As students spent the last weekend of August moving into their dorms at West Chester University, some took notice of a banner that was hung outside the Sigma Pi house. The banner read, “Kiss your daughters goodbye & drop them off @ Sigma Pi.”
Although the banner was quickly removed, a photo had already been taken and was shared on social media. While many viewed the sign as a joke, others were more upset.
“The reason those signs are so problematic is because the language literally insinuates that girls, particularly freshmen girls, are objects of sexual desire [and] there specifically for the purposes of enticing and fulfilling men,” said student Sabina Sister. “It minimizes women to that of sexual objects, and for many on our campus who are new, these first messages are really damaging.”
According to Sister, she believes that “we must commit ourselves to fighting these signs by explaining and educating why they are so harmful.”
The Association for Women’s Empowerment (AWE) hosted a meeting in Sykes on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 1 where students could voice their concerns over the banner. As written by Corrine Marchese, the president of AWE, on the group’s Facebook page, the purpose of the meeting was to “discuss what actions should be taken to make sure nothing this inappropriate and disgraceful happens on our campus again.”
According to Marchese, students at the meeting talked about their intention of sending a letter to Interim President Christopher Fiorentino.
“We’re going to [be] drafting it soon because I think [the banner] should be addressed by our president,” said Marchese. “We wanted to outline how the banner contributes to rape culture and even though they believed it to be a joke, the real life consequences it has are damaging to everyone.”
Marchese stated that they believe Green Dot training would be beneficial to the fraternity.
Alex Land, a brother of Phi Sigma Pi, thought the banner was “just awful.”
One male student in a fraternity who wished to remain anonymous said he found the banner to be disrespectful.
“Fraternities are based on different but similar values, each along the lines of being respectful, courteous members of society,” he said. “When fraternities do stuff like this, it’s usually the actions of a few reflecting the rest of their fraternity and the rest of Greek life as a whole.”
“We must commit ourselves to fighting these signs by explaining and educating why they are so harmful.”
Ruth Hochberg, a recent WCU graduate and sister of Delta Phi Epsilon, also expressed disappointment after learning of the banner.
“In my experience, Fraternity and Sorority Life at WCU has been working hard in the past few years to fight the stigma that our organizations face,” said Hochberg. “[The banner] is undoing it all, and I’m sorry the guys who made this sign are the ones that get noticed while there are plenty of gentlemen in fraternities who go out of their way to make sure women feel safe and respected who are unnoticed simply because they’re doing the right thing.”
Hochberg, who said she was “sorry on behalf of a community filled mostly with people who are trying to do right,” hopes that the attention the banner received will help to initiate change.
Casey Tobias is a third-year student majoring in women’s and gender studies and communication studies with minors in journalism and German. She can be reached at CT822683@wcupa.edu. Her Twitter is @Casey__Tobias.