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Sigma Chi Derby Days Inappropriate Questions/Language Incident to Bring About Change
As a result of a Facebook post by Ole Miss senior Abby Bruce about the inappropriate nature of questions asked and comments made in interviews of sorority queen contestants at this year’s Sigma Chi Derby Days dance competition, University of Mississippi officials are looking into the matter. Derby Days is Sigma Chi’s annual philanthropic event to support Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson.
Some of the questions asked of the queens at the Friday event contained obvious sexual innuendo. There was also inappropriate language used by emcees between queen interviews. Ole Miss Sigma Chi’s president and vice-president have agreed that the behavior was inappropriate and upsetting. It was reported that over the weekend the members of Sigma Chi visited each sorority house in person to apologize.
The final-day dance competition and queen competition typically conclude a week of Derby Days activities in which sororities compete for points in order to win the overall competition. Those mini competitions include a hunt for a daily hidden derby, a blood drive, an Instagram contest, fundraising by each sorority, a dance competition and a queen contestant competition.
This year’s dance and queen competition event was held in the Tad Smith Coliseum on Friday. As in past years, in addition to sorority and fraternity members, the dance and queen competition event was also attended by parents of Greek members as well as children’s hospital patients and their parents.
Director of Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance at University of Mississippi, Rebecca Bressler said in a statement provided by Ole Miss Newsdesk: “The university takes the report alleging a hostile environment very seriously. It is important that members of our community feel safe and supported – actions that undermine that goal will not be tolerated.”
The president of the Eta chapter of Sigma Chi, Clay Wooley, was interviewed by NewsWatch Ole Miss last night. In an open letter to the Ole Miss student body (linked here), Wooley and Vice President Max Lopez said, in part:
“This incident, as upsetting and unfortunate as it was, gives us an opportunity as a community to address the issue of the sexually insensitive culture that is all too prevalent in the Greek system, not only at the University of Mississippi, but also across the country. We plan to work with Rebels Against Sexual Assault to hold a workshop for our members that speaks to the severity of sexual harassment by way of verbal abuse.
The events do not need to be overlooked or washed over, instead they need to be used to open an honest dialogue about making positive change in our society. Instead of arguing and fighting we need to work together to fix these issues moving forward.
Sigma Chi leadership has apologized to each sorority in person and in writing, and preliminary disciplinary action has been taken toward the members involved in Friday night’s event.”
Below is the video from News Watch Ole Miss, embedded with permission.
The Daily Mississippian also reports that sororities have instructed their members to not speak to the media or post on social media because the Panhellenic wants to make an all-inclusive statement on the issue.
From staff reports. HottyToddy.com can be reached at hottytoddynews@gmail.com
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Anonymous
April 18, 2016 at 8:17 pm
how about instead of being offended by derby days don’t go to it!!!!! problem solved. Obama has ruined this country to where if anyone is offended by anything it’s chaos. This shouldn’t be news.
N B F
April 18, 2016 at 8:49 pm
Breaking News. College guys being stupid. Do we really need a University investigation by something called “Regulatory Compliance”? Just call the leaders in, give them a strong warning that if it happens again there will be punishments.
Yes, they were out of line, but everything is not a big deal.
Ronnie Pittman
April 18, 2016 at 10:10 pm
Young people make mistakes. Who would dispute that fact? Wisdom comes from experience and experience usually comes after a great deal of poor decisions. I appreciate the honesty and willingness of the Sigma Chi officers to admit that mistakes were made and the effort they are making to reach out and appologise to any parties that may have been mistreated. We live on a plant inhabited by human beings who even in the best of times are less than perfect. We will make mistakes. It’s how we learn best. If we are responsible, we will try and correct or make amends when we do. That’s how it works in life. To those offended, graciously accept the appology. It’s your opportunity to be the better person, today. Don’t forget that you too may make a mistake one day. We all will need grace at some point to make it through this life. I love Ole Miss, I love Mississippi and I love our country. Let’s focus on what is great about us and not what is negative about us. Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us… That is the key to a happy life.
Carol Halliburton
April 19, 2016 at 1:06 am
The harassment these women endured at Derby Day was no mistake. The same kind of vulgar, inappropriate cat calling from the Sigma Chi emcees happened when I was in school in the early 70’s. This behavior is institutionalized not accidental. Thank God someone finally had the guts to call them on it. Someone needs to be kicked out of school, have their charter jerked, and spend a little time in jail!
Anonymous
April 19, 2016 at 8:46 am
Jail? What law was broken exactly? This is precisely the type of rhetoric that brings negative publicity on our university as well as our part of the country. College guys being stupid has gone on for literally a hundred years. We have bigger issues.
Anonymous
April 19, 2016 at 9:44 am
To suggest jail time and expulsion for something this stupid only fuels the fire of helping to bring down the entire Greek system. I would watch what I post at 1:00 am.
Anonymous
April 19, 2016 at 10:23 am
There are some wonderful men at Sigma Chi as in all the Fraternities at Ole Miss. I hope as a result of some men’s terrible behavior, they will rework their event. I am sure they will apologize to these young ladies. I hope as an advisors to these participating sororities, we can work with our young ladies and give them to courage and self-confidence to walk away when the activity is in any way demeaning or inappropriate. No need to send anyone to jail. Drunk people have been doing bad things for years, and hopefully these young men have learned from this incident.