(Host) Officials at the University of Vermont and members of what was its largest fraternity say they’re trying to move on, but bitterness lingers after Sigma Phi Epsilon was closed because some of its members allegedly circulated a questionnaire that asked about sexual violence. VPR’s Kirk Carapezza has more.
(Carapezza) It smells like stale beer inside the empty Sigma Phi Epsilon frat house here on the outskirts of the UVM campus. Framed composites of fraternity alumni hang on the walls.
Before he begins his search for a new place to live, Alexander Haller plays a song on an out-of-tune piano.
(Haller) "It actually really needs a tuning. Just another thing I guess we’ll never get around to doing."
(Carapezza) That’s because the national organization shut down this house last week after investigating a question about sexual violence that it says appeared on a survey.
That means Haller is no longer the fraternity president.
(Haller)"The last few days it’s been feeling like my best friend died. I’ve been calling it a social injustice."
(Carapezza) Haller says his home away from home has come under siege – by the media, by women’s rights groups and by administrators.
(Haller) "I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors at UVM, but I feel like they’re just looking for any reason to continue to make us look like monsters."
(Carapezza) But university officials say they had no choice but to suspend the fraternity last week and investigate the issue. Annie Stevens is the director of student and campus life. She says she supports Sigma Phi Epsilon’s decision to close down its UVM chapter because of the survey.
(Stevens) "We don’t’ know if it was widely sanctioned within the fraternity. [Considering] the dynamics of any club or organization, it could be just a few members and others didn’t even know it existed."
(Carapezza) But Stevens says with no one stepping forward, Sigma Phi Epsilon had to close the house. She says the university will continue its own investigation into how widely the question was circulated.
As he looks for a new apartment, Alexander Haller wishes everyone would forget the question, which he says was not officially sanctioned by the frat.
Haller won’t name names, but he stands by his frat brother who he says wrote the question in bad taste.
(Haller) "People have made some strong statements about whoever said this and what they should go do. The person just needs a hug and some sensitivity training and not the whole world telling him they hate him because he doesn’t get it."
(Carapezza) To make sure other students get it, the university says beginning next semester it will explore educational strategies to address pervasive cultural issues that may have led to the incident.
For VPR News, I’m Kirk Carapezza.