In this morning's news, we learn that Teresa Sullivan, the president of the University of Virginia, has again disgraced Thomas Jefferson's university. She has refused to lift the suspension of the school's fraternities and sororities, despite the Rolling Stone rape story that led to the suspension being exposed as a hoax, and its perpetrator, the lying student and wolf-crier Jackie Coakley, embarrassed but unpunished.
I've already written to the lack of due process afforded the Greek system in this case. I noted the stupidity of suspending sororities, of all groups, in a clear indication that Dr. Sullivan is a confirmed elitist who opposes the institution of the Greek system and supports any effort to get rid of it, piece by piece if necessary.
In failing to lift the suspension, she has opened the door to future callous disregard for the rules of evidence, those that should apply to any government-owned institution, most certainly Mr. Jefferson's University. There is, at this point, no longer any credible evidence of any violation of university rules, or the laws of the town of Charlottesville nor the Commonwealth of Virginia on the date in question.
Teresa Sullivan has built a wall between the University and the rule of law, the rules of evidence, and the constitutional protection of due process.
She has built -- and re-mortared -- a wall between reality and the reputation of the individuals who are members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, where the "rape that didn't happen" apparently, well, didn't happen. Their reputation will not be restored any time soon, and Dr. Sullivan appears uninterested in restoring it.
She has built a wall between the University and the sororities on campus that were suspended for no possibly justifiable reason. They will forever hold the suspicion that their very existence is eternally in jeopardy, and the slightest slip by one individual not even a member -- perhaps not even female -- will cost them their charters.
Walls, as Mikhail Gorbachev eventually saw, are treacherous things that don't always do what you build them to do.
President Sullivan, tear down that wall. Tear down that ban, and show yourself to be someone who respects due process.
Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton
No comments:
Post a Comment