The term 'sexual misconduct' conjures images of a doctor having sex with a patient. Or an employer with an employee. Or a sitting U.S. President having sexual relations with an intern. The term implies that a person in a position of authority has had sexual activity with a subordinate.
The article states that a "fraternity has been banned from conducting on-campus activities until August 2016 as punishment for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policy at an initiation ceremony last year." Sexual misconduct at an initiation ceremoney? How obscene!
The fraternity in question is the Yale chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The article notes that Yale's decision "comes less than a year after a University of Connecticut chapter of the same fraternity was banned from that campus for five years over hazing allegations." This is guilt-by-association, an example of the fallacy of composition. Come on, New York Times, tell us what they did! Get to the smut!
Yale will not say specifically how members violated the school's sexual misconduct policy. The fraternity admitted that "two members made inappropriate comments about a female student in the presence of other members."
That's it? "Inappropriate comments?" A college aged male said something about a female student's breasts? It seems the Greeks are still being ruled by Draco, the "Greek statesman who laid down a code of laws for Athens 621 B.C.E. that mandated death as punishment for minor crimes." It is from Draco that the term "Draconian" is derived from. It means in a general sense, a severe punishment for a minor crime.
I hate that term, "inappropriate." It's like how the word "toxic" is being used in argumentative essays. It is just an appeal to emotion.
Yale publishes a semi-annual report on sexual misconduct. In its most recent report, it said it "punished a student organization for two years after investigating complaints of sexual harassment and retaliation." Members of the group, "which is not named, 'created a hostile environment.'" More guilt-by association and composition fallacy. Besides, life itself is a "hostile environment."
The article further indicts the Greek system, stating that "in 2011, a different Yale fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, received a five-year ban after members shouted sexually charged chants, including “No means yes,” on a residential quadrangle."
Five year ban. For speech. On a college campus. If Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, then we're doomed.
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