In the midst of fraternity recruitment, four students dressed in costume before Songfest 2001 are featured in a defamatory leaflet.
By JJ Bowman
Assistant News Editor
When Rachael Lawson took a picture of four friends she never thought the photo would become so famous — or scandalous.
In the early morning hours during the first Monday of fraternity recruitment, residence halls were littered with flyers of four Sigma Nu’s posing for a picture with the added title: “Looking for a few gay men? Rush Sigma Nu.”
Lawson said she photographed the four Sigma Nu’s — Byron Branch, JJ Portwood, Charles Vernocy and Phil Johnson — in costume, just before the first day of Songfest 2001. Sigma Nu, Beta Theta Pi and Kappa Alpha Theta joined together to put on a skit spoofing the book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.”
The Sigma Nu’s dressed in Chippendale-style outfits to differentiate themselves from the Beta’s at the show, Lawson said.
“(The flyers) were all over the floor and taped to the window and on the bulletin board,” Lawson said. “It took me five seconds to realize that it was my picture.”
Approximately half the flyers had the words “Go Beta” written in marker, Beta Theta Pi president Aaron Beck said.
Beck said someone added “Go Beta” to attack his fraternity.
“I think it was so blatant, so ludicrous, that we were looked at as being childish … the ‘70s-ish ‘Animal House’ fraternity,” he said.
The Greek prank has increased tensions between Sigma Nu and a “certain other group” on campus, said Sigma Nu president Vernocy, one of the four men photographed.
Vernocy added that he believed the flyers were designed to insult the Sigma Nu fraternity as a whole.
“None of our members that are in the picture took that as a personal attack,” he said.
Neither Beck nor Vernocy said they know who is responsible.
Lawson said she kept the original photograph and gave a copy to Johnson. The picture then ended up on the Sigma Nu part of the Student Organization’s Web site.
Each picture on the site had a title, usually including the names of the fraternity members photographed.
The title that appears on the photo when a person attempts to download it was listed as “gay-guys.jpg.”
Inter-Fraternity Council Web sites are typically run by each fraternity. Sigma Chi president Paul Kennedy said that his fraternity’s site is maintained by any member who is willing to take up the task.
“It’s too expensive to hire someone,” he said.
Vernocy said that he was unaware of the harsh title of the picture on the Web site. He declined to identify the Sigma Nu Web site chair who operates the page on behalf of the fraternity.
Student Organizations Coordinator Nicole Phillips said that the flyer distribution is an issue of “integrity and ethics,” involving the responsible parties.
“I think we have an outstanding Greek system,” she said. “But I do think that there is still work we have to do as people and in our Pepperdine community.”
Currently the case is being reviewed, Phillips said. If sanctions are issued against a fraternity or other organization, those sanctions will be released later. If individuals are found guilty, no information will come forward because student disciplinary records can never be released.
To her knowledge, no such flyers of this nature have ever been circulated before.
Phillips could not be reached for comment about the fact that the Sigma Nu Web site titled the photograph “gay-guys.jpg.”
Sigma Nu and Beta have a slight overlap in the students to whom they give bids, according to Vernocy. This year four students received bids from both fraternities. Three joined Sigma Nu and one joined Beta.
The Sigma Nu president said that the flyer did not have any negative effect on his fraternity.
“This did not in any way, shape or form affect our rush,” he said.
Vernocy also said he was thankful that so many students and members of other fraternities took time to clear out the flyers.
“A number of members of Sig Ep, Sigma Chi and Psi U personally took time out of their day to remove as many flyers as they could,” he said.
October 03, 2002
