re: #49 lawhawk

Parsing the “refutation” letter issued by the fraternity indicates that they aren’t actually denying that the events took place.

They’re denying any knowledge of whether anything happened. This isn’t just semantics.

So, when you read the entire letter, know that it’s filled with a bunch of evasive denials that aren’t as lock-tight as claimed.

This is important, particularly in light of how fraternities and sororities work from an insurance perspective. (I’m going to use the word “frats” from here on out, but read it as genderless.)

The wild parties that frats are known for are not insurable in any way shape or form. So the national organizations survive lawsuits entirely on plausible deniability. When an incident happens at a frat party, the national organization sends a tiger team to “help” the chapter through the legal turmoil. What they’re really there for is to interview everyone involved, make sure the national organization’s rules were getting broken and find the “bad apple” they can scapegoat.

It turns out that the standard set of rules for fraternity parties are really strict, and involve things like every attendee only being allowed to bring one six pack of beer, which must be checked to a designated attendant (who must be a member of the frat), and then everyone can only drink the alcohol they brought, as distributed at a safe rate from the alcohol check guy. I’m not kidding. This is in every fraternity rule book. And when have you ever heard of a frat following that rule? This is also what the “registered social event” business is. That there wasn’t a registered event doesn’t mean there wasn’t a party. It means there wasn’t a party that was run strictly according to the fraternity rules. So whatever happened is not the national organization’s fault.

So, when a rape happens, or a drunk kid falls out of a window and dies, the national organization finds the rule breaking, disavows any approval of the chapter’s actions and lets the members of the chapter in question deal with the legal fallout as individuals.

That is what is going on with the letter from the fraternity. This is the national organization Covering Its Ass. They released this for insurance and legal purposes, and I would give it no weight either way on whether or not the rape happened. Given what happens in the modern fraternity system, this is the only way for the national organizations to avoid being sued into oblivion. And if they were going to fall prey to any lawsuits related to this kind of behavior, they would be completely uninsurable.

Frankly, I would never let a child of mine join a fraternity or sorority. Particularly if you own a house and don’t want to lose in a wrongful death or similar lawsuit.