Fraternity, Chicano students meet over charges

Christine Carrillo

Members of the Sigma Pi fraternity, who were accused last week of

racist behavior, met with members of the campus’s Chicano community

and an impartial third party Tuesday.

But whether the community forum, which was mediated by a

university ombudsman, was successful remains to be seen.

“I think in terms of dialogue, those goals were reached, but in

terms of a solution that’s far off and just, I think, needs to be

solidified,” said Sunny Lee, assistant director of the cross-cultural

center within the dean of students’ office.

“The Latino students ... feel that there’s no clear resolution

because they feel like they’ve been down that road and there was no

accountability. In Sigma Pi’s mind, they feel what they’re going to

do is enough. This was mainly an opportunity for people to talk and

hear each other.”

On Friday, about 40 students, mostly Chicanos, protested the

fraternity after they distributed fliers and wore T-shirts that were

considered offensive by many of the university’s Chicano community.

One of the items deemed highly offensive on the fliers, which the

fraternity made to promote its Cinco de Mayo party, “Drinko for

Cinco,” was the promotion of the fraternity’s “Dirty Sanchez

Look-a-like Contest.”

The students pointed to early concerns about Sigma Pi’s use of

images of Mexicans often considered negative at the beginning of the

year as exacerbating the problem. They demanded the fraternity

members not only stop distributing fliers and wearing the T-shirts,

but also publish a letter of apology to the Chicano community in the

university’s paper and attend a diversity sensitivity workshop.

“I did feel a genuine apology from a few of them, but I feel that

some of the people played it down,” said Maria Malagon, outreach

chair for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, one of the Latino

student organizations involved in this issue. “In a way, I think it

was good for us as a community to vent and to express the different

opinions on how we all felt and how we were hurt and I think it was a

good opportunity for the fraternity as a whole to get educated.”

Fraternity members said the conflict, which they stressed stemmed

from ignorant behavior, will serve as a cornerstone upon which they

can build a more developed sense of cultural awareness.

“I just think it was a general lack of knowledge and a general

lack of cultural awareness,” said Yashaar Amin, president of Sigma

Pi. “I think this situation was an example of how we all still have

things to learn with regard to the community and I think it’s a

positive stride in the right direction, toward growth and progress,

and will hopefully promote awareness so these types of situations

don’t happen in the future.”

While Amin stated that members of Sigma Pi will start their

cultural awareness seminars on Monday and are in the process of

putting together an apology to run in the university’s paper, some

members within the Chicano community expressed skepticism about the

fraternity’s new pledge.

“I’m still really troubled by some people still not

understanding,” Malagon said. “I’m a little bit skeptical. I know

maybe within the next couple of years, it probably won’t happen, but

I’m skeptical of the future, because it’s something that keeps

occurring at other universities.”

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at christine.carrillo@latimes.com.