also good candidates to be educated into realizing that the fraternity is not actually doing them any favors and its ideals are not laudable.
>> It's certainly not something that anyone at the college would be happy about,<<
No shit. However, I can't think of a much better solution, without being able to pin down an individual perpetrator. I mean, even if you had a telepath willing to toss a couple dozen boys, that's a major violation of boundaries for everyone who didn't commit the crime.
>> but at least it wouldn't be a surprise to the other people in the gender and sexuality studies program that the remaining members of the fraternity are there. <<
It's not a surprise. The solution is known. It's contentious, but then so is every other solution to fraternity misbehavior and sex crimes.
>>It would probably be a matter of debate how many of them were creepy dudebros and how many were just as much victims as the women attendees of that party.<<
True. Even given the fraternity's bad reputation, one person spiked the punch; he may have had an accomplice or two. But certainly the whole house wasn't involved. The fact that almost everyone was drinking out of the same bowl makes it harder to prove who did it, rather than if it was a targeted hit on girls like spiking jello shots.