Mustang News Editorial Board
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It’s not often you’ll apologize for something without admitting you’ve done it. But that’s the strategy Cal Poly greeks are now using.
As if being called out in national news for having a “Colonial Bros and Nava-hos”-themed party wasn’t enough for fraternity life at Cal Poly, leaders of the Cal Poly greek community are now denying they took responsibility for the event when they apologized at a campuswide forum this past month.
In a meeting with two members of the Mustang News Editorial Board on Tuesday, Interfraternity Council (IFC) public relations director Alex Horncliff, IFC President Dominic Hjerpe and Panhellenic President Danielle Durante struggled to explain their initial apology.
They tried simultaneously to maintain that greeks might not have been involved in the party and own up to the apology. The balancing act didn’t work.
Asked three times to explain why they apologized for a party that apparently could have had nothing to do with greeks (“It’s hard to put into words,” Horncliff said), Hjerpe began writing a reason down on a notepad we offered him. Five minutes — and three drafts — later, he came up with two sentences that sounded just as contrived:
“IFC gave an apology to the Cal Poly & San Luis Obispo Community because there was an email associating Greeks with a culturally insensitive theme. We issued a statement because we wanted to clarify our belief that there is no room for insensitive themes in the Cal Poly or Greek Community.”
After the party began trickling into national news and drew criticism from a Navajo academic leader, the IFC misled more than 200 people in attendance at a forum. Now, their revised “apology” doesn’t make much sense.
At the forum, Horncliff stepped to the microphone and apologized after a student called for one of the leaders in the Cal Poly greek community to apologize for what they did. Though he never explicitly said a fraternity hosted the misogynistic and racist party, he did tell the audience that greeks “messed up.”
“We messed up. That is something that is clear and one thing that has to be understood,” Horncliff said. “This is not something that we stand behind. I’ll repeat it and I’ll repeat it until it’s dead.”
Comparing the original apology with Tuesday’s, there was a clear 180-degree turn in communication. Since when do you apologize because someone else sent else an email? And more importantly, why do you say you “messed up” if you’re later maintaining your group might not be responsible?
Apparently, that’s today’s strategy for the leaders of greek life. Instead of taking responsibility — or explaining why they are waiting to pass judgment on their member chapters — and moving forward with a way to change the culture that allows such a ridiculous party to happen in the first place, this just makes the story drag out longer.
Though the greek leaders said they’re committed to changing the culture on campus, suddenly the party isn’t the only thing that’s looking ridiculous.
This represents the opinion of the Mustang News editorial board, which includes J.J. Jenkins, Carly Rickards, Sean McMinn and Olivia DeGennaro.