An Open Letter to Illinois State University’s Interfraternity Council: Your Apology Fucking Sucks.

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This is the letter that was posted to Instagram by the Interfraternity Council (@ilstu_ifc) around 5:00PM CST on September 29th, 2022. It addresses an act of vandalism that occurred sometime the night prior by brothers of the chapter known as Kappa Sigma. News of the crime spread throughout social media platforms on September 28th, 2022.

Beginning on Yik Yak around 1:55PM, unverified claims began circulating that the Fraternity had spray painted the f-slur on two neighboring Greek houses. Comments suggested that the hate crimes were a hazing stunt. All concerns of this malicious behavior were proven to be true when photo evidence of the hate crimes as well as a text thread pinning it to Kappa Sigma was leaked to social media. The next day, the Interfraternity Council made their voice known with this… document?

It’s scribbled in, uh, Comic Sans MS. Not only that, but the text is actually warped making it hard to view. It is addressed to no one, has no date, nor signature. It has no avenue of connection to address comments, concerns, or criticisms. It’s quite possibly the worst presentation I’ve ever seen from any organization. It breaks my graphic design heart.

Now, aside from the presentation, this letter doesn’t look all too terrible. On first glance it’s apparent that the Interfraternity Council is apologetic. They’ve expressed sorrow to an uncomfortable degree, explained the conflict well enough, acknowledged their role (sorta — not really), and offered a lackluster solution of repair. Actually, I rescind that earlier statement. This apology letter is YouTube Influencer levels of bad. Honestly, it might be worse. So I’ve compiled a lengthy laundry list of:

REASONS WHY THIS STATEMENT IS BORDERLINE NARCISSISM:

1. Poor Presentation

Seriously, did you guys not want to deal with this so bad that you threw it at your entry level Technical Communicator and Designer? This piece was rushed so hard that not even Kappa Sigma could compete with you. This atrocious presentation makes the content hard to read and engage with: there are two blatant grammatical errors, it’s improperly addressed, and it has zero avenue for communication. There’s no way this was peer-reviewed or revised; it looks like you posted this from your toilet. I guess no body at the ‘Interfraternity of Fuck-Wits’ wanted to put their name on this PR disaster-piece.

This post is also presented on a 484 follower seldom engaged account. This is in comparison with Kappa Sigma’s 2185 follower account, which as of October 1st, 2022, now has a single story post released regarding the situation. A post that is scheduled to be unpublished the following day. This post comes after Illinois State University’s RSO “Pride” released a statement on their feed regarding the lack of action.

It also comes after comments started surfacing on their recent golfing tournament post, which were swiftly deleted by Kappa Sigma upon statement release. These documents show a lack of care on the organization’s part and a very clear want to sweep this situation under the rug. It’s highly offensive to ALL communities involved.

2. Downplaying the Severity

English is a fickle language, in part because we can make any situation sound not as bad as it actually is. News outlets and public relations teams do this 24/7: so I’m going to make this sound about as bad as it actually is.

“Today we learned of an incident [a hate crime] involving vandalism and hateful speech [the use of a homophobic slur] committed by the Illinois State University chapter of Kappa Sigma. This occurrence [offense] directly affected members of the LGBTQIA+…”

Bestie, how much are we going to sugar coat things until it becomes barely digestible for the average viewer. What’s notable is the indirectness of the statements made. You can’t even state in full detail what occurred. It’s like I’m coaxing a five-year-old to confess the candy they just stole from the Circle K. The language used in this apology downplays the severity of the crime. Using words like “incident” and “occurrence” allude to the situation feeling like a one time, infrequent problem.

This only further emphasizes just how badly you want this case to disappear. Your rhetoric says “it’s not that bad.” It’s that bad, homophobia is really bad dude. Maintaining respectability and skating around the crime with lighter semantics isn’t going to help this case, it only makes it seem less of a problem to the average viewer. In reality, homophobia, misogyny, and racism are very profound in Greek life. Act like it.

