Student Senate to vote on hate crime awareness
Harassment, vandalism encourage student body leaders to take stand
Students at the Alpha Epsilon Pi house were surprised to find the vandalism that someone objected their house to in November. Student Senate will vote whether or not to take a stand against hate crimes on campus tonight.
By Erin Sommer
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
On Saturday, Nov. 10, Jason Oruch left his fraternity house with friends to camp for an upcoming basketball game. While leaving the house, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Oruch and his friends noticed that the fraternity letters on the lawn outside of the house had been vandalized.
“Fuck you, Jew!”
“Bitch!”
“Ass!”
Oruch, Plano, Texas, junior, said that he and his friends worked to paint over the anti-semitic words before parents showed up for the fraternity’s parents’ weekend, which started that day.
“It was pretty shocking,” Oruch said. “I was kind of in disbelief. It was upsetting.”
Oruch said that he and other fraternity members called the Lawrence police, which took a report and told the members it was a hate crime.
Barak Krengel, Dallas junior, said that he called a local Hillel organization and a Rabbi to inform them of the incident.
Oruch, a student senator, will present legislation tonight at full Senate asking Student Senate to take a stand against hate crimes on campus.
He said he hoped the legislation would raise awareness for this and other hate crimes.
“I think Senate should come together to take a stance and say ‘we’re against this,’” Oruch said.
Krengel said that at about 2 a.m., on Nov. 10, two freshman members of the fraternity were harrassed and followed by two people they did not know, who called them names such as “dumb Jew.” Oruch and others later found the vandalized property. They said they did not know who followed the freshmen or who vandalized the letters.
Krengel said that there had never been a similar incident at the fraternity house.
“I was offended,” Krengel said. “We were really pissed off. It’s someone desecrating our property.”
He also said that he thought the legislation was a good step toward overcoming the event.
“I hope that it passes and people become aware of it.”
Student Senate meets tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Dole Institute of Politics.
—Edited by Luke Morris
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
Share your 2¢
Requires free registration.