<p>look I dislike the frat culture at many schools. but I also value the truth a lot more! is an apology even enough ? this is a major problem for rolling stone magazine and those who seized on this story for their own agenda.
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/rolling-stone-uva-rape-story-retraction-180722194.html">http://news.yahoo.com/rolling-stone-uva-rape-story-retraction-180722194.html</a></p>
<p>Rolling stone has been going downhill since they switched from newsprint.</p>
<p><a href=“http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/12/05/the-rolling-stone-rape-story-correction-is-about-a-failure-of-journalism-not-a-failure-of-trust”>http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/12/05/the-rolling-stone-rape-story-correction-is-about-a-failure-of-journalism-not-a-failure-of-trust</a></p>
<p>I think that this apology was misguided.</p>
<p>Another source (Slate magazine) ran an article in which they discussed the ‘discrepancies.’ Apparently, they are (1) the date that Jackie gave for the Phi Kappa Psi party is allegedly inaccurate, as the fraternity did not hold a party on that day; (2) while the RS article seemed to imply that this was a hazing ritual that pledges did, Phi Kappa Psi pledging at UVa occurs in the spring; (3) Jackie told some of her friends the name of the man she says raped her; that young man belongs to another fraternity and says he has never met her before; and (4) Jackie says that she met the man who lured her to the party as a lifeguard at the Aquatic Fitness Center, but none of the men in Phi Kappa Psi were lifeguards at the Aquatic Center that semester. Oh, and (5) the fraternity in question denies it, which surprises exactly 0 people.</p>
<p>I am not saying that she is or isn’t lying; I’m not even saying she didn’t embellish some facts (in fact, she seems to almost admit as much herself; she released a statement that while she maintains she was raped that some of the details in her story might be inaccurate). But my thoughts are</p>
<p>1) The rape happened 2 years ago, and was an emotionally unstable time for her. I can’t remember the dates of any parties I attended 2 years ago, so the wrong date doesn’t surprise me.</p>
<p>2) It occurred to me that she might have deliberately changed some of the details in the story to prevent from revealing her attackers, since she didn’t want the reporter to contact them.</p>
<p>3) Neither the author nor Jackie ever stated that they thought the rape was a pledging ritual. The way the article was written, it does imply that - indeed, I drew the same conclusion from some of the language used - but the author has left it up to the audience to conclude that. (Furthermore, I have some friends who are Greek and they say that unofficial hazing/pledging activities happen long before the actual official pledging and initiation, particularly for members who really desire to be in a specific house).</p>
<p>3) Someone pointed out earlier that if Jackie claimed to be a victim of a robbery or a mugging on campus, nobody would be questioning why the author of the article didn’t seek out the mugger/robber and asked their opinion. I do think that RS could’ve presented a more balanced portrayal of the issue by talking to some fraternity members and others of their supporters; the article would’ve been better.</p>
<p>4) MOST IMPORTANTLY, Jackie was far from the only victim in the article. Her story was the centerpiece example of the article, but there were several other victims who told their stories and discussed their attacks in the article - including at least one named one (Liz Seccuro) who said she was gang-raped in a similar fashion (and her attacker actually admitted to it - you can read the story she wrote about it in 2010 [url=<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>A History of Violence: Not Huguely, But the University of Virginia | HuffPost College]here[/url</a>] and some anonymous victims who told similar stories of sexual assault and rape at the UVa fraternity houses more generally and Phi Kappa Psi more specifically.</p>
<p>Obviously, if she made the story up out of whole cloth that is an absolutely terrible, terrible thing to do. I think it’s more likely that she was assaulted and embellished some details of the story, either intentionally or inadvertently (or both). Memories are unreliable things, especially when emotions are high and when one has strongly held beliefs about the content or meaning of the memory.</p>
<p>Anyone who’s seen my posts on here knows that I hold no negative feelings towards Greek life, Greek organizations or their members; I think that the vast majority of Greek org members are normal human beings who just want to make friends, have fun, do some charity work and form some strong bonds of brother/sisterhood. I tend to think that they are net positive things, as Greek org members tend to have overall higher GPAs and greater college satisfaction; I think they also tend to donate more to their alma maters.</p>
<p>But there’s no denying that fraternities, particularly - but sororities too - have been involved in some unsavory stuff over the years. There have been so, so many articles about this issue - about sexual assault in fraternities; about how difficult they are to insure because of the number of terrible injuries that happen there; about hazing rituals that maim and kill pledges (although these issues are of course not unique to fraternities - sports teams and other organizations have them too). And after this article came out, before its content was in doubt, MANY UVa students came forward and said that the general thrust of the article rang true to them wrt UVa’s fraternity culture and the need for reform. Besides, it’s not like universities in general haven’t been in the news lately for how poorly many of them handle sexual assault allegations.</p>
<p>The thing that’s most disturbing to me about the whole thing is that many news outlets are hopping on this with headlines like “rape story unravels” without any details about why the trust was misplaced.. In fact, up until a few hours ago, all we knew was that Phi Kappa Psi had challenged the story and disagreed with Jackie’s account of events, which is in and of itself definitely not enough to say the story is unraveling (because who comes forward and says “Sure, one of our members lured a girl into a brutal gang rape, and seven others participated”?) People are already comparing it to the Duke lacrosse case when this is emphatically not at all like the Duke lacrosse case, especially because Jackie has never identified herself, declined to name her attackers, and is not trying to press charges against them. (This also does not have the racially charged element of that, and people doubted Crystal Magnum’s story from the beginning.)</p>
<p>understand, I wish all frats disappeared (but not because they are banned) I would love young people to want to go off to college to learn, meet new and different people and be challenged and to grow as individuals. I hate the concept of banning things, it also does not change the personality of those drawn to the Greek system. the heavy drinking and other things aside. why you want to submit to hazing and being physically and mentally degraded to be “friends” with people who were greek letters on their shirts and hats confuses and troubles me.
that said, while I truly dislike fraternities and sorties and what they stand for and the mindset of those who join…the truth trumps all and this rolling stone story written by a supposedly investigative journal failed terribly and the knee jerk reaction by the administration at UVA is beyond words and people should be fired.<br>
as in the duke lacrosse case ( I would be the guy in the movies the lacrosse team bullied) so I am no fan of jocks, just like frats , the way duke handled that situation (aside from the criminal activity of the DA) those professors (gang of 88 I believe) should all have been fired. they were a modern day lynch mob of innocent students at the school. duke has paid out maybe over 100 million dollars to settle with all those innocent lacrosse students…but those professors are still working at duke. they needed be fired and that shows duke has not corrected it’s terrible behavior.</p>
<p>UVA is going to do some serious soul searching and hopefully a bunch of folks are fired. the truth and justice always trump our desires to want to believe jocks and frats are always evil and bad.
signed
a true geek</p>