Frat Fundraiser Called Racially Insensitive

Students and administrators are up in arms at the University of Wisconsin after a "slave auction" fundraiser at one of the school's fraternities.

At the event, which was held by Zeta Beta Tau, a primarily Jewish fraternity, pledges wore black face makeup and afro wigs and performed impersonations of Oprah Winfrey and the Jackson Five on stage. Students said that the Oprah impersonation had sexist implications because frat members pulled the pledge's arms back and forth saying "this is my girlfriend Oprah," hitting her and calling her "bitch," according to the Wisconsin Daily Cardinal.

The Committee on Student Organizations, a body of students responsible for disciplining student groups, is in the process of compiling and reviewing a case against the frat, said Noel T. Radomski, vice president of the Wisconsin Student Association (WSA), which includes the disciplinary committee.

The committee has the option of expelling the frat, placing it on probation or suspension, or dismissing the complaint, Radomski said.

Although pledge sales, in which new fraternity members hire themselves out to do menial labor, are common, the racial character of the ZBT auction was highly unusual, students said.

Last week, the student disciplinary committee demanded that the frat release two video tapes that are the only formal evidence of the event. Although the fraternity missed its Monday deadline for submission of the tapes, its lawyer passed in one tape a day later, Radomski said. It is unclear who made the tapes.

Committee members said the case could prove invalid if the fraternity's lawyer is able to prove that Zeta Beta Tau does not qualify as a student organization because it did not register with the university this fall. The student disciplinary committee would then have no jurisdiction over the case.

But Radomski said the committee plans to argue that the group is "constructively a student organization, though not literally," because it has been using university facilities, participating in recreational sports and sending members to the interfraternity council throughout the semester. Because the fraternity has been registered for several years, the fraternity may have forgotten to register officially this fall, Radomski said.

The dean of students found out about the incident through an anonymous student complaint the day after it occurred. Officials then filed a complaint with the Committee on Student Organizations.

Until this fall, the university's administration was responsible for disciplining student organizations, Radomski said. He added that members of the Black Student Association have said they would prefer to have the school's chancellor handle this situation. The BSA and the dean of students' office were unavailable for comment.

BSA members have said the university's decision last spring to place disciplinary responsibility in the hands of the Wisconsin Student Association is a way of avoiding the type of attention that it drew last year during other racial incidents on campus, according to the Badger Herald.

Last winter, the university's Phi Gamma Delta fraternity advertised a tropical island party with a Black caricature on a sign on its front lawn. The incident resulted in scuffles between minority students and Phi Gamma Delta members.

"I think [the slave auction] was wrong, definitely wrong; they had no right to do that," said junior James L. Bourne, who said the frat should be "kicked off campus for good."

"People in the Greek system are saying the incident was no big deal," but other students are outraged, he said. Senior Amy Miller said the frat "probably didn't have bad intentions," but that its actions were "really stupid."