By now I'm sure you have seen those raunchy and degrading signs the Old Dominion University chapter of Sigma Nu hung from their balcony during freshmen move-in. The signs read sayings like, "Rowdy and fun, hope your daughter is ready for a good time," and, "freshmen daughter drop off." It amazed me to see that so many people were surprised that those signs were displayed. The truth is, signs like these have been placed on and around many college campuses for years. It is wrong for the public to only blame ODU and their chapter of Sigma Nu for this kind of behavior. This behavior is something that shouldn't be tolerated anywhere, but ODU isn't the only school to blame.
A banner similar to the one posted at ODU at West Virginia University:
Another similar banner at University of Michigan in 2013:
Can you imagine being a freshmen girl at a brand new college and seeing these signs while driving in the car with your parents? Personally, these signs make me feel sick. They probably made the new freshmen girls even more scared of being at their new school. I'm sure the parents were outraged when they saw these signs. The already worried parents probably felt even more terrified of leaving their kid at a college where the students decided this was the way they were going to represent themselves.
I am disgusted that displaying these signs is even a tradition at some schools. The main reason students think that this is okay is because it's so common in the media. There are countless movies that display college as this place where everyone only parties, girls walk around practically naked, and beer is the only beverage of choice.
For some people this might be their ideal vision of college, but the truth is that college isn't like that at all. It is supposed to be a place of learning and finding who you are. Yes, some partying may happen if you would like, but it isn't to the extreme that freshmen girls feel violated. These signs are not okay, even if the media displays that this is the way college should be.
It is unfortunate that some fraternities post signs like these and create a bad reputation for fraternities everywhere. Fraternities already have a bad name in society. There have already been plenty of sexual assault scandals caused by fraternities and the fact that these fraternities are voluntarily making themselves look even worse is disappointing. Unfortunately there are many cases of sexual assaults and not all of them are caused by frats. The reason the incidents caused by frats get more attention is because of the negative stereo-type they hold. It gives the public a reason to keep thinking negative thoughts about frats when not all frats are the same.
Many fraternities do great things for their communities and do respect women. The few fraternities posting signs out of tradition are only making fraternities look more disrespectful towards women. One one think that a fraternity getting ready to put up a banner like the ones at ODU, they would think about how it made their fraternity look, and how it would represent fraternities everywhere.
Even though what this ODU frat did was not okay, they shouldn't be the only school getting blame for it. All schools who have allowed signs like these to be displayed, need to be sure they are never displayed again.