3. Distancing Yourself from the Act.

Imagine a chapter of your organization did something malicious to hurt others (a thing they frequently do), now imagine that in your apology you list yourself as an injured party. Huh? The Interfraternity Council lists itself as a victim in the first paragraph when they themself have a role to play in the problem. You are not the victim here.

“…we apologize for the actions committed by this member chapter of our council. The acts committed by this chapter do not align with our values, and we are profoundly apologetic.”

I’m calling bullshit. Throughout the whole letter the Interfraternity Council have attempted to distance themself from the actual situation instead of taking accountability. Notice how the member chapter is singled out and ostracized from the rest of the group. This is very much a face-saving maneuver. The Interfraternity Council has created a blame game.

If they point the finger at the few students who committed the act, or even just the whole Fraternity, the Interfraternity Council gains the advantage of both authority and dodging accountability. They could simply claim that this was a group of rogue students/individuals which they state “their values do not align with,” but the chapter is simply an extension of the Interfraternity Council. Kappa Sigma is a fraction of the Interfraternity Council, and a large one at that. This is performative activism, and they’re using Kappa Sigma as a scape-goat to dodge responsibility.

4. Sympathy Baiting

An apology is meant to aid the party that has been harmed by the perpetrator. You’ve somehow been able to actually harm the victim party with your apology. Gold star!

I should preface by saying that I don’t need you to verbally say sorry to know that you’re sorry. I simply need to know what happened, and that the offense is being taken care of in a transparent progressive way. There’s no need to profoundly apologize twice in one paragraph back to back in the attempt to gain sympathy from the reader.

In this case, the apology has been deflected back at the victims for them to do the work and seek common ground with you. I mean for starters you’ve already got me sitting at a desk writing about how garbage this response was so, kudos.

You’ve weaponized your apology to, yet again, gain more agency over the situation. This is not a cooperative, effective way of seeking amends; this is one sided as always with marginalized communities. The Interfraternity Council leaves room for more harm than good. A potential outcome of this behavior is the likelihood for the victims to receive backlash from fraternity supporters for improperly accepting or flat-out rejecting the apology.

Izzy Braico, a head-editor for White Noise, writes a phenomenal essay on apologies where this phenomena is addressed in “The Anatomy of an Apology.”

5. Inadequate action

So, I guess the consequence for harming an entire community of people with your rhetoric is to watch a couple YouTube videos, attend a lecture, and complete some quizzes on Reggienet or something. The Interfraternity Council’s actions are inadequate and border mob appeasement. Your reprimand was sticking a book in their hands, taking away Daddy’s money, and calling it a day. Studying for the homophobia test next Friday on Quizlet does not undo institutionalized misogyny.

You can say whatever you want, but Kappa Sigma’s statistics don’t lie. We know you’re not going to do shit. In the Spring of 2022, Kappa Sigma didn’t rank all that well in academics compared to competing Greek houses. They placed 31st out of 39 houses last Fall. Despite this academic status, Kappa Sigma holds 110 members under its belt with a well off retention rate. 97 of those members are active. Subsequently, decent revenue. Alumni donations generally trend upward from Greek life students: active participants means loyal donors. 

When you put it like that, extending a hand to marginalized communities doesn’t look too pleasant when your money bags start taking a dive.

A big part of the problem is that no one has even so much as contacted the communities you claim to care about. Have you talked to Pride at Illinois State? I have, and I know-the-fuck you didn’t. How about the Multi-Cultural Center? Word of advice, maybe you shouldn’t be telling members of the community that you violated to seek therapy in your closing statement. Here’s my suggestion from a queer person to you.

KICK. THEM. OFF.

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October 5th, 2022. | A member of the Illinois State University student body has started a petition to reprimand Kappa Sigma. You can sign the petition here. Stay tuned for upcoming articles! 😉

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